This is old news, maybe... but I find the memo that Microsofts chief software architecht, Ray Ozzie, wrote to all employees back in 2005 quite thought provoking.
Or maybe it is simply the way it is referened in the latest issue of Wired Magazine that makes it interesting. Wired hints at the implied messages from Ozzie in brackets.
"Our products have embraced the internet in many amazing ways (implied message: Not enough).
But for all our great progress our efforts have not always led to the degree they could have (We're falling behind).
And while we continue to make good progress on many of these fronts, a set of very strong and determined competitors is laser-focused on Internet services and service-enabled software. (And we're not.)
Even beyond our large competitors, tremendous software-and-service activity is occuring within startups and at the grassroot level. (Twentysomethings in garages are surpassing us!)
Many startups treat the "raw" internet as their platform. (While we're still trying to finish Vista!).
Pretty funny stuff. But this all happened in 2005. Ray Ozzie the it-visionary has had three years to change things. So why hasn't much happened, you might ask. Well, it basically just takes a freakin' long time to change the course of a super tanker like Microsoft.
