Microsoft has seen its core applications - Windows and Office - bring it an unprecedented position of dominance in the technology market place. However, with long development cycles and nimble competitors nipping at their heels, the company is playing catch up in areas like search and online advertising. Ray Ozzie believes that things are starting to change significantly and, with problems need to be solved using both software and services, Microsoft is well placed to achieve that goal.
Throughout the talk, Ray, Yusuf, and Gary try to communicate Microsoft's vision of the future of the web and their willingness to experiment with new models, learning as they go. The discussion - ably managed by John Battelle and Tim O'Reilly - also includes Microsoft's plans to put versions of their desktop applications on the web and building new economic models to monetize the online advertising opportunities available through MSN and search.
Ray Ozzie, the creator of IBM's Lotus Notes, is an industry visionary and pioneer in computer-supported cooperative work. As a chief technical officer of Microsoft Corp., Ozzie reports to Microsoft chairman and chief software architect Bill Gates. In this role, Ozzie has responsibility for influencing corporate communications and collaboration strategy, applications and platform infrastructure, and for helping drive Microsoft's software-based services strategy and execution across all three of the company's divisions.
Yusuf Mehdi is the senior vice president of the MSN Information Services & Merchant Platform division at Microsoft. He leads the effort to empower people globally by helping them find, discover, and experience whatever they want online. In this role, Mehdi oversees the global strategy, design, development, programming, and marketing of Microsoft's information services such as MSN Search, MSN.com, My MSN, MSN Music, MSN Video, MSNBC, MSN Money, MSN Autos, MSN Shopping, and the rest of the MSN.com information channels. In addition, Mehdi is also responsible for leading Microsoft's platform efforts for online advertising and digital marketing with responsibility for brand, direct marketing, pay for performance, and business intelligence systems.
Dr. Gary Flake is a Technical Fellow at Microsoft, where he is responsible for bridging Microsoft Research and MSN, and for setting the technology vision and future direction of the MSN portal, web search, desktop search, and commercial search efforts. Prior to joining Microsoft, Dr. Flake founded Yahoo! Research Labs, ran Yahoo!s corporate R&D activities and company-wide innovation effort, and was Overture's Chief Science Officer. Before joining Overture, he was a research scientist at NEC Research Institute and the leader of its Web data-mining program. He has numerous publications spanning over 15 years which have focused on machine learning, data mining, and self-organization.
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