From intelligent interfaces to unified communications
Speech Server is now a part of Anoop Gupta's new Unified Communications Group. There's a Q&A with Anoop here about the new group and its directions (which also brings the Exchange and Real Time Communications teams together) with his thoughts on how unifying our different communication technologies has exciting possibilities for businesses and information workers.
In my 6 years at Microsoft I've seen a few re-organizations above my head at a divisional level, but I've basically worked on the same product - Microsoft Speech Server - the whole time. So Speech Server was conceived within the Intelligent Interface Technologies group, entered the world under the Natural Interactive Services Division, and is now maturing in the Unified Communications Group.
So what changed? Well, I think the group names are a subtle reflection of focus. Intelligent Interface Technologies - sounds cool (best title of the lot to have on your business card) but the focus is coldly and proudly on the technology. Natural Interactive Services - yes, a little warmer, moving towards the user with the interaction angle and the naturalness. Now Unified Communications - that's a broader direction, and the mandate for speech services within the context of user-centric communications is pretty clear. I see it as a concrete step towards building the "digital lifestyle" for information workers in which Bill Gates recently placed our work on speech recognition technologies.
Don't get me wrong, Speech Server is still very much about intelligent interfaces and natural interactive services (and as Anoop points out, the re-organization will have no immediate impact on Speech Server 2007 which is planned to release later this year). In fact, this shift of focus at a divisional level to a unified framework of user communications should make it easier to align technologies to deliver more intelligent, more natural and more interactive ways to communicate with business systems and with each other.
