MIX06: Leaving Las Vegas
Everybody understands that the web is redefining computing and communication. Some companies are ACTING like the web is profoundly important more than others. Yahoo is and Google is and certainly the exploding number of Web 2.0 startups “get Web 2.0″.
MIX06 was Microsoft’s first major attempt to reach out and interract with a broad section of online community with this in mind.
So for me the question was “Does Microsoft get Web 2.0?”. The answer was not so clear to me. The LIVE team certainly does, and they’ve got something like a billion behind them and a lot of moral support from the key people like Bill Gates. They’ve got good applications and ideas and a lot more coming over the next few months.
But the core competencies and resources and focus (though NOT the key energy) still make me feel like Microsoft as a community has not fundamentally adapted to the new web, and maybe cannot adapt. Google’s success is about the web’s success. Microsoft’s success has NOT been web centric and changing the company to a web centric model is risky at best and could be disastrous.
Ironically I’m not sure they have to become web centric even though they seem to say they do, because with upcoming changes to IE and VISTA they have a lot of control over the environment in which Web 2.0 will unfold.
So, I’m leaving Las Vegas a bit more enlightened but with no great insight into the emerging world of the web.
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