As phrase swirls of an imminent Microsoft management shake-up about the Server and Resources Organization, I;ve been wondering about what;s taking place about the Interactive Enjoyment Company (IEB) aspect of the Microsoft house.I;ve noticed in a few postings more than on the anonymously-penned Mini Microsoft weblog mentions of an IEB reorg. Inside a late January posting, Mini himself (a k a “Who ‘Da Punk”) said the most recent “massive” IEB reorg was completed. When I;ve asked Microsoft officials about changes in the IEB structure, I;ve gotten the silent treatment.But I did notice a couple of interesting recent changes in IEB, the part of Microsoft that currently encompasses the Xbox/gaming; IPTV; Media Center; Zune; and mobile communications businesses.In May 2010,
Office 2007 Activation, David Treadwell — the former Corporate Vice President of the Live Platform Services group in the Windows and Windows Live Division — moved to IEB to do some vaguely specified services stuff. On January 24, 2011, Microsoft updated Treadwell;s bio page with an updated job description. According to the refreshed page:“David Treadwell is a corporate vice president at Microsoft, where he leads the Interactive Entertainment Organization;s Software and Services (ISS) engineering teams. This includes the development, test and operations disciplines for ISS. Treadwell works closely with technical leaders across the company to align Interactive Amusement Company product teams with Microsoft;s overall services strategy and product architecture, and drives the technical and design agenda to deliver connected entertainment platforms and experiences for consumers.”Who else is part of ISS?Distinguished Engineer Don Box, known for his work on SOAP,
Office Professional Plus, Web services and the M declarative language, for one. After asking about, I learned that Box has officially moved over to work on ISS dev platform R&D. He is doing software/services work for Xbox Program Manager Omri Gazzit,
Windows 7 Starter Key, I hear. His new role somehow involves bringing Visual Studio and SQL Server Modeling Services to programmers.(Another former CSD/Indigo (Windows Communication Foundation) veteran, Joe Long, also is on the IEB side with the house, according to a couple of posters on Mini Microsoft, and has been for some time. Long was formerly General Manager in the Identity and Security division at Microsoft, last I heard.)Why are these former Connected Systems Division folks going to Xbox land? What do Microsoft technologies like Astoria,
Office 2007 Activation, the Entity Data Model (EDM),
Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010, Entity Framework (EF) and M have to do with gaming and TV? Anyone have any theories or knowledge to share?