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A conversation with Jon Udell about his new job with Microsoft
For today's podcast
I decided to interview myself about my upcoming new gig. It's a short
episode, under six minutes, and the transcript follows.
Note: I actually meant to push this to the server later today, to synchronize with a message that will be forthcoming from Jeff Sandquist. But a mis-click on my part pushed it sooner, which means Jeff will be a bit surprised when he wakes up. Trust me, though, this is something I've been thinking carefully about for a long time, and it's very real.
Q: Your new job is with Microsoft?
A:
That's right. My last day at InfoWorld will be Friday Dec 15. On Jan
15, after a month-long sabbatical, I'll become a Microsoft
employee. My official title will be Evangelist, and I'll report to
Jeff Sandquist. He's the
leader of the team that creates Channel 9 and Channel 10,
websites that feature blogs, videos, screencasts, and podcasts for
Microsoft-oriented developers.
Q: What will your role be?
A: The details aren't nailed down, but in broad terms I've proposed to
Microsoft that I continue to function pretty much as I do now. That means
blogging, podcasting, and screencasting on topics that I think are
interesting and important; it means doing the kinds of lightweight and agile
R&D that I've always done; and it means brokering connections among people, software, information, and ideas -- again, as I've always done.
Q: Why are you doing this?
A:
I'm often described as a leading-edge alpha
geek, and that's fair. I am, and probably always will be, a member of that
club. But I'm also increasingly interested in reaching out to the
mainstream of society.
For those of us in the club, it's a golden age. With
computers and networks and information systems we can
invent new things almost as fast as we can think them up.
But we're leaving a lot of folks behind. And I'm not just talking about the
digital divide that separates the Internet haves from the have-nots. Even
among the haves, the ideas and tools and methods that some of us take for
granted haven't really put down roots in the mainstream.
Over the years I've evangelized a bunch of things to the alpha-geek
crowd: Internet groupware, blogging, syndication, tagging, web
architecture, lightweight integration,
microformats, structured search, screencasting, dynamic languages,
geographic mapping, random-access audio, and more. There's a purpose
behind all this, and Doug Engelbart saw it very clearly a long time
ago. The augmentation of human capability in these sorts of ways
isn't just some kind of geek chic. It's nothing less than
a survival issue for our species. We face some really serious
challenges. The only way we're going to be able to tackle them is to
figure out how to work together in shared information spaces.
I've chosen to align myself with Microsoft because I think it has the scale,
the resources, and the
business incentive to help me empower a lot of people to learn how to do that.
Q: Why now?
A:
At the Emerging Technology Conference in
March, Microsoft's incoming chief software architect, Ray Ozzie,
showed how LiveClipboard, the 21st-century version of the Windows
clipboard, could enable collaborative sharing of information, and
creative recombination of services, across all operating
systems, web applications, and desktop applications.
Kim Cameron, Microsoft's identity architect, is taking a similar
approach in the domain of identity, privacy, and the control of personal
information.
Jean Paoli, Microsoft's
Office XML architect, continues to pursue his lifelong dream of
empowering millions of people to create and use smarter documents.
Jim Hugunin, who created both Jython and IronPython,
is making my favorite open source scripting language, Python, a
first-class citizen of the .NET platform.
J.J. Allaire is creating a
blog-writing tool that will enable millions of people to publish
data that's reusable and intelligently searchable.
Bottom line: This isn't your father's -- or maybe your older brother's
or sister's --
Microsoft. Initiatives like these matter, they're solidly in line with
my own agenda, they're being pursued in very open ways, and I want to
help move them forward.
Q: Are you selling out, joining the
Evil Empire, and turning your back on principles you've always
championed?
A:
Wait until the evidence is in, then decide for yourself. I've been in
this game for a long time. I think my record of pragmatism and
agnosticism speaks for itself, but sometimes I like to
recall what Tim O'Reilly said in his foreword to my 1999
book on Internet groupware:
All too often, people wear their technology affiliations on their
sleeve (or perhaps on their t-shirts), much as people did with chariot
racing in ancient Rome. Whether you use NT or Linux, whether you
program in Perl or Java or Visual Basic - these are marks of
difference and the basis for suspicion. Jon stands above this
fragmented world like a giant. He has only one software religion: what
works.
I claim that was, is, and will continue to be true. If it
stops being true in the future, I expect you to hold me
accountable. But meanwhile, I hope you'll suspend disbelief until the
evidence is in.
Q: Will you be a blogger? An analyst? A developer? An educator?
A multimedia producer?
A:
All of the above. The title "evangelist" doesn't quite capture that
whole range of activities, but these are the things I do, and plan to
continue doing.
Q: Will you become Microsoft's next Robert Scoble?
A:
The way I see it, Robert played a key role in a grand experiment to
make Microsoft's development processes more transparent. Channels 9 and 10,
and the hundreds of Microsoft blogs throughout the organization, are
evidence that the experiment is succeeding.
I've proposed a different experiment. I'll continue to be a channel
for alpha geeks. But I also want to become a channel for a whole lot
of civilians in the mainstream. And above all, I want to build
bridges between these two groups.
Q: Will you continue to use Firefox, Gmail, and OS X?
A:
Sure. I'll also continue to use Microsoft technologies as I always
have, and I'll keep on pushing the boundaries of cross-pollination and
interoperability. The most powerful mashups don't just mix code and
data, they mix cultures. I hope this will be an opportunity for me to
do that in a way that benefits everybody.
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