The MossyBlog Times Archives 2007 - 2009 : Evangelists

The bigger you grow, the more stupider you become.

scbarnes — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 10:01:56 GMT

I just finished watching MacHeads, it’s a documentary about basically die hard Mac fans and was filmed around Macworld 2007.

It was insightful, as the lesson I learnt was something I’ve been noticing for the past 3 years with regards to Microsoft. Here it is, and are you ready for an inspiring thing to occur?

People hate corporations, they love communities.

I’ve often studied the Apple fanbois, not because I want to make them into Microsofties, but I've always been curious as to why they feel so passionate and almost religious about Apple.

I’ve also seen this same religion in the Adobe/Macromedia community when i was once apart of it prior to Microsoft. It was something I found disturbing and cult like.

I’m now in the Microsoft ground zero, head corp. if you will and i feel like I’ve been given a world view of the same concepts but focused in and around .NET. I’m more aware world-wide of how Microsoft impacts vs. when i was just an Evangelist in the Australian subsidiary (it’s like going to a new level in xp points)

In the end though, corporations are never trusted, it’s usually the community that people love the most. Corporations are usually the first these roaming fanaticism cling to the most, but as time passes they soon realize the profit or bust mentality becomes obvious. This in turn begins to burst the righteous bubble they were once housed in and suddenly the picketing lines begin to form.

At times they will reflect on the good old days, when the community was small and you were up against the fight of righteousness.

Sadly, success plays a role, and before you know it that small community grew into a larger sized one and the personality began to drop off bit by bit. That or the old timers are no longer there and this new breed of young blood swarms where they once stood.

It’s not exclusive to the forementioned brands either, gaming communities are much like this as well.

eg:

As I fondly remember playing Quake in Australia with a handful of guys and we became good at this game we loved dearly. I also was in a Ultima Online guild and saw hatred and online rioting take place in message boards for weeks on end.

It was fun, it annoyed and it was personal. You learnt fast how to respond to Yo Momma style immaturity but with wit and stealth.

Gaming industry blossomed, more and more games are now available each with their cluster of communities. You’re now bombarded with so many selections that it’s somewhat hard to keep your Guild/Clan motiviated and herding in the direction it once was heading.

Software in general is doing this, communities are being born every year and you’re meeting new people each day in you pursuit of digital greatness.

The more successful a brand becomes, the more negativity it attracts as with power comes imperfection, as just like the community swelling in size so does the staff within the brand.

Google was my favorite, it once stood as being the start-up of start-ups, do no evil was it’s charter. Everyone I knew echoed “I'd love to work at Google, sounds like a great place to work”, yet today, I often speak with ex-Microsoftees whom “defected” to the opposition or ex-Googleites whom defected to other brands, all simply echo a similar pattern.

The bigger you grow, the more stupider you become.

I am inclined to agree with this, as I've seen internally in Microsoft products go from zero to hero which is great, except the more success i noticed, the more times i see stupidity creeping it’s way to the top.

Such is evolution.

I'm on DG.TV

scbarnes — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 04:45:19 GMT

Michael Kordahi - aka DelicateGenius decided to interview me on my last day at Microsoft Australia. It just occurred to me that I've never really done a video interview before (I usually turn them down), mainly because I'm a shy guy when it comes to camera's.

That being said, I'm loving the approach Michael is taking with his project DG.TV as I think he gets not only the technique of interviewing, but from what I've seen does so in a relaxed format. We need more relaxed interviews on the interweb.

http://delicategeniusblog.com/?p=675

I look forward to seeing what Michael does with the Australian Microsoft Web Community in 2009/2010 and the trouble, fun etc he stirs up ;)

Anand asks - "What would you do if you were a Microsoft Evangelist?"

scbarnes — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 03:58:00 GMT

Anand Iyer, an Evangelist in our ever swelling ranks of evangelism army, asked a basic question.

"Q.What would you do if you were a Microsoft Evangelist".

I myself have wondered as to what folks perception of Evangelism really is all about and often wonder how we / they are perceived on the street.

Example: One comment caught my eye that I initially got annoyed with and rolled my eyes, but after thinking on it some more, does he have a point?

Anand,

I think you do a good job of dealing with the non-Microsoft crowd, which is a crowd I consider myself to be a part of. I like you, as a human. I think you get it. However, I dont think you as an evangelist are empowered to change the way the entire organization thinks. Your job as an evangelist is to try and convert me, sell me on Microsoft. I don't want to be sold to. I don't need to convert. I'm happy where I am, with the tools I have, and the work I do.

I understand that there is a whole world out there that needs to be preached to, but I, personally am not one of them.

To answer your question, if I had your job, I would quit. In fact if I was wishing for things (or not), I would never wish for your job.

Good luck.

Evangelist do have the power to change what happens in Microsoft, i see that daily - but that's a separate discussion.

As for selling...Do you feel the same way? Leave your feedback at Anands blog, as I'll be disabling comments on this blog to keep the conversation flowing at his place of blog-residence.

http://blogs.msdn.com/aniyer/archive/2008/04/09/what-would-you-do-if-you-were-a-microsoft-evangelist.aspx

A UX and Developer Evangelist create, inspire and promote.

scbarnes — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 08:24:30 GMT

Shane and Michael spent a week in a program called "AiR" (Not the Adobe kind - Artists In Residence). It's a program headed up by Arturo Toledo (Expression Team) which enables folks to come to Redmond and spend some time building some UX prototypes to help them wrap their heads around Silverlight, WPF and Expression Studio.

Fellow local Developer Evangelist, Michael - DelicateGenius - Kordahi has published a great video documentary on the entire end to end story of creating a Silverlight prototype, with an emphasis on collaboration between the "Developer" and "Designer".

It offers a great insight and one aspect I liked, well there's two but the first is the fact that both of them dogfooded the entire concepts we Evangelise daily (they've lived the pain & pleasure) whilst at the same time, conjure up what I thought was a brilliant prototype.

Outside the box thinking..

Absolutely brilliant work guys and well done!

Note: You will need Silverlight 1.0 to watch the video, Silverlight 2 won't work (it's beta, back off man).

View here:
http://delicategeniusblog.com/?p=653

I am now a Product Manager.

scbarnes — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:55:00 GMT

I've managed to worm my way into Microsoft Corp HQ, as a Product Manager (PM) on the Rich Client Platform team (Silverlight/WPF etc). This for me is a major step forward in my career, as whilst I've enjoyed being one of the first RIA Evangelist for Microsoft, I feel I can offer more impact via this new role than in the field. I will still in part Evangelise Microsoft's offering in the UX space.

What is a Product Manager?

It varies in definition depending on which company a PM works for and what Product(s) they hold in their portfolio. For me, to keep it simple is that I'll be looking to ensure products like Silverlight out-innovate the competitor, as that's my core intent.

Silverlight & WPF have enormous potential going forward, and I will now be apart of this new wave of Microsoft technologies.

What can I offer to this role..

I offer years of experience in this thing we call RIA firstly, but more to the point I have a wide range of technical skills as well as some basic marketing skills. I also have a design portion of the brain, so blending the entire pool together, well, I hope to offer a colourful amount of expertise to the job ahead and looking forward to seeing what level of impact I can make on the product.

Why change?

I'm going to be working with a lot of really smart people, folks whom I've spent the last year working with in a virtual sense. That alone is the strong motivator as I'll be standing on the shoulder of giants. The three that stand out the most though are Brad Becker, Brian Goldfarb and Pete Faraday. These three are insanely smart, much smarter than me and I'm keen to tap their collective brain power for good instead of evil ;)

Will I stop blogging?

No. In fact I'll have a more focused approach to my blogging and my new team are supportive of my blog going forward. Having a my ear, eyes and voice within the community is critical to the success of this new role.

What will be the direction of the content on my blog?

Still the same, I'll be keen to decompose RIA more so than ever. The market has framed the conversation today under the guise of RIA. I personally think RIA is the wrong worldview, but i don't have an accurate answer on what it should be. Suffice to say, RIA fits and you can call it "Bob" for all I care, provided people are keen to explore the rich experiences associated to RIA.

I'll be also looking to highlight UX within Microsoft more, as I have not only seen but met a lot of creative folks within Microsoft whom far exceed my understanding of UX - yet they go unnoticed. Now that I'm on Microsoft Corp campus, I'll be looking to devote some time unearthing them some more.

What about your current role?

No idea what will happen with it. There maybe a vacant position in Australia for the Evangelism team or they may not. It's entirely up to my peeps in the Oz Team to decide. I will be selling my assets locally, so anyone want a big screen TV? heh. The current team I work with are awesome, and can't think of anyone negative thing to say about them - honestly. At the time of writing this, there is no news about replacing my current role, but be sure to check out Microsoft Australia career page (as this will be the first place to advertise it no doubt - we hire on merit, not who you know).

You're in the US now? Customs allowed this?

Yes. Not sure I'm going to fully embrace Seattle's cold weather, but I'll give it an open chance. Did I mention I grew up most of my life in the Australian outback desert? I've made a lot of new friends in Redmond over the year, so I'm looking forward to listening to their wisdom about all things America (specifically hear Chuck & Frank's thoughts from time to time).

Where to from here?

Well, I have to pack my entire life into a shipping container for one. I'll have to put a lot of stuff in storage and lastly figure out which electrical goods are US friendly vs aren't.

I'm looking forward to moving to the other side of the world. It will be a grand adventure! - in a geeky way.

Now to pack for MIX 08 and SxSW

p.s

Nathan Rothlisberg gave me an awesome URL which I'll no doubt make a lot of use of: http://www.simplyoz.com (I can keep my Tim Tams!!!)

Something is being built...and I hope you RIA kids are watching...

scbarnes — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 15:09:13 GMT

I've been a busy little Microsoftee and have done a lot of interviews over the past few months with folks from all walks of life. I'm about to go live very soon with a project. What's the project? not telling until it's finished. I will give you a teaser though.

It's nothing I've seen done here at Microsoft before so what you are seeing is simply a quick video tease.

(Note: RSS Reading folks will need to come visit the website to see the video heh)

My first chat is with someone from the hollywood movie scene. His work has inspired...

Release date is in February.. but

If you have someone you want me to talk to about RIA, then by all means contact me.

* Update: 1/02/2007 *

I've now included a Flash version of the Video.

Silverlight: Instant YouTube out of the box.

scbarnes — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 09:33:50 GMT

“..I’ve got this idea, and it’s a way to do a job that is better than what YouTube does today..” is usually an opening line I receive a lot (not word for word, but the meaning is there).

Silverlight can enable you to do many powerful things should you put your mind to the task. In that every time I hear the above story begin unfolding, the more I keep waiting for the missing piece, the part that is the show stopper for them.

Automated Encoding.

I guess folks are assuming Microsoft is going to provide an end to end packaged solution which enables you to hit the “Instant YouTube” button, which in turn allows them to create their own YouTube.

Well, I’ve not see any beta’s for that button but I am going to redirect you to a possible idea around how this is possible. Michael “Synergist” Scherotter - an Evangelist whom I predict may win Evangelist of the year - has put together an awesome webcast on using both Windows Workflow Activities and command line interface for Expression Encoder.

http://blogs.msdn.com/synergist/archive/2008/01/09/upcoming-webinar-creating-a-windows-workflow-activity-for-expression-encoder.aspx

Exploring a different horizon.

scbarnes — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 08:10:59 GMT

I often get queries, questions and so on around why I on one hand wear the Microsoft logo on my shirt, yet roam around the the place with a MacBook Pro. I also at times play around with Adobe Products as well as our own, and essentially the question mark above peoples heads are mixed.

Allow me to respond out loud and proud.

People are many things, but one thing is predictable is that we are habitual in our approach at times. We find a pattern of approaching a particular problem / solution and we typically stick to our "guns". I'm essentially a clear cut version of this, but I love technology. I will use any or all and I really don't formulate a specific opinion on any one technology. I make it a point to the extreme never to get locked into a specific technology and I do this because years ago, I was the opposite. I spent all my cycles locked into one technology and was a classic "Fanboi" and I later realised I was so narrow minded it was embarrassing (yet I at times still carry this trait)

It took seeing how other stacks do things differently for me to learn and grow my awareness (didn't make me smarter) of the world around me. I am really committed to ensuring Microsoft products are heard in appropriate forums and I do believe that Microsoft has a strong value proposition, that being said I can only present this view based off using other technologies like Apple, Adobe, Google and so on.

If you ever see me use a competing technology, chuckle and then make comments like "..See, Microsoft employee x doesn't even believe in his own technology.." simply pause, and think about that statement. Why would I do that firstly, and does this make my experience using Microsoft technologies stronger or weaker.

I worry at the person whom uses 100% end to end technology from one brand and refuses to accept or try out competing technologies. How can you agree that a particular technology is a better fit for a particular problem unless you've looked at it from all angles.

It's not always popular thinking, but I personally believe it's not always about being popular. Right Tool, Right Time, Right Job.

1yr into being a Microsoft Evangelist. (The Story).

scbarnes — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 14:17:17 GMT

It's been about a year now since I first got the phone call from Frank Arrigo giving me the thumbs up on a new role here at Microsoft.

Given Christmas break is approaching, I decided to pause for a bit and reflect on how my year's been and the lessons I've learnt along the way.

First Week, I drank from the fire hose (StarBucks style)

The first week I started, I remember the feeling of excitement and yet I was scared out of my wit. As you see I've never really paid attention to Microsoft all that much prior to joining, as at the time I spent the previous year migrating away from Adobe Flex work towards pushing myself to learn .NET overall.

I'd walk into some meetings with customers, they'd turn and ask for a status report or information around a product and for some reason I assumed it was my job to know, so I'd fumble an answer or two but usually end with a promise to get back to them. (I hope i kept as many of those I gave heh)

I remember thinking at the time, at how the Adobe camp did their evangelistic roles, as well that's the world I lived in so I'd look to see what they would do and so on. I must admit, I learnt a lot from watching guys like Ben Forta (legend), Mike Downey, Mike Chambers, Tim Buntel and Sean Corfield as to me at the time, they were probably the main evangelists I used to interact with over the years.

I also looked internally for other levels of guidance, especially from my local mentor - Charles Sterling (Chuck). Chuck is by far the best person when it comes to interacting with community, he can walk into a room, tell a story about probably the most boring topic we'd have and people would walk out smiling. He also has given me a lot of wise guidance around how to navigate Microsoft and it's an amazing beast at times (like any big company really).

I challenged the foe.

At this level in the software game, you're encouraged not to debate with a competitor online. This isn't shy away from the debate, but more to underline a simple principal - no good comes from it.

I in part believe in this, but I also reflect back over the years when I was (ie pre-Microsoft) deeply involved in the Adobe/Macromedia community (still am in parts). In that, I didn't realise this but I was kind of caught up in what I call the "fish bowl syndrome". I would look at my friends in this space and they also where caught up in this?

It's not all that rare either, as when you typically immerse yourself into a technology you essentially become part of many tribe(s). In that you'll sign up to various mailing lists, haunt at various blogs & aggregators etc. This is how you get your information, this is how you garnish what you can in a way that doesn't impact your busy schedules (let others do the hunting, whilst you feast on their findings).

Thinking about this and knowing this was my world, I basically decided early in the piece that should anyone misquote or produce incorrect information around what we at Microsoft deliver, I'd make a point of simply ensuring our voice was heard. Regardless if it was popular or not.

It's not the easiest route at the best of times (both sides each have some hidden stories to tell heh), as it can be a case of one guy staring at an angry mob and trying to convince them to listen to your thoughts, ideas and experiences - Yet, I've had more successes than failures so It has worked out in the end (Tip: keep metrics and goals associated to it that you can report on). I am thankful that Microsoft believe in their staff and allow you enough liberties to set your course the way you feel is right.

Yes, sometimes it can get personal between certain Adobe staffers and myself, but I bare no grudges as when I think back on it all it's simply case of two passions colliding. I think our points each were made and in the end, I hope the audiences got two perspectives on the matter to which they can make an informed choice on.

That all being said? this all isn't a Zero Sum Game, I think there is many sides to a story and I'll only disagree if I think it's to heavily unbalanced.

A RIA Evangelist began to emerge.

I first started out as a Web Developer Evangelist, but the more I interacted with our products, my workload and so on, it became apparent that RIA was my focus. Thus I put forward the case and now, I'm blessed as being a RIA Evangelist (First to use that title in Microsoft).

Now to tell the world about RIA? well I not long ago decided to drop the word "Internet" for "Interactive" (deliberately) and yet I watched as both internally and externally the discussion took place. It was mixed and whilst I'd love to disclose some things I learnt about how RIA came about (it has an amazing history/story but also extremely political), suffice to say I achieved one goal - People were discussing RIA as an idea, not so much which technology was better than the other (p.s I'm really disappointed that bloggers at time still play that game?... more work to do me thinks..)

That for me was the secret win, because it provoked what I'd regard as a healthy conversation and to this day I still receive comments about various "geek-celebs" stating "they used Interactive!!" or "they used Internet" in some public appearance etc. (Personally, RIA for me is always been RIA not Rich Internet/Interactive Application..just RIA).

Overall, It was my first real attempt to shake things up around the RIA space and I was happy about the outcome.I still have bruises though, but as my old Marketing mentor once said "..In Marketing you fail 90% and succeed 10%... the trick is to learn 100% from your 90% failures.."

Profile, Fame has it's ups and downs.

I'm a passionate person, and this role has given me a lot of exposure and ability to interact with some brilliant minds form around the world. In the past year, I've challenged beliefs, argued, debated, discussed and celebrated various topics around RIA. Internally, I found out at MIX07 that my name was something a one or two people knew. It occurred to me that this could either be really good or very dangerous.

eg: I'd be sitting down at the time talking to Ryan Stewart & Mike Harsh about random industry stuff, Mike would stop someone to ask them something etc, he'd introduce Ryan & Me and then they'd respond with "oh..you're Scott Barnes.." (which Mike & Ryan chuckled at whilst I had this expression of fear cast over my face)

Like i said, either really good or very dangerous! :)

I get nervous when people know me, as I think about why they do and I hope it's positive rather than negative as to why. I'm a passionate person about the space I occupy and as my wife at time says "..Scott, you're so bloody arrogant when you know you're right about something..sometimes you need to learn to be wrong, even though you are right.." (hey I'm human, back off ..).

Probably the best advice I will walk into 2008, in that humility is something I need to work on more (feel free to remind me of that when you see me lose sight of it).

The Culture

When you hear the overall story of how Microsoft started, the 2002 Department of Justice Case and where we are heading tomorrow. I can't but help think that majority of the time, those whom call us a "monopoly" or call us "M$" probably should spend some time putting the emotions aside and simply look at what we have achieved as a company and the impact we've had world-wide. (Note: I'm using We now more often.. yes, I'm proud to work for the company, *shrug* it's a fun company!)

A lot of the discussions I've been invited into have been usually about balance, in that picking the lesser of two evils at times is a burden that Microsoft would undertake. It wasn't always the popular but a decision had to be made and you roll with it. The other is what I like the most, watching an idea spark within and then not only take hold, but then become a product, feature or change thrust upon the customer(s) in a positive way. (I wonder at times how I'll measure my impact on Microsoft, in that ..did i make one? did I help someone whom then made one or am I just some random weird Aussie blogger whom rants far too much.. either way, i'll ponder on that one day).

Overall, the culture within Microsoft is a lot more healthy than I anticipated and it can be both exciting and at times deflating (you get one or two cynical entities whom over-run good ideas or approaches to things, but name a company that doesn't have this and I'd be shocked)

You are Microsoft.

Simply put, I at times forget that I'm Microsoft or that "..but I'm off duty right?.." but in reality you are Microsoft 24/7 and this can be a blessing whilst also can be a burden. As at times I'd like to weigh in on a discussion or topic of interest, but to do so means that Microsoft is also weighing in?

It's hard at times to balance as initially it's easy to discount this as being unfair and "..why let the company own you!!..sell out!" but on the flip side, it's not fair to say to customers etc that "oh..when I said that I wasn't Microsoft..but when I say this.. I am..."

How are they able to differentiate and if they can't, then how can the press etc. It's part of the job and I'll never truly get comfortable with it, but I do my best and hopefully I won't impact the share price ;) heh (well I hope it goes up heaps more, as I have stocks now).

Lastly, we at times are perceived as the Goliath, and simply put you may be right but you just have to exercise patience and let others say their piece, even though it may be wrong! - yet - proving yourself right at times can have a worse impact than being wrong.

Lessons Learnt.

Harmony is probably the best word to describe the lessons I learnt for the year. In that it took recently working with both Adobe & Microsoft products together before it hit me - I need to get back to basics and illustrate the power of how Microsoft products when used with brand politics cast aside, can be quite a fulfilling & enjoying thing.

It can be hard balance to make as Adobe and Microsoft do have competing technology sets, and when you deal with a mixed audience it's a fine balance to take. As on one hand some folks would welcome the "..we play well with others.." whilst others will use it as talking point "..see Microsoft are weak in this space, as they are using Adobe and therefore that is why you should by Adobe.."

Sadly, the later at times get the most amplification as well, it makes for juicy reading doesn't it?

It's important to remember, that no company is ever one thing, they are a mixed hybrid breed usually comprising of an array of technologies that are somehow brought together for whatever reason(s). Microsoft has such a vast amount of brands that to simply isolate us as being a one-trick pony, in the end is unrealistic and does customers little favours (ie it could be a short-term sale, but long-term loss).

Harmony is the key, look towards how Microsoft Silverlight can play well with others as in the end most folks I interact with honestly don't care as to which of the two has the best, fairest and prettiest of them all. They generally are more focused on choosing one to deliver an outcome for their respective clients.

Help inspire these folks and show them various routes forward is something I can offer via my role and also talk about it more with them.

Harmony was definitely the lesson learnt for 2007 and why not use both my Adobe & Microsoft skills to tell such a story? (fingers in both barrels I say).

Keep Moving Forward.

2007 had it's positives and negatives, no matter which of the two, I kept "Moving forward" in that try not to dwell on a success or failure, simply learn as much as you can from either and then try moving the ball to the next yard line (for those of you whom love NFL). Put it behind you and focus on the next goal.

2008 I have enormous amount of ideas, approaches and things left to do and my first year as Microsoft Evangelist has been the best time of my entire life when it comes to career.

I honestly think our Technology has the seeds of success and any parts of success we have achieved today is simply a bonus at this point (I'm a harsh grader, i think our best years are still ahead). In that, the product teams I interact with weekly are such a diverse bunch coming from a lot of competing technologies, they are passionate about their job and mostly they are very determined to succeed in them.

This in turn keeps me focused :) (as cheesy as that sounds)

I admit, that internally if a product team drops the ball in anyway or even hints at dropping it, they get pinned for it and whilst some folks external to Microsoft can be hard on the brand, they have nothing compared to the discussions internally (we don't throw coffee cups at them ...although.. heheh).This is a great thing, as you see for me it ensures that a product can't stumble it's way forward, that 70,000+ pairs of eyeballs are looking to ensure it meets a standard, quality that we can all log in each day and agree with.

We aren't perfect, but we still chase perfection.

Conclusion

My first year of Microsoft has been a roller coaster of a ride, something I'll not likely ever forget and I especially had a blast at MIX07 and MGX07 (Internal end of fiscal year conference where we basically spend a week in Orlando, learn, celebrate and party hard!)

I've gone from 0 hits to having this blog in the top 5% of Microsoft, I've also been invited to join the folks over at Redmond, but my overall thoughts going forward are simple.

Celebrate, but also Ignore all of the above and just relax, have fun and let the journey continue only it's anyone's guess what the next year will look like.

Onto 2008..

(Note: I'll be spending the next few weeks in a more idle fashion, with the passing of my grandfather, I decided to devote more time than usual to my family).

Lastly, my grandfather once said:

"..Spend time with your family, work can always wait until tomorrow, enjoy life as there's no future in dying young.." - Albert George Barnes (1925-2007)

p.s
I grew up in an Australian Outback town called "Cunnamulla", where basically shearing sheep was the average job expectation. To somehow trace my steps to working for Microsoft is quite a story to be told one day heh.

No Planes, No Conferences, No Meetings

scbarnes — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 14:14:16 GMT

I've been traveling quite a lot this year and meet with some amazing folks in the process. Well, my travel is up for this year and I'm looking forward to spending some much needed R&R at home with the family and get back to basics - coding some proof of concepts.

I've got a lot of projects I want to get out the door to illustrate the products we have on offer, but do so with a focus around RIA (whichever your terminology of choice).

What does this mean to readers of my blog? well expect to see less talk and more code coming forward, specifically around Silverlight and how it's capable of "..playing well with others.." (something we at times lose sight of).

In saying this, if you want something built as a proof of concept, send me a piece of email as I'm all ears and will look forward to ramping things up a little more around what's possible with the technology.

I'm also looking forward to revamping my blog, and moving it slowly over to Mossyblog.com as in order to show all some of the cool concepts I've been working on/off for the past year, I'll need to upload via a hosting environment that allows more than just "CSS overrides" (sorry, MSDN.com has restricted access for us employees).

Here's a sneak peak at Mossyblog.com so far:

Also, for those of you whom are interested, I've setup a Shared RSS Feed over at Google.com/Reader. The premise for this is I'll be blog-spotting if you will things of interest that have a focus around Microsoft, Adobe, Design, RIA and AJAX.

http://www.google.com/reader/shared/05747974255093491793

Mozilla, Adobe and Silverlight. Shall we dance?

scbarnes — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 05:24:26 GMT

No doubt you've seen the Prism announcement by Mozilla. Quite an interesting move in this chess game we call "The Software Industry". Personally, I'm not sure what the end game for Mozilla is anymore and I'm sure If I look hard enough I'll find that answer.

Mike Chambers at Adobe put up a post essentially stating why he thinks AIR isn't being treated fairly by the Mozilla folks (welcome to the "my competitor takes shots at me" party ). I get his point(s), but I was surprised to see him say this:

"...Maybe we need to do a better job of getting that info out there, but I would expect (and suspect) that someone working on a similar project would know that..." - Mike Chambers.

Surprised simply because it illustrates for me that AIR as a concept has many hurdles ahead of it, and not only do I disagree with it's "approach" to the market, but now that it has a competitor that's non-Microsoft, it's yet another battlefront they will have to face and a unified messaging front is overdue.

To put into perspective, Adobe needs to approach their competitors differently, and Mike's latest blog post didn't do him any favors (I understood his points, I in part agreed with him, but never ever pick a fight with Mozilla crowd as that product as emotional bonds associated to it, and you will lose - except if you're this guy). I think competition in this space is really going to push us all that much faster in terms of doing better online and to me the web tomorrow is going to exceed my expectations of today.

I agree with Mike on this comment:

"..Unlike Adobe AIR and Microsoft Silverlight, we’re not building a proprietary platform to replace the web..." - Mozilla

hmm, seems like the same execution model as both Microsoft and Adobe, only the boundaries have slightly shifted. "Not a runtime, but the agent that houses in the runtime" to which I ask you these days in our RIA world.. which is the agent and which is the runtime. Silverlight and AIR are separate, but that's been said before and yet people continue to link them together. That interests me as is it a case of "they want Silverlight to have desktop functionality" or is it a case of "no idea, but they are both x-platform so it makes sense to marry the two".

Interesting..

iEvangelise - Life of an Evangelist.

scbarnes — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 17:00:22 GMT

I'm knee deep in Apple love at the moment and today I got the ok to buy a Macbook Pro to replace my sucky Toshiba Tablet (it's gotten worse).

In light of this, I thought I better put some of that ROI promises to good use but at the same time, thought it would be interesting to share with one and all what it's like to be an Evangelist within Microsoft (ie follow me on the road, hear my random chaotic thoughts etc).

Since I've got an iMac (Desktop) and now an upcoming Macbook Pro, I thought I'd use the iLife suite to test what's possible and see what the hype around iLife is all about.

http://web.mac.com/mossyblog/iEvangelise

So far, the experience has been warm and fuzzy and I must say iWeb is a gorgeous product (it pains me to say this as a Expression Web fan). At any rate, if you're wanting to follow along for the journey, add the link above to your RSS feeds (sorry the videos are in Quicktime, but I'm in Apple country people.. there's no way out!) and welcome aboard.

I also figure that would be the better spot for personal ranting instead of via this blog, as this one's more suited to on topic Microsoft related topics.

The content is weak, and will firm that up later this week (millions of things to do). Let me know if there is something you'd like to see on there, as I'm happy to dish some dirt as time passes ;)

Evangelism: An Emotional Bond.

scbarnes — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 06:46:15 GMT

In the past few weeks, a few things have risen to the top of a lot of agendas, emotion. An emotional bond with something is hard to discuss out loud, as at times most don't know they have an emotional bond or chose to ignore it, brush it aside as being melodramatic.

Software is something i would of thought doesn't create a bond of this kind. As well, it's not real per say and it's something you horde and use to interact with. Yet, it has to on the flip side of this connect with you on an emotional level, as this is what you want the most.

User Experience is many things, I'm not the messiah of all that which is UX but I know what I like, and what I don't. If I use software that has poor User Experience, it doesn't inspire yet if it has great user experience - it not only inspires but gives me a sensation of being "proud" if you will.

Games are the ultimate emotional connection to software, in that when you load up a game of choice, you immerse yourself in the experience and I'm sure there a line of psychologists whom will tell you why this is so, but in the end you become a fan. You look forward to getting home and playing a game when you first get it (well I used to) and you tell others about it.

That's something I always enjoyed about games, the emotional bond you establish with it (until it gets boring and you cast it aside). Lately, I've noticed this concept cross over to brands and into mainstream software. I see it a lot, sometimes in compete situations, internally (yes we have folks whom at times need to push away from the kool-aid for awhile) and externally.

I hate all brands. Always have, and I blame a book called "Jennifer Government" as for me it illustrated just how silly we can get with brand wars (although it's fictional, there are elements of non-fiction within).

I'm quite clinical about technology and software yet I love my iMac and if you asked why, I'd struggle to define why. I enjoy RIA as a concept, and believe it goes beyond both Microsoft or Adobe, it for me is where software should of always been.

In the end, this emotional bond needs to be disconnected sooner the better. As it blinds you to what your potential could be and limits you're ability to adapt. I love my iMac, but it serves me no productivity gain, and thus I have this sick feeling "I just dumped $3k for a computer I can't even play my favorite game on".

Immediately I expect some Apple fan to refute this and argue the point until they are blue in the face. Yet, why? why do you give a crap whether I turn my Apple on day in day out? what does it serve for me to have this happen?

Why do you give a crap I enjoy using Silverlight over Flash? Why do I dislike Adobe's marketing and attitude towards their own products, yet enjoy using them as well as Microsoft's.

Figure this out, and you have the software industry locked up. Evangelism is about talking to others about passion(s) you share. That's it.

Microsoft UX.Artu.Tv

scbarnes — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 08:08:15 GMT

Arturo Toledo, Product Manager for UX Platform & Tools (Silverlight, WPF, Expression...) has spun up his own blog found over at http://www.ux.artu.tv/. Arturo is a classic artistic soul and he has some interesting insights once you get to know him - hint: subscribe to his blog as you will see one of the inner working UX minds behind the scenes in Microsoft.

He also has a list of updated features in Expression Blend 2 - August Preview. He should know as chances are he's the one of the few overlooking them.

One standout feature for me is:

Make User Control
Expression Blend 2 August Preview contains an early look at new functionality that lets you re-factor existing content into a control that can be reused (instantiated). Currently, only selected elements—and their referenced resources—can be re-factored into the new control. Any referenced animations are currently lost, but the current plans for next release are to preserve these as well. You also need to build the project to be able to see and instantiate the new control.

Other UX related bloggers are:

We gave birth to RIA.

scbarnes — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 23:32:45 GMT

Adobe's Mike Downey and I were throwing comments back and forth on twitter.com this morning, it was derived from Brad Becker (ex Flash Product guy @ Macromedia and now Microsoft staffer) post on RIA.

Brad posted this a few months ago when JD @ Adobe got all fired up over Rich Interactive Applications vs Rich Internet Applications. Adobe will argue until they are blue in the face that Microsoft are attempting to Hijack the term RIA and .. blah blah blah.

Honestly, whom named RIA (Microsoft or Adobe) has become irrelevant. If you look at the history of RIA overall, it's something that we have always hinted at but never could quite get there.

VRML for example would have to by far my earliest memory of the "RIA" concept. You have a rich 3D world in which you can interact with, but of course in the late 1990's there was only so much you could do in terms of client-to-server side interaction.

In 2000, I remember seeing Erik's attempt at WebOS.com, which was by far the earliest iteration of RIA / AJAX I've seen. You may know of Erik today as one of the brains behind Google Gears, WebFX and Bindows.NET

I was working on Billabong's website's in 2000, when I first started to use Flash + Remote Servers, but it was with Flash 5 and all I could do was bring in variables remotely via PARAM or URL string. RIA was my intent but couldn't execute.

I've been on the Macromedia ride ever since, but like all the previous iterations of "RIA" it just hasn't been executed. There have been success stories of RIA working today, but it hasn't changed the landscape and I say this as if it has we wouldn't be seeing AJAX. There is no need for AJAX if "FLASH" RIA were to succeed? one cancels out the other and many have argued this case.

Silverlight and Flash Player are advanced, no question in this but both Adobe and Microsoft can't own RIA because it's realistically an idea or belief that was first formed many years ago and whilst Adobe will have you believe they are the founders of RIA, they simply built a campaign around it.

It's like saying AJAX is owned by Jesse James Garrett or he invented AJAX? (he did? I'm sure Google and Microsoft both had a large role to play in this, Microsoft with XmlHttpRequest and Google in its mainstream use).

We the community are the ones whom own RIA, not Microsoft or Adobe. They simply enable and market the idea of what RIA should be.