Ray Ozzie update his letter good idea read it...

December 12, 2005

4:56 am

I have read some articles on Yahoo buying Del.icio.us and flicker. I have seen these websites which are great. I am seeing more and more social networking which once we have our friends we are communicating only with them. So, it’s become custom and these websites can enhance that experience. Yes, the main issue is making this experience simple..

I read the article on Ozzie last night again, but like he said make it simple because if you make it difficult for the customer they will run… Yes, this is true… But, again social networking is the new format.

I was watching a video on RSS which you can see IE 7 will use this also, but this is good because when something is uploaded you get it at your place… So, this is the same as my news that I use with Google.. Yes, because these websites have the RSS and when they have a new article is shows up. Yes, this is great tool, but you have to make some time to get the info you want. Remember it’s the specific info you need… This just saves you time from visiting the site and reading and finding the area, it will be sent to you through Rss… Now this is the goal and this is the new application..

I also read about vblogs which I still need more info on…

Ray Ozzie worked on Plato which he saw an Online community, instant messaging, email. This was before Online communities existed..

In 1997, Mr. Ozzie founded Groove Networks to make advanced collaboration software using Internet peer-to-peer technology, well before the arrival of Napster and peer-to-peer networks for sharing music. Groove was a technological triumph, but not a big commercial success. Microsoft bought Groove this year to pick up its technology - and Mr. Ozzie.

Fxm: So, he was into the peer to peer idea, but you have to remember this was like the first networking ideas out there.. Yes, it is still being used today, but this is how it started..

In meetings of senior executives, the subject of how to cope with the Internet services shift in computing, how to turn it into an opportunity for Microsoft, was a constant theme - and one that deeply interested Mr. Ozzie. "Within a month, Ray was putting his thoughts on software-as-services on paper," noted Jeff Raikes, president of Microsoft's business division, which includes the Office products and corporate software.

Fxm: So, you can see he was already trying to tell Microsoft that software as service was the way to go. This is what google does and other companies… Yes, I am starting to understand more..

The memo is peppered with technical acronyms, and rivals are named. While Microsoft is progressing on several fronts, Mr. Ozzie wrote, "a set of very strong and determined competitors is laser-focused on Internet services and service-enabled software."

Fxm: Yes, because its all about client software which I can be anywhere.. Yes this is what I have been doing with my email…. Well, its working..

The companies to watch, Mr. Lucovsky wrote, have "embraced the network, deeply understand the concept of 'software as a service' and know how to deliver incredible value to their customers efficiently and quickly."

Fxm: embraced the network understand software as a service… So, it’s the network which is being on the internet and only giving customers the software they need which is the service… So, the software is the service…

Yes, I am understanding now much better.. It’s the software which is the service and the network his connecting you to this service..

Mr. Ozzie is understandably careful in what he writes and says; his role at Microsoft is mainly to lead and encourage rather than to criticize. He emphasizes the importance of Microsoft's big desktop products like Windows and Office, and he says that Internet services should be seen primarily as a way to continually update and improve its offerings. Those updates and improvements, he said, should make Microsoft software teams happier by moving their work into the marketplace faster.

"People like to have fun doing what they're doing, and people who build software have fun by having people use their stuff," Mr. Ozzie said in the interview.

Fxm: well it’s internet services but people use your stuff to have fun.. Yes, this I how you grow because they are trying it and having fun..

Yet Microsoft will also selectively offer Web services that do over the Internet some of what Office and Windows do on the desktop. The company took measured steps in that direction last month, when it introduced Windows Live and Office Live. Windows Live lets consumers manage their e-mail, instant messaging, blogs, photos and podcasts in one site. Office Live enables small businesses to set up Web sites and e-mail systems, and to provide collaboration sites for teams. Both will be supported by advertising and perhaps some subscription fees.

Fxm: so, this is his idea of using this technology. Remember keep your eyes open for open office…Yes, keep your eyes open and get all info on this product..

But Internet services represent a more open, competitive model. "Software itself is going to be free, and you get paid for services that are supported either by ads or by subscription charges," said Mitchell Kapor, the founder of Lotus Development who is president of the Open Source Applications Foundation, which develops free software for personal information like calendars and contacts. "For Microsoft, this is a bigger challenge than the rise of the Internet itself in 1995."

Fxm: we are going to be paying for the software as a service but this can be paid by add companies…

RECENT innovations have enabled Web-based software to look and respond more like desktop applications. Offering Internet alternatives to traditional PC programs are a new breed of start-ups, including Writely.com, for word processing; NumSum, for spreadsheets; and Zimbra and Scalix, both e-mail. I.B.M. has Web-based software called WorkPlace that is used by millions of workers. And Salesforce.com has built a fast-growing business by supplying customer relationship management software as an Internet service.

Fxm: so we are looking at a different way of doing business but it’s about the client idea… Yes it’s great..

"No piece of software will replace Microsoft's Outlook, Word or Excel, but Web services will eat away at core areas of its Office suite over the next couple of years," said Marc Benioff, chief executive of Salesforce.com.

Fxm: Marc Benioff is saying sure, we will never be a windows excel, word or what ever but WEB services will eat away at that office suite.. So, it’s these services that you get anywhere.. You are not linked to one computer that is the idea…Yes, I have realized that email myself my stuff and it’s already being done today… Yes, it’s great, but again you have to learn how to organize these idea.s..

f that happens, Microsoft's business could be battered. Mr. Colony of Forrester Research predicts that Microsoft's profit margins, under pressure from Internet services, could fall by 40 percent or so over the next four years. A wild card is the hand that Google will play beyond search and how successful it may be. Mr. Colony, for example, says he thinks that Google will make a big difference. "I believe Google will revolutionize the software business," he wrote in a recent report.

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Text: Ray Ozzie Memo

Text: Bill Gates Memo

Google has desktop search software and a Web-based e-mail service, two offerings aimed at parts of Microsoft's stronghold. How much further it plans to go in providing alternatives to Microsoft's software is uncertain, though it certainly looks interested.

Fxm: google has desktop search and email web base service.. so, you can see they are doing it now..

Google was among the companies that attended a meeting last month at I.B.M.'s headquarters in Armonk, N.Y., of the Open Document Foundation, a group formed to agree on freely available formats for word processing, spreadsheets and other office documents; the idea is to come up with alternatives to Microsoft's proprietary Office formats. And for the last few months, Google has talked with Wyse Technology, a maker of so-called thin-client computers (without hard drives).

Fxm: So, you can see we are being web based more and more and it’s all about the network.

The discussions are focused on a $200 Google-branded machine that would likely be marketed in cooperation with telecommunications companies in markets like China and India, where home PC's are less common, said John Kish, chief executive of Wyse. "Google is on a path to developing a stack of software in competition with the Microsoft desktop, and one that is much more network-centric, more an Internet service," Mr. Kish said. "And this fits right into that."

Fxm: So, they wyse companie likes google because they are making there $200.00 laptop possible because you don’t need a hard drive you can do everything over the internet and that is where they save money.. Yes, you have the software but that is the service..

Yet Mr. Ozzie's view is that Microsoft's fate is in its own hands. If it charts its technology and business plans wisely, harnessing the talents of its army of smart people, he said, it should grow and prosper in this next wave of Internet computing. He speaks of a thriving "ecosystem" of open competition in which developers and customers have many choices and in which Microsoft's future is not in crushing rivals but in becoming an attractive choice.

Fxm: Microsoft has to be ready because everyone is going toward the web based service and they have to be there also..

In the past, Microsoft executives have decried free software, with its collaborative open-source development style, as akin to communism, if not downright evil. Not Mr. Ozzie. "I consider open-source software to be part of the environment, like the Internet," he said. "It's not the enemy and it's not going to go away. It's great for developers.

Fxm: open source is being open which they are realizing they need to be in here..

"And if we don't keep continually updating our offerings and develop better offerings," Mr. Ozzie added, "then shame on us."

The Microsoft strategy, he said, has to be to develop tools and technology that make it easier to build software for the Internet-services era and easier for users to have more productive and enjoyable computing experiences. In a sense, it's a reinvention of old Windows vision of computing, but in a very different competitive context from the desktop world that Microsoft ruled.

The new game plan, Mr. Ozzie said, is "obviously not an altruistic thing, but it doesn't even resemble the environment of old."

Fxm: well we have to change because web based service is how everyone is using the internet today.. This is the new application and we need to be there for it..