Adventures In SoftwareLand : Software + Services

Update on Microsoft Blueprints

Michael Lehman — Thu, 28 May 2009 00:01:00 GMT

Most of you who read this blog know that for the past 3 years I’ve been driveing a project that was first called Project Glidepath, then Software + Services Blueprints and finally Microsoft Blueprints.

You may have also noticed recently that the Codeplex project where we were distributing the bits has been closed and wondered what’s up.

We are making some changes around Blueprints. Blueprints were an important incubation whose purpose was to explore process guidance and automation. They helped us gain a better understanding of requirements for this kind of technology through customer and partner feedback.

Recently, however, we took down the Blueprints project on CodePlex and the Blueprints home page on MSDN. We did this in order to focus on the incubation internally. This work includes determining how best to support process guidance and automation capabilities in a manner aligned with Visual Studio Team System product direction.

Since February, I also have moved from focusing on evangelism to spending my time working more closely with the Visual Studio team and am looking forward to seeing what comes from that collaboration.

Planning for TechEd Developers US - June 3-6

Michael Lehman — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 00:54:00 GMT

UPDATE: S+S Blueprints and Software Factories Focus Groups annoucement. Come help us plan the future!

Today I'm finalizing my plans to bring S+S Blueprints to the US version of TechEd 2008 for Developers which will be in Orlando, Florida on June 3rd through June 6th. It will be one of your last chances to see Bill Gates before he moves on to working full-time at the Gates Foundation starting July 1st.

There will be two new blueprints (and maybe more) to introduce at TechEd and I'd love to connect with developers and architects who have used the existing S+S Blueprints and talk about what you like, don't like and would like to see in future blueprints.

Use the email link to contact me to setup a meeting.

See you in Orlando!

Steve Gillmor thinks out loud about Live Mesh

Michael Lehman — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 07:30:00 GMT

My long time friend and co-conspirator in the software business for almost 20 years, Steve Gillmor, comments about Live Mesh and it's implications.

I think he got it partially right and, of course, based on his limited publically available information, partially wrong.

The future will be, as always, interesting.

RoboChamps is Live!

Michael Lehman — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 01:22:00 GMT

Marc Mercuri, one of the hardest working and smartest people I know, just launched www.RoboChamps.com

RoboChamps is, in Marc's own word:

"...a league, and like sports leagues, will have a regular season comprised of a series of challenges. As RoboChamps is based in simulation, we can provide you with access to environments and robots most people could never get access to - from a trapped filled maze, to city populated with driving cars and working trffic lights, to a city struck by an earthquake, a huge soccer stadium - even the surface of the planet Mars! We'll conclude the season with a single elimination tournament, where we'll continue until we've found four finalist and.... well, I'll talk about that more later in the season, but I'll give you a hint, it involves real robots and a major event."

Check it out!

Live Mesh coverage from the Webware blog

Michael Lehman — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 03:58:00 GMT

Martin LaMonica posted some great information about Live Mesh on the Webware group blog: Microsoft Live Mesh platform takes on Google, Adobe

Live Mesh rocks! - Technical Preview Opens Tomorrow

Michael Lehman — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 20:08:00 GMT

Last night @ 9PM Microsoft announced the existence of and first technical preview of Live Mesh!

Both Scoble (Ray Ozzie Delivers with Live Mesh) and Mary Jo Foley (Ten Things to know about Microsoft's Live Mesh) are excited and, in my opinion, justifyably so.

The first preview of the combination platform/service opens tomorrow and the developer story/kits will come later which will enable a whole raft of interesting application scenarios.

There a a bunch of videos on Channel9 as well as an interesting walkthrough of the technology from a developer's point of view narrated by Jeremy Mazner you can watch now.

The official announcement also included this list of links:

For more information, go to LiveMesh.com.

Read the Live Mesh team blog
Watch the interview with Ray Ozzie introducing Live Mesh on Channel 9
Watch an interview with Abolade Gbadegesin on Live Mesh Architecture on Channel 9
Watch the demo of the Live Mesh application on Channel 10

You'll be hearing much more about Live Mesh on this blog in the future

Headed out to Web 2.0 Expo San Francisco

Michael Lehman — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 06:18:00 GMT

I'm working on the next wave Software+Services Blueprints and I want to understand both the developers who will use them and the kinds of applications they build so tomorrow I'm headed to San Francisco to attend the Web 2.0 Expo.

If you're going to be at Web 2.0 and want to help influence the content of our Software+Services Blueprints drop me an email.

Office Developers Conference 2008 here we come...

Michael Lehman — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 08:16:00 GMT

If you're attending the the Office DevCon (http://www.odc2008.com) in San Jose, California on February 11th, be sure to check out the VS2008 version of the Outlook + Services Blueprint

As part of the on-going Software-plus-Services Blueprints Program, we will be releasing the VS2008 version of the S+S Blueprints Manager.

The Outlook + Services Blueprint is an open source framework, workflow-based guidance and tooling enabling the building of complex Outlook 2007 add-ins in a very short period of time.

To get an idea of what the O+S Blueprint can do, check out the screencast and watch an Outlook add-in being created in under 10 minutes!

See you in San Jose.

Microsoft Software + Services Blueprints

Michael Lehman — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 15:39:00 GMT

Finally I can talk about what I've been working on for the past 6 months!

Yesterday, Soma delivered a keynote at TechEd Europe : Developers, and blogged about the Software + Services Blueprints!

S+S Blueprints are source code access, guidance and tools that work with Visual Studio to enable you to easily build software + services solutions. Later today (6-Nov) we will be delivring the first in a series of such blueprints that enables you to build an add-in to Outlook 2007 that exposes data and interacts with external services.

Check it out at http://channel9.msdn.com/blueprints