Anyhow, back to the keynote session, which you can stream. Gates invited Aber Whitcomb of MySpace, who was surprisingly positive about Microsoft as a platform. MySpace.com has 65 millions and is signing up 250,000 new users a day. They have just been ranked as #2 of all websites for the number of hits, surpassing Google, MSN, etc. Amazing! They use SQL server and ASP.NET. To show how powerful Microsoft is as a platform, Whitcomb gave an overview of the technology decisions based on user load. At 9 million users, MySpace switched to ASP.NET, which provided for better performance on their servers. At 26 million users, MySpace migrated to SQL server 2005 64bit and had it in production just as Microsoft was launching it, very bleeding edge. Lastly, they mentioned that they refactored their home page using ASP.NET 2.0, reducing server CPU usage from 85% to 27% and reduced their web farm from 246 servers to 150. Powerful stuff.  They then moved on to what they’re doing to provide a “rich user experience”.

 

MySpace is using Vista [sidebar: Microsoft today announced the delay of Vista until 2007 which was nicely reported on by Ina Fried] which Abercomb wants to use because of Vista’s “gadgets” -which “provides a stickiness and constant connection to their site but doesn’t require a browser”. MySpace will be using Vista to implement their new feature, “Profile 2.0” which allows for easier customization by users so they don’t have to use a pre-defined templates. They did a demo and showed how their user interface is changing. I didn’t think it was so very powerful, but then I, unlike the rest of the world, don’t use MySpace so I don’t know how user friendly their current profile interface is.

 

Next up was BBC with Ashleigh Highfield, the head of their Media and New Technology Department. He stated that it costs something like 7million pounds (or perhaps dollars) to broadcast a TV show but it’s only 1/10 of that to broadcast the same show on a satellite, which obviously provides powerful incentive to get their content on the web. 

 

The BBC rep commented that they have a trial interface, called iMP, to create a space where content can be shared with all digital rights management covered. They just finished up a trial with 5 million users in the UK. They have been working on making sure their streaming technology is superior for their drama and other content-rich shows, versus a news site that many people visit for highlights or news bites. He then launched a demo of iMP, which is based on Vista.  BBC’s new UI is just about the best I’ve ever seen. It was just amazing. Their use of Vista’s new gadgets is elegant and intuitive, not to mention gorgeous. You can stream the demo here.  I don’t know when that will launch, and with the delay of Vista, it’s all very interesting now. You’ll want to use it when it does launch, it’s so captivating.  Lastly, he mentioned their problems with digital rights management is a hindrance to their supplying content, as well as tagging all of the millions of shows they have in their vault. The BBC released a press note on Highfield’s demo.

 

After the 2 presentations, Bill Gates invited Tim O’Reilly out for a “conversation”. Apparently this is the first time they met and rumor has it that there were tons of emails between Bill’s people and Tim’s people before they could agree to a format.  As to the discussion between them, to be honest, there wasn’t much that was said or that I remember.  My impression was that O’Reilly had something to prove and wasn’t there to have a conversation with Gates, rather he was there to trip up Bill Gates. There was this part that sticks in mind which is when O’Reilly stated that “Microsoft choked off Netscape’s air supply” and then chuckled at his own wit. Gates calmly waited for the question and then said that Netscape knocked itself out of the ring. But as I said, lots was said but with almost nothing of it memorable or important, IMHO. But don’t take my word for it. You can stream it from their site and here is the transcript.