As Microsoft gets ready for the launch its "Blue" update initiative later this year, the company is also trying to get more third party developers to make applications across all of Microsoft"s platforms. Today, it was revealed that Microsoft has assembled a team charged with getting those apps in place.
ZDNet.com reports that Microsoft"s new "deep-tech" team is part of its Developer and Platform Evangelism division. It"s headed up by 20 year Microsoft veteran John Shewchuk who is currently the Chief Technology Officer for the Microsoft Developer Platform.
The new team"s mission is to work not just with each other but with other outside developers to make new products for Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, Xbox, Kinect, Windows Azure, the Surface tablets, the large touch screen monitors from Perceptive Pixel and more. Shewchuk is quoted as saying, "This is a playground. We get to work with stuff from all the different Microsoft business groups. It"s like geek heaven."
The team will help to create ways to tie in several different Microsoft products and offer code to outside groups via locations like GitHub or CodePlex. Other members of the team include Patrick Chanezon, who just joined Microsoft after working in developer relations at VMware, and James Whittaker, who rejoined Microsoft in 2012 after a three year gig at Google. He generated a lot of media buzz at the time for his blog post explaining how he felt that Google has lost his way and had turned mostly into an ad company.
Source: ZDNet.com