The MossyBlog Times Archives 2007 - 2009 : MIX08

Silverlight B2 - Learn once, Apply Anywhere.

scbarnes — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 11:16:51 GMT

Today, we announced Silverlight 2 (Beta 2).

Why should you care? well today we are coming through with the goods that we promised at MIX08 firstly. Secondly, you will be able to now Go Live with your Silverlight 2 creations!! (when the beta2 release is available later this week).

I anticipate Silverlight to make it's mark this year in the RIA space in a more aggressive manner via our customers. Silverlight 2 (b2) offers enough primitives and capabilities to piece together a Silverlight based RIA solution.

I myself am currently building an internal solution with the current release and have found it a lot smoother in development & design than previous iterations. It's by far our best release to date and I'm extremely keen to see what our customers around the world do with it.

We are getting Serious (as my boss, Brad Becker indicates) and we aren't relaxing with just B2 either. We are working really hard to make sure the distribution gets wider, faster and installed in more PC's.

Earlier this week we announced the HP ToolBar deal, which basically has a lot of Live.com goodness associated to it, but also for me, most important of all ensures all new HP consumer machines have Silverlight installed.

Microsoft Corp. today announced that it has won a key distribution deal with HP, the world’s largest PC manufacturer, to install a Live Search-enabled toolbar on all HP consumer PCs planned to ship in the United States and Canada, beginning in January 2009. As part of this deal, the default search engine setting in the browser on all HP consumer PCs will also be set to Microsoft Live Search.

Distribution however, was and is never a concern for me as Microsoft have always had a great history in terms of getting the technology in everyone's hands (gosh, Flash Player's success owes a few beers Microsoft's way for it's distribution success). The real concern for me has always been around Features.

Well Today, with the new announcements I am confident and happy with what the Program teams have put together around features. I'm looking forward to working with them more on the next version.

That all being said, let me know if you're not sure about what Silverlight B2 means. In that if you think we aren't covering off an area / feature as well as we should, please tell me (or email me - scbarnes is the first part of my microsoft.com email).

You can read Brad's take on the features and where we are at overall here:

http://scarynoises.com/blog/archives/2008/06/silverlight_get.html#comments

I fly home tomorrow

scbarnes — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 08:25:07 GMT

I have spent the last three (3) weeks in the United States travelling around listening to customers talk about Microsoft. I have a lot to say, and little time to type it – suffice to say the overall vibe I am getting is we are onto something big and people are paying attention to our offerings and are backing us.

I had the privilege of attending both MIX08 (Las Vegas) as well as SxSW (Austin Texas), two events which not only inspired me but also gave me a whole new insight into both our strengths and weaknesses. We have a lot of work ahead of us in 2008-2009 and I'm excited to be a part of the solution in my new role – which starts April 08 – (Product Manager in the Silverlight/WPF team).

One thing that I'd like to quickly clarify before I close out this post is that there are millions of .NET developers around the world whom have not used Flash, but are beginning to use Silverlight. We reported that 1.5 million downloads per day are occurring with Silverlight and this is a healthy number given our age in the market since the Silverlight naming back at last year's NAB. A lot of work is yet to be done, especially with Beijing Games approaching in August, an event in which Silverlight will feature quite heavily in – excited and yet terrified! Hehe.

I'll close the post here, as I've got 5 or 6 blog posts banked ready to be published, just need to polish the wording more (bit raw) all outlining the learning's from both SxSW and MIX08 plus more insights into what we are doing and where we are going.

I've had fun being abroad but I must confess, I'm looking forward to spending some time at home in Australia before my move to Seattle in April.

P.S

To Adobe "..Want a job?" – answer "No..got one! But thanks for asking" – Microsoft Employee X

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!!!)

MIX08 + SxSW here I come..

scbarnes — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 10:05:55 GMT

It's going to be a busy 2 weeks starting tomorrow. I firstly will be announcing my new career move sometime next week, which I'm excited about - most will be surprised, suffice to say I'll be hanging up my RIA Evangelist boots (Josh Holmes yesterday announced his new role as RIA Architect Evangelist, so the fight is in good hands!).

On Monday Adobe are rumoured to be releasing Flex 3 + AIR, so it will be interesting to see how much Buzz that generates.

On Saturday I fly out to Las Vegas, to begin the week of what I call MIX-OUT (MIX08). I'm absolutely excited and can't wait to see folks reaction to some of the things Microsoft has on display for one and all. Scott Guthrie has already hinted at what's coming, but I can testify that it will be big!

On the following Saturday, I will be flying out to Austin, Texas where I'll be attending SxSW. I'm going to be interviewing people on camera, so if you see a weird looking Aussie guy and you're at this event, say hi!.

Then I fly home an begin making preparations for my new role... any guesses as to what i'll be doing next?

I will announce it on Thursday.

Silverlight, Valve and Microsoft Surface..

scbarnes — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 13:37:24 GMT

What a title, and yes they do have one thing in common.

Me...

I arrived on campus, a couple of weeks ago and pretty much spent most of my time meeting with lots of people from different teams throughout Microsoft. I mainly focused on the UX story overall, where are we heading and how long are we going to take to get there.

I hung out with the Silverlight folks, whom are bursting tell all their secrets on where it's going, how things are tracking and where it will end up, but sadly I can't share that with you - Note to self, stay away from beers for a while..

It was interesting to see how far Silverlight has gone from this time last year, to where it is today, and where it's heading tommorow. It's something I'm proud to be apart of that's for sure.

I can't wait for MIX08 when you're hopefully going to be amazed at how far we have truly come. I did manage to bump into Scott Guthrie couple of Sunday's ago and he showed me some snippets of what he's got planned, and was not only impressed with the approach but also how excited he was about it ( I mean come on, it's the Gu right - well VP-Gu now..).

I also got to meet Ian Ellison Taylor (General Manager) (Sorry Mike & Joe, you're both amazing but come on..) and he was telling me the story of Windows (he must get sick of that story), specifically the Start bar and how it came about. Fascinating story, and I'd love to share but not sure which parts are public and which aren't, so I'll stay this side of the legal line and simply say - what an amazing insight.

(You can watch an interview here that Dr Legend Sneath put together before my time.. http://channel9.msdn.com/Showpost.aspx?postid=284474)

In Ian's building, I also walked past the Microsoft Surface table, and immediately sat down to play with it. It's an amazing toy to play with and I was surprised I not only got to play with it by myself but most simply walked passed as if it was some plant or permanent fixture... Building 10 folks are spoiled..

I accidentally left my ID badge on the table and by the time I caught a campus bus, I got an email from Peter Blois (Program Manager on the Expression Team) telling me he found it and immediately grabbed him for a coffee to see what's happening around Expression.

Again, can't say much but there is one feature where I was excited and guys like Peter are at the helm of making sure the code comes together around these sweet products (Peter basically never sleeps).

I also spent a lot of time with other entities within Microsoft, focused on RIA and there is movement within the beast!

Last week, I did manage to head across the road from where I was staying and visit a friend over at Valve Software (Makers of TeamFortress 2, Half Life etc). Robin Walker, gave me the 50c tour of Valve HQ and it was really cool to see how these folks put together some of the best games on earth - literally. I also got Robin's inside view of how TeamFortress came about, in that how it went form a "realistic" looking game to where it's today, in Team Fortress 2.

I did get to briefly meet Dhabih Sijun, one of the best Photoshop artists I've ever known, and it was interesting to see how his influence on the art helped change the way TeamFortress 2 looks today.

I meet with a lot of really exciting and interesting people from all backgrounds and different companies (Google, Amazon, Adobe etc) (Yes even had a beer with Ryan Stewart at Adobe).

It was a fun trip, and now I'm back in Australia (even though for 11 days and back to the US) I've come to the conclusion, I'm without doubt spoiled.

I am meeting legends in the industry and feel I am cheating somehow.

That being said, I'll have some personal news I'll announce soon, but suffice to say I'm both excited and terrified.

Special thanks to Mike Harsh & Joshua Allen for letting me hang out in their offices between meetings and stealing their network connection. Also to Brian Goldfarb and Brad Becker for their effort! :)

I now understand the metaphor of "standing on the shoulder of giants"

(The list of people I'd like to thank for their time is long, and thank you to those teams who not only invited me into their team meetings, but had also asked my counsel on their upcoming directions around their respective products. I felt overwhelmed and hopefully I didn't waste your time!)

Can't wait for MIX08, as it's going to be a crazy time and I cannot believe I landed in Brisbane this morning, flying to Sydney tomorrow and then coming back to pack for MIX08.. Qantas better suckup to my AMEX card heh.

p.s

Chuck and Frank are doing fine, they each have a window office and it shows they not only know where all the Microsoft bodies are buried, but also have the shovels.. (translation: In Microsoft it's apparently hard to get a window office and these two got them straight away - POWER People..POWER..).. so far my blog is briefly outranking Chuck's.. he seems to think my luck is about to change, but i think I'll have a trick or two up my sleeve :)

Wanted: CSS Artist to redesign visitmix.com

scbarnes — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 03:43:00 GMT

How about this, you redesign the visitmix.com site with some CSS goodness and if our judges think you have the best talent / flair for the job, we'll give you free admission to MIX08 (Las Vegas) and accommodation at the Venetian hotel as well as - $1000 towards travel expenses.

Designs will be accepted until midnight (Pacific Time), February 7, 2008. We will announce the winning entries on or about February 14, 2008.

More Info can be found here: http://visitmix.com/2008/restyle/

Why go to MIX08? It's probably the best Microsoft web conferences on earth (I had a blast last year) and the parties at night are legendary. The below flickr photos are some of my highlights from last year:

A View from my Hotel Room (Bellagio - aka Oceans 11 Hotel)

Ray Ozzie on stage

Some folks from our ANZ region with me outside the Venetian.

Some more folks from our ANZ region with me inside a Stretch Limo (it's cheaper than a taxi so relax expense report people hehe)

The party upstairs at Pure Night Club - Ceasar Palace.

Brian Goldfarb (Group Product Manager) and Aaron Brethorst (ex Program Manager Popfly) enjoying the night out.

Microsoftee's enjoying a limo to an exclusive party, Ryan Stewart taking a snooze (he was blinking)

Shane Morris (UXE) talking to John Udell about how Web 2.0 is evolving

To be continued this year...( I want your photo here please )

A new blog design, and I'm moving on..

scbarnes — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 12:52:30 GMT

Last year I spent a great deal of time studying research papers, articles, bloggers, anything related at all to RIA. I did this as being a RIA Evangelist for Microsoft It was important that I not only understand my audience but also what motivates them.

I don't have all the answers, but I have some and with what I have learnt, I've decided to joining forces with a larger brand. In that, I am joining blog forces with the Visitmix.com blog team officially and looking forward to focusing my energy there.

What does this mean for you, the reader?

Not much, as I my RSS feed gets fed from Feedsburner.com and so you shouldn't have to update your RSS feed going forward. If you however visit this blog via web browser, then it's simply a case of following the redirection URL or let the META REFRESH take over once I settle into my new stomping ground.

What's with the new blog title?

I've decided to change my title to the RIA Times, kind of a aggregated view of the RIA world according to Microsoft. Like it or lump it as that's the best thing about the interweb, free choice.

I have registered the domain theriatimes.com but I'll not to commit to anything just yet. Still mind mapping my approach around this one.

That all being said, my focus going forward as a RIA Evangelist for Microsoft is to ensure that we start to bring out the best in folks whom are adopting our UX Platform boots and all.

Why a sudden change in perspective?

Frustration. I spent a year waiting, some more waiting and finally gave up waiting. It's not just Microsoft but all brands, there just doesn't seem to be a constant flow of bigger picture discussions? You get some great gems every now and then but they are few and far between. What does seem to happen is the constant Silverlight vs Flash/Flex discussion and that annoys me as it's not the rants back and forth but simply the maturity of the actual discussion.

Instead I'll simply re-focus my efforts on finding deeper insightful conversations from many of you out there that are in the RIA space. Kick over a few stones if you will and see what we can come up with, all on Microsoft's time.

Evangelism for me is about sparking adoption and in order to create such a spark, you first need to assemble the relevant materials. That's what I'll be doing, hunting and gathering :)

"..The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man..." - George Bernard Shaw

Change is a good thing. Its fresh.. Come argue the point with me at MIX08 in Las Vegas this year!

Re-designed this Blog

scbarnes — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 16:57:54 GMT

Ever since I came to Microsoft, one thing has bugged me and that is my blog's look and feel. It's great that I'm housed on Community Server, but the look and feel isn't me!

Since I'm about to kick off to New Zealand to hang with all other creative folks in the snowy town of Queenstown, I decided I can't show-up unless my blog get's a design overall.

Tonight, I give you MossyBlog v3.0 - code named "Nexus".

It's based off a Flex Application I was writing a few months prior to joining Microsoft and given my focus has been on RIA, I thought I would go for a mock-Rich Interactive Application look and feel.

If I can figure out how to swap the Masthead for Silverlight, I'll even make it interactive! Sadly though we don't get access to the actual code housed within Community Server, so I'm kind of restricted to CSS Overrides and inserting "Badges" into the "News" section like everyone else at MSDN.com

I'm also making some badges tonight to coincide with my RIA Producers post. I saw a few blogs around the new with them (they made their own based on my gradient graphic) so I thought, why not make one that's official passport like.

To the right you will see the graphic so far. I'll make some more each with the little character guy color coded to represent which type you are.

I'm also looking to firm the RIA Producer concept up and get more community input into it, so expect to see more of this as I get time to produce.

On a side note, I'm now the RIA Blogger for MIX, in that http://www.visitmix.com/blogs/Mossyblog will soon have some RIA centric posts, so keep an eye out for that (I think I'll mirror them here as well, that or a pointer to it).

Scott Out.