Intriguing blog entry by Ray Ozzie

Graham has recently pointed me to this post by Ray Ozzie,  Graham was interested primarily in the prospect of finally getting the problem of multiple calendars resolved,  but quite a few other things struck me about this post.

• Ray uses MSN spaces,  not some special site designed for Microsoft employees
• Ray chooses in his first post to provide the community with an opportunity to enter into a discussion and debate with Microsoft on future direction – sets the tone for the way Ray would like to see Microsoft evolve – very Scoble
• He then makes it personal by describing the changes and opportunities that working for Microsoft has created for him and his wife, another subtle difference in style
• He uses these personal circumstances to introduce one of the most universally annoying problems we all face, the multiple sources of calendar and contact information that we all need to subscribe to and publish
• He then starts talking about the power of simplicity and uses Lotus Notes as his example,  now I know that Ray designed and wrote a lot of Notes,  but I found it interesting that as a Microsoft employee he used this example,  to me he seemed to be sending a clear message that he understands that Redmond has a lot to learn from the world outside of Microsoft
• He then goes on to describe an extension to RSS, a general purpose one with many exciting uses, and just as importantly he takes the opportunity to say that Microsoft are releasing the spec under the Creative Commons licence,  but goes beyond that by saying that “I’m very pleased that Microsoft is supporting the Creative Commons approach”
• Finally he mentions that he has his own ‘concept development group’

Following on from the Strategic leaking of his first major email to all Microsoft employees,  this post seems to be carefully designed to show a few things:

• Ray is a man of the people
• Ray is someone who understands the broad IT landscape and not just from a Microsoft perspective
• Ray is more open to standards and ‘Open Source than others within Microsoft
• Ray is a man who gets things done

Of course maybe I am reading much to much into this,  and maybe this was just a blog post produced on the fly as he was waiting for his plane to land – I think not!