LiveSide - Interview Blog

Office Web Applications: we talk with Chris Bryant about consumer use

feedback@liveside.net (LiveSide.net) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 17:29:00 GMT

We had a chance this week to sit down and talk with Chris Bryant, Director, Office Product Management at Microsoft, to talk a little bit more about Office Web Applications and specifically how Windows Live and consumer users will benefit from these new web based Office apps. Chris was kind enough to give us an overview demo of the web apps, which we’ll get to, but we talked to Chris about what users want from web applications:

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Chris Bryant on Office Web Applications (Vimeo)

Office Web Applications is in Technical Preview now, slated for a Spring 2010 release. As Chris says in the video, all of the apps aren’t fully functional (and OneNote isn’t available at all, yet), but Microsoft wanted to get some feedback on the apps as well as getting an idea of how running Office “in the cloud” would work. The Office 2010 Technical Preview is now closed, but you can sign up to receive early notification of new information on Office Web Apps, and possibly still get in:

Office Web Apps Technical Beta early notification

Office Web Apps Press Release, Sept 17, 2009

Office Web Apps Fact Sheet

WL Movie Maker PM Mike Torres Part 2: a LiveSide interview

feedback@liveside.net (LiveSide.net) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 07:25:00 GMT

In this second part of our interview with Mike Torres, a PM for Windows Live Movie Maker, we talk a bit more about how WLMM was built: the weekly meetings with teams from Office and Windows about how to best use the Ribbon; on the hard choices any software developer has to make; on some of Mike’s favorite features; and on reaction to the release.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

LiveSide with Mike Torres Part 2 (on our Facebook Fan page)

Mike mentions a couple of specific “tips”, one on the time zoom feature. It’s in the lower right corner:

Moving the slider zooms in or out, pretty basic but good to know. He also mentions some keyboard shortcuts. Along with the usual ones like Ctrl-X to cut and Ctrl-V to paste, these shortcuts can make editing a bit easier:

To	Press

Play or pause

Space or K

Go to the previous frame

Go to the next frame

Trim the video so it starts at the current point in the video

Trim the video so it ends at the current point in the video

Split the video into two items at the current point in the video

Windows Live Movie Maker is a great free program that makes quick work of “telling a story”, and allows for a bit more creativity once you learn your way around. We’ve had fun with it, and will definitely be using it more in the coming weeks and months.

WL Movie Maker Program Manager Mike Torres – a LiveSide interview

feedback@liveside.net (LiveSide.net) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 06:36:00 GMT

Windows Live Movie Maker version 1.0 for Vista and Windows 7 was released nearly two weeks ago, and we gave you an early glimpse of it when it first came out (and even before that). Today we were able to head over to Redmond and talk with a longtime LiveSide friend, Mike Torres about Movie Maker, and take the product for a bit of a spin at the same time.

Since we’re uploading to YouTube, we split the interview into two parts to keep under the 10 minute limit YouTube imposes. In the second part of the interview we’ll show you a few tricks Mike pointed us to, but in part one we talk to Mike about his history at Microsoft (you may remember him from Spaces, but he’s worked on a number of Windows Live projects), about building WL Movie Maker from the ground up (as in every line of code is new!), and about program management in a project like this:

UPDATE: OK so our ability to upload .wmv files to YouTube is borked, with or without Movie Maker. The .wmv I created in Movie Maker works fine locally (and ok in this self-hosted Silverlight player), but any wmv I upload to YouTube has audio sync issues. Happens from 2 computers and numerous files here, maybe it's our account, who knows. TBH pretty tired of dealing with it right now, but here's the video, for now):

(Please visit the site to view this media)

LiveSide.net with Mike Torres – WLMM

In order to keep under the 10 minute limit, and to try out WLMM a bit, I snipped out a bit in the middle where we talked about using Windows DVD Maker to create DVDs, and if you can use 3rd party dvd makers. You can, you just have to save your movie and then load that into a dvd creator.

We’ll have more on Windows Live Movie Maker in part two.

Windows Live 2009: Pierro Sierra on shared data experience

feedback@liveside.net (LiveSide.net) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 02:59:00 GMT

We hope you’ve enjoyed our discussions with some of the program managers working on Windows Live, we really appreciate the opportunity to get to sit down and talk to them, and appreciate the opportunity to bring them to you.

Our last interview of the day was with Piero Sierra, Group Program Manager for Shared Data Experience. We ended up talking for a good twenty minutes on camera, and since we try to keep these video interviews around 10 minutes or so I broke this one up in to two parts.

In part one, Piero begins with a quick definition of shared data experience (sdx), his team is responsible for SkyDrive, Windows Live Sync, and Windows Live Toolbar. We started out talking about the differences between Live Mesh and Windows Live Sync, talked a bit about SkyDrive, and then Piero described one of his favorites, Windows Live Toolbar:

(Please visit the site to view this media)

In part two, Piero talks about the uptake of the new services without getting too specific about numbers, we talked about what it means to run these services the scale of the internet, and then touched on how FolderShare has been transformed into Windows Live Sync, and some hints of what’s to come now that the move to Live ID and the inclusion into the Essentials suite has taken place.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Hopefully we’ll be able to continue our discussions with the people who bring you Windows Live, again, we really enjoyed our day of meetings, and look forward to doing it again soon.

Windows Live 2009: Jeff Kunins and Windows Live Social Experience

feedback@liveside.net (LiveSide.net) — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 23:02:00 GMT

Jeff Kunins is a Group Program Manager for Social Networking for Windows Live, working on some of the features of Windows Live that cut across what used to be separate products. Working on Spaces and Groups, Profile, What’s New feed, and the 3rd party web activities are some of what Jeff’s group focuses on. Jeff sees Windows Live Wave 3 as “the birth of Windows Live as a suite”, more than just a set of products with a single name.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

We like how Jeff explains where we’re at with Windows Live today, that 10 years ago search was able to simplify the “cacophony” of information on the web, and now 10 years later Windows Live seeks to simplify the cacophony of the many and different social networks we find ourselves immersed in. Good stuff.

Windows Live 2009: Omar Shahine part 2 – People in Windows Live

feedback@liveside.net (LiveSide.net) — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 06:46:00 GMT

While Omar Shahine has been kind enough to talk to us (twice) about POP3 support in Hotmail, it’s not really what he works on. Omar has been busy down in Mountain View, California, working on Hotmail, and the People features in Windows Live Wave 3. In the second part of our chat with him, he gives us a quick overview of the new features in Wave 3 dealing with people. Omar explains that contacts updates are now automatically “dynamic” (before Wave 3 it required an opt in), so that when you update information in your profile the people you give permission to access that info will be kept up to date.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

In the next few weeks we should be seeing some new stuff in Hotmail: POP3 access of course; web messenger, and even a few surprises. Keep an eye out, and of course keep checking back with us here at LiveSide!

Windows Live 2009: Rodger Benson on Windows Live Photo Gallery

feedback@liveside.net (LiveSide.net) — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 20:51:00 GMT

In our next interview, we spent some time with Rodger Benson, a program manager working on Photo Gallery talking about facial recognition, new upload limits for photos on photos.live.com (or Spaces), how Photo Gallery works with the suite (for example: picking face names from your address book):

(Please visit the site to view this media)

We’ll get the last two interviews up as soon as we can convince Soapbox to play nice ;)

Windows Live 2009: Colin Anthony and Emmanuel Miranda

feedback@liveside.net (LiveSide.net) — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 18:11:00 GMT

Up until Wave 3, Windows Live has been a suite pretty much in name only. In Wave 2, services were focused, some were culled, in order to make some sense of the seemingly random slapping of the Windows Live moniker on any piece of code that walked by (remember Windows Live Barcode?). In Wave 3, not only was the look and feel of the online experience cleaned up, but internally teams started working on a single product: Windows Live, instead of a number of separate products with a common name.

In our next segment, Colin Anthony, Senior Program Manager, Custom Experience Platform team, and Emannuel Miranda, Developer Lead for the same team, talk about Home.live.com, shared experiences across the web applications, and how the way they look at their work has changed:

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Previously, we chatted with Windows Live Senior Director Ryan Gavin, and let Omar Shahine explain a bit about POP3 – we’ll have more from Omar soon, and hear from 3 more Windows Live managers.

Windows Live 2009: Our interview with Ryan Gavin, Sr. Director, Windows Live

feedback@liveside.net (LiveSide.net) — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 19:04:00 GMT

2008 was a momentous year for Windows Live. After lots of fanfare, but with no real direction, Windows Live first appeared in early 2006, with lots of new apps, lots of rebranding (and re-rebranding), and lots of queries from the press and from customers on “what IS Windows Live?”. That continued into 2007, where even Microsoft had had enough of all the rebranding foolishness, pulled back on new releases, and started cleaning up the Windows Live act. We got our first glimpses of a new direction in Wave 2, in early 2008.

But Wave 3, which debuted in the fall of 2008, for the first time offered a clear definition of Windows Live, and a (mostly) unified presentation experience. In January of 2009 Steve Ballmer took the “beta” tag off of Windows Live Essentials, and this week we were able to fight the freeway traffic and head up to Redmond to speak with a number of Windows Live managers about where we are.

Our first interview of the day was with Ryan Gavin, Senior Director, Windows Live. Ryan was busy at CES, talking to a number of publications, and we were grateful to be able to catch him while missing all the CES Vegas madness. Ryan gives us an overview of the Windows Live platform, talks about “simplifying the web”, about partners, including Facebook, and give a shout out to LiveSide readers at the end:

(Please visit the site to view this media)

In the next few days, as we get the videos processed and loaded up to Soapbox, we’ll be bringing you more in our short series of Windows Live interviews. Our thanks to Microsoft, Windows Live, and Waggener Edstrom for setting this all up for us.

Hotmail POP3 access on the way: Omar Shahine explains

feedback@liveside.net (LiveSide.net) — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 04:12:00 GMT

We spent the day today (Jan 13) on campus, talking to some of the people who have helped to bring you Wave 3. In quite a coincidence, one of them was Omar Shahine, who we spoke to last fall when POP3 access was announced. We’ll bring you more from Omar coming up, but we wanted to get this bit out on POP3 now while the news is fresh. Funnily enough, Omar doesn’t actually work on POP, although he has been working on Hotmail, and more recently on some of the social networking aspects of Windows Live, specifically People and Profiles. We just happened to catch him, twice, right when there were POP announcements.

Last night we reported that users in the Netherlands were accessing their Hotmail via POP3 (as Omar explains in the video, POP is a kind of lowest common denominator for email retrieval. It isn’t nearly as rich an experience as DeltaSync, which is what Windows Live Mail and Outlook use, but it does allow just about any email client – including most notably the iPhone – to access Hotmail), and we’ve since seen reports of access in the UK and in Australia. If you’re waiting for POP access, perhaps for your iPhone, you shouldn’t have to wait long. And if you are able to access POP for the first time in your region, let us know in the comments.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

(Our friend Arnout Hemel posted on Hotmail access in the Netherlands on the LiveLog blog today – it’s in Dutch but you can play with Windows Live Translator)

In the next few days, we’ll be posting the rest of our chat with Omar and our other interviews, just as soon as we can get the videos processed and posted. Thanks to everyone for a fun day!

Live Mesh video interview parts 1 and 2: Abhay Parasnis and Jeff Hanson

feedback@liveside.net (LiveSide.net) — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 14:08:00 GMT

Our coverage of PDC continues with some big announcements about Live Mesh coming out of LA. Sometime this week you will be required to update Live Mesh, and after that will be introduced to some significant changes. Beginning with very limited betas (much like the way Live Mesh itself was rolled out gradually), Live Mesh will soon include support for Macs, and for mobile (Windows Mobile 6). We will also see coming up in the next few months the addition of “web apps”, small programs that can be run in the browser “in the cloud”, or also offline, and will have the same sync capabilities that Live Mesh folders do. Right now these web apps are only available to developers, we'll have more on how you can get a chance to play with them in upcoming posts.

I talked to Abhay Parasnis, General Manager Live Mesh, and Jeff Hanson, General Manager Services Marketing about Live Mesh, the Azure Platform and the new web apps in part one of the interview:

(Please visit the site to view this media)

(just a couple of technical notes: 1: no they didn’t put us in the kitchen ;), we were in a very nice press cubicle with no ceiling not far away from where they were clearing lunch from the press room. Really it didn’t sound like that live, but not much we could have done about it anyway, and 2: sorry about a bit of a smudge on the camera lens, could have done something about that, lesson learned)

In part two, we move around behind Abhay’s laptop and get to take a look at web apps:

(Please visit the site to view this media)

We’ll have lots more on Live Mesh coming up. In the meantime you can take a look at www.microsoftpdc.com, materials for a number of the sessions are already up.

Windows Live Messenger Program Managers talk Wave 3: Part 3 of 3

feedback@liveside.net (LiveSide.net) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 03:59:00 GMT

In the first two parts of our interview, we talked to Alton Kwok and Brian Moudy. In this part, we talk to Marisol Ontaneda about design, and then we get into an overview of what it means to be a program manager. We really enjoyed our session with Alton, Brian, and Marisol, and want to thank them again for taking the time to meet with us.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Just a note about the videos: Sorry about the mess, MSN Soapbox, which I wish we could count on to use, wouldn't play nice at all last night and it took me til now to get the files uploaded. I won't go through all the gory details, but this was way too hard.

OK anyway, we have MSN Soapbox videos of everything up now, so you can watch without needing Silverlight (although go get it!), and/or link or embed the videos. Hopefully we’ll get this mess sorted out soon.

Part 1: Alton Kwok on Messenger conversation window, pawns, and more

Part 2: Brian Moudy on Messenger Groups

Not to take anything away from our talk with the Messenger guys, they were great, we'd love to do it again. Any other Windows Live teams want to talk we’d love to talk to you, too!

Windows Live Messenger Program Managers talk about Wave 3: LiveSide interview part 2 of 3

feedback@liveside.net (LiveSide.net) — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 08:15:00 GMT

In part one of our interview, Alton Kwok talked about some of the new features in the new Messenger beta, including an interesting history of “the pawn”, and how it finally was replaced in Messenger Wave 3 with “the chiclet”. Next up is Brian Moudy, who works on Groups, and is “incredibly excited” about the possibilities:

(Please visit the site to view this media)

(While we get our video hosting all figured out, here’s a couple of screenshots of Alton, Brian, and Marisol):

I’ll have part three up soon, where Marisol talks about design, and the group talks about what it means to be a Program Manager. Good stuff.

Windows Live Messenger PMs talk Wave 3 Part 1
Part 1 wmv

Windows Live Messenger Program Managers talk about Wave 3: LiveSide Interview Part 1 of 3

feedback@liveside.net (LiveSide.net) — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 06:14:00 GMT

Today I ventured to Microsoft's Red West campus to talk to three Windows Live Messenger Program Managers; Alton Kwok, Brian Moudy, and Marisol Ontaneda. It was great getting a chance to talk to them about Windows Live Messenger and Wave 3.

In this first part of the interview, I ask the three to introduce themselves, and then Alton starts off by talking a bit about contacts, pawns, and What's New:

(Please visit the site to view this media)

(about 7 minutes)

(here's a link to the file, in case you want to download: just right click and "save target as": Part 1 wmv )

I'll have parts 2 and 3 up shortly, just don't ask me about Soapbox or Expression Encoder anytime soon ;).

Our interview with David Treadwell of Windows Live Platform Services at Mix08

feedback@liveside.net (LiveSide.net) — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 02:49:00 GMT

Microsoft is betting heavily on Software + Services, the concept that all the power of the desktop will not go away when services are introduced, rather that storage and computing power, local to the user, will continue to play a big role in how we use computers. For the past couple of years, David Treadwell has been working along with Ray Ozzie and others to develop what has been known as Windows Live Core, now Windows Live Platform Services. This platform, which we will be talking quite a bit more about shortly, is the beginnings of a transformation at Microsoft - not switching from Software to Services, but bringing services along as an integral added piece to software. David Treadwell is the Corporate Vice President for Windows Live Platform Services at Microsoft, and we talked to him at Mix08 about the platform, and how it relates to Windows Live.

01 00:00:34         Windows Live Platform Services defined: A developer platform for services, blended with client: the best of both worlds

02 00:01:23         Messenger Services Library API: A good example of the Software + Services model

03 00:02:57         Integrating a front end for Messenger into a website

04 00:04:03         The Windows Live Platform: Comparing it to the PC file system in the 80’s; working towards an ability to create a service just like creating an application

05 00:07:36         Identity Services and Interoperability: What’s different from Passport and Hailstorm

06 00:10:39         Issues with ID services: Spam

07 00:11:52         Is Microsoft turning towards an Open model?

08 00:13:12         Advertising? Artificial barriers to keep users will fail in the long run

09 00:14:38         Microsoft is serious about Software + Services

8mb mp3 download - 17 minutes and 20 seconds