Simple Sharing Extensions (SSE)...Ozzie Making His Mark at Microsoft

When Ray Ozzie returned to Microsoft, it was unclear to many [myself included] what kind of impact he could have. This was not a question of Ray's intelligence or vision [he's got both in droves] but more a question of whether Microsoft's monolithic structure would allow for Ray's ideas to penetrate deeply (and quickly) enough to facilitate sea-changing innovation.

We got a glimpse of his ideas in the much publicized "internal" memos from earlier this month. Shortly thereafter, Ray joined the blogosphere (for the 3rd time). And now his 2nd post elucidates what could be the first tangible evidence that Ozzie's worldview is having immediate and potentially massive impact at Microsoft (and in the technology world as a whole).

In Ray's blog he introduces the concept of Simple Sharing Extensions (SSE), which makes RSS bidirectional. The potential uses for this development are ENORMOUS. How many of us have multiple email accounts, calendars, phone numbers, PCs, laptops, mobile devices (cellphones, PDAs, Blackberrys). We're on a constant quest to synchronize data, figuring out how to maintain secure access to all of our personalized data stores. Layer in the need to share our information (schedules, data, preferences) to rungs of different people (i.e., I want my wife to be able to edit and see my weekend calendar but not my partners) and the world could use SSE and the innovation that's sure to follow.

For more information, here is the Simple Sharing Extensions (SSE) FAQ

Kudos to Ozzie for not only putting together SSE in short order, but also for releasing SSE under a Creative Commons license. Hopefully this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of his impact at Microsoft as they navigate a much wider and thinner software computing landscape.

Note: I, and/or funds I have discretionary control over, maintained a long equity position in MSFT at the time of this writing.