The Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco sounded like the last place Microsoft's Ray Ozzie would want to be this week. After all, the company made the big announcement that its next two cash cows, Vista and Office 2007, have been herded into manufacturing.
I was interested to read what Ray Ozzie had to say to the delegates because, sticking with farmyard analogies, it struck me he was like a visitor to a free range chicken farm trailing a fox on a leash.
Surrounded by pushers of the Web 2.0 vision of a future of cuddly, sharing, always-on, collaborative and cooperative software, built on open standards and with as much 'free' as possible, he must have a) felt out of it or b) known he was part of it but couldn't admit it. How could he? Microsoft will spend the next eighteen months or so on a sales/upgrade spree offering a "safe environment" for internet users. Not to mention something else for "half a billion users in the Office market."
He talked of moving to online, rather than DVD, software delivery. More a commercial statement than a Web 2.0 one. He pointed out that a good browser-based word processor shouldn't just be a clone of a desktop application. True. He talked of the collaborative aspects of web applications. True. He talked of the importance of web-connected mobile devices. Erm, true. There was more, but you get the flavour. Largely platitudinous, designed not to rock any boats nor give anything much away.
For all we know, Microsoft may have a Web 2.0 skunkworks all ready to unleash itself as soon as the company senses resistance to traditional application purchases.
I wonder if it will be called Microsoft 2.0?
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