A long Way to JPEG or Microsoft 2.0
Hi...
Do you know HD-Photo aka Windows Media Photo?? Anyway, it will change its name again to JPEG XR.
Wow, JPEG?? Yes, JPEG. I like this story because it shows the "new Microsoft", a Microsoft which is unknown (and almost unbelievable) to some guys out there.
So, let's assume we would gather a group of good people and design a media format which takes things into account like embedded devices (what good is a photo format if no camera is able to produce it? See.) The group now works for five years on this. Now let's assume that we would try to make it a global accessible format, being turned down once, still trying and finally succeed. Succeed in giving away...
The Story behind in details:
https://news.digitaltrends.com/news/story/13731/microsofts_hd_photo_proposed_for_jpeg_xr
https://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2007/mar07/03-08HDPhotoPR.mspx
Toolkit
For me this is Microsoft 2.0
As well as the fact the a Microsoft license is now approved by OSI. And as well as - sorry to say - to make OpenXML the way it was done (Side note: I heard the argument that the OpenXML definition is to heavy because it renders itself on more than 8000 pages of printed paper. When formulating a license or an email small is beautiful, this certainly is not true for a technical spec. This document should not allow by any means any interpretation. Otherwise we have the same situation as we have had in so many "standards" where both parties supported it but did not work together.). Silverlight on Linux, Windows Live API, IronRuby, the count goes on...
So Microsoft makes steps towards opening up. This is ground shaking, maybe even frightening for some people. The clear divided world of the past is moving, good and bad is melting and new colors come into play.
Why does Microsoft do this? You can answer this for yourself:
- Because we want to grow and prosper by having satisfied customers. While yesterday the borders of year PC was the playground today it spans from your pocket (mobile phone or camera) through your PC to the whole world (call it Internet). To satisfy customers today means tear down those barriers in between devices, platforms.
- Alternative business models appear and we want to participate. Refinance software and/or services through advertisement. When I started here at Microsoft 5 years ago imagine I would have asked Steve Ballmer why not trying to get half of Microsoft's revenue through advertisement. He would have kicked me off just like anyone else would have (certainly I would have done this). Today bloggers earn 200k $ a month through ads and whole corporations are build on this model.
But there must be more, maybe even stranger ideas. The sky is the limit as long as you are in the cloud (wooo...)
Yes, we want to grow and earn money. There is nothing evil about this as long as it is done within laws. We learned that we have to give back more than we did ever before. Which is ok because satisfied customers count... But I observe others to learn, too. Microsoft was the first to be hit badly regarding security. Learn from us. States are confronted with new large, global companies like Microsoft which are not build on factories but on IP alone. Maybe in the future on data alone. We all have to learn how to cope with this.
CU
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