Mixing It Up at MIX06: Port80 on Web 2.0 and Microsoft

Most conferences suck, especially for technologists.

You have to hear the endless sales pitches, get bogged down with bags of crap that at best may sit in the corner of your office gathering legions of dust before they hit the circular file, and you are disconnected from work, so the email and tasks mount up.  Sometimes, the allure of the location means you don’t even attend all conference or seminar events (sit by the pool vs. app pools? — hmmm, such difficult decisions), despite what you report back to the boss.

I am happy to say that Microsoft’s MIX06 this week was a conference of a different sort – and they had me before the first keynote (http://www.mix06.com).  Even though it was a MS event, the name Microsoft or Windows was gone from all signs and logos.  This event was designed (and I believe well executed) as a place for partners, clients, and MS to truly mix socially and to learn from each other about where the Web is today – and the “Web 2.0” to come. 

We believe at Port80 that there are Web 2.0, 3.0 and beyond implementations in production today, and the term is a bit overused and misunderstood.  None-the-less, it is important to understand that today’s Web is kind of at the “Atari” level, to borrow the timeline of video gaming as an example – we are working towards first-generation Nintendo, and have yet to see Sega, PlayStation, much less XBOX 360.  Web 2.0 is about making the network we dream of a reality, about Negroponte’s Being Digital really becoming a way of life, of devices that know who you are, what you can do, and that make your business and personal tasks easy, safe, and maybe even fun.  It’s about code that is not so laborious to build and manage, about Web services that glue together complex systems, and, like anything, it is about choices…

What are some implications of a Web 2.0 world that came up over and over at MIX06?   One that struck me was the entitlement a user has to their data.  It’s their’s, not a developer’s, and the user does not want some company to own it.  Increasingly, users are demanding access in exchange for their patronage.  The companies that can open up to the consumer and still make a buck will survive and thrive.

This plays out in technology development firms as well – we want access to good APIs and code we can reuse without paying through the teeth for it.  From Atlas (http://atlas.asp.net) to Indigo (http://msdn.microsoft.com/webservices/indigo/default.aspx) to the modular, roll-your-own Web server in IIS 7 (http://www.windowsitpro.com/Article/ArticleID/49122/49122.html — go on, subscribe, it is a good Brett Hill read), this openness is permeating the Microsoft product mix.  As Port80 Labs start to build tools for IIS 7, we use the same APIs that the IIS team used to build the new Web server, exactly, precisely – this is a first, and a concrete example of MS being more open, risking showing a little IP leg in exchange for a better partner and customer ecosystem, towards the promise of a Web 2.0.

Microsoft gets it, and they want to empower developers to build the Web 2.0-X version with their bits.  If you build it, the consumers and business users will come.  Here is one example from MIX06.  You may have checked out live.com, which is basically the Windows Web experience growing in plain site.  You can check out the cool mapping features at http://local.live.com.  It’s pretty, it’s fast, and certainly seems Web 2.0.  But here is the kicker:  another company just skinned up their own JS interface to the site (Atlas – something - .com, if you have the link, post it below), building a great map site UI better suited for younger users – with very rapid development time.  At MS, Web 2.0 means you don’t have to do heavy tech lifting to develop a quality experience – leverage their strength.  Here are some more ideas re: Windows Live: http://ideas.live.com/.

Microsoft at MIX06 felt like being inside a product management confab – you got the prepared speech on functionality, but the warts and issues were explored as well.  One example: the IE team admits it just ain’t easy to print out on paper every line of HTML and CSS out there perfectly, even today.  Another example: the IIS team not being sure whether the feature-limited IIS 7 in Vista (only 10 connections simultaneously per app pool) or Cassini would be better for local app testing…  it is nice to hear the truth when someone does not know the answer to something.  The duel between Bill Gates and Tim O’Reilly  that started off MIX06 is another pointer – there were some hard questions, not all lobs, and Bill did not have every answer (see the pod cast here: http://channel9.msdn.com/showpost.aspx?postid=173941).   It is the ongoing dialogue that matters.

So, does Microsoft want to rule the network the way they rule the desktop?  You bet.  Is all this Web 2.0 mumbo-jumbo going to really change the way we live and work?  Don’t doubt it.   Will every technology and platform that Microsoft pushes become the standard?  Hell no.  But are they on the right track?  Yes, and the beauty of the model is the more we all participate, the faster, quicker, safer, and better this little Internet of ours will become.

OK, next week, a little less MS Kool-Aid drinking, and a whole bunch more details from MIX06, including some interesting IIS 7 links.

Keep serving,
Chris @ Port80