So what's been going? I haven't really had time to spend on my weblog, and I apologize to all 3 of my readers. My lack of content since the acquisition by Microsoft in April is not because there was a gag order of any type (contrary to rumors), I just haven't had much free time.
So for those of you who don't know, Groove is being folded into the Information Worker group, led by Jeff Raikes, which is responsible for Office, Sharepoint and various other products. This is such a good fit - I can't tell you how many conversations I have had with about getting tighter integration with Groove Virtual Office and the Office products. I am really hoping to see a Groove icon under the "My Network Places" icon in the "Open/Save As" file dialogs. There have been several people from Redmond who have come to Beverly and talked about what was going to happen and how, and I can honestly say that they are all excited about bringing Groove on board. It definitely puts a smile on my face when I see more Microsoft employees showing up in Groove workspaces.
I have had the chance to go to Redmond a few times here are some thoughts:
- I was underwhelmed by the company store - I expected to see a WalMart sized superstore manned by MS logo wearing oompa-loompas.
- Campus is big and building layout can be quite confusing - I have to rely on taking campus shuttles to get between meetings I have.
- There are a lot of really smart people working at Microsoft - the potential for learning from them is amazing.
- People are passionate about what they do - for them it is about making a better set of products for the world.
I have also had the chance to go to a couple of Microsoft trade shows: Microsoft Global Briefing(MGB) and TechReady. Both events are for Microsoft employees, and there were thousands of them attending. I was really impressed with Microsoft as a company when I attended day 1 of MGB where I got a glimpse of the continuum of products and services Microsoft is involved with. The speeches and comedy skits were also worth noting - including the notorious one where there is quite a bit of jumping and shouting. As for TechReady, I got a chance to hear some great technical talks, including one given by Anders Hejlsberg. I also had the chance to co-present with Matt Pope about Groove's products and services (our sessions were overflowing and they had to turn people away).
So what's next for me? I continue to meet with customers and help design solutions/architectures using Groove, and some of those customers are internal Microsoft groups! Oh yeah, I will also be attending PDC in Los Angeles in September - hopefully some of you will be there as well to check out the session given by Hugh Pyle called 'Groove: Building Enterprise Workgroup Applications'.
3:21:04 PM 
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