MICROSOFT BUYS GROOVE... RAY OZZIE BECOME ONE OF THREE CTOS

Not a surprise move by Microsoft this past week, but interesting to see how this will all pan out for Microsoft and how much of an impact Ray Ozzie, founder of Notes (Lotus) and Groove, will have on the company. Good interview of Ray Ozzie by CNET's Martin LaMonica:

As a Microsoft chief technology officer, will you remain focused on collaboration? Chairman Bill Gates mentioned some other areas--such as authentication, encryption and peer-to-peer--where you could contribute. Do you want to reach beyond the Office group and make an impact on the operating system and perhaps other areas?
Ozzie: Certainly beyond Office. Most of what I do and have done to date in my whole career has been focused on what Microsoft refers to as "information work." And the majority of the products in that realm are in (group vice president) Jeff Raikes' Information Worker group. But there are pieces that are not, like Exchange--that's part of the Windows organization.

I think everyone would like a unified story and deliverables to support those across the organization. There are aspects of what we built, however, that have a platform flavor to them.

I think what Bill is referring to is that some of those technologies, particularly security, have more general applicability than the general collaboration offerings. It's too soon to know or discuss what the specific impact will be, but I will be working with the platform group to see (how) those things that we've done can be generalized. (full article)