A Brand New Day for Microsoft
Live Labs
Microsoft gave Flake the rare and influential role of "technical fellow"-a kind of fee-ranging visionary with the clout of a corporate vice president. In January 2006， flake started Live Labs， a rapid-development web team that exits outside of any specific product group.
Flake's Lie Las employs 170 researchers， developers， engineers and designers. In less than three years， Live Labs has launched dozens of new technologies （and Flake has filed for more than 100 patents）。 Some launches take mere weeks-lightning fast for a company with multi-years development cycles-those tend to be new features for existing software. Several stand-along products have also rolled out， or are about to.
Volta is a web-based service that facilitates complex software programming. Political Streams charts political blog activity with an interface similar to a stock chart， it's part of an eventual blog-analysis product that will identify and track the most-popular Internet memes. Ad in August， to Google-like buzz， Live Labs released Photosynth， a web application that offers an entirely new way to view photos online by Turing everyday snapshots into 360-degree virtual worlds.
A collaborative photo experience
The Photosynth launch illustrates Flake's guiding principles of the web. Thanks to the network effect， ultimately there will be more photos of more places， more ingredients for collaboration， and more experiences for people to share. Flake believes that the Internet is becoming a mirror of the physical world. He calls Photosynth a semi-synthetic world between Second Life and real life.
But Flake thins his group's most substantial impact will be as a "perpetual startup" that spawns other startups. Since Live Labs isn't tied to a specific product group， it's positioned to reverberate throughout Microsoft， releasing its new technologies and teas to the divisions and， in the process， prodding Microsoft's culture.
"Success，" Flake says， "is getting kicked out of Live Labs."
Vocabulary Focus
Clout （n）影響力；力量
Power and influence over other people or vents
Roll out （phr n）推出新產(chǎn)品；首度上市
To make a new product， service or system available for the first time
Specialized Terms
Meme （n）文化基因；彌 （母）
An idea， story or cultural unit that is passed around within a culture
Live Labs
Microsoft gave Flake the rare and influential role of "technical fellow"-a kind of fee-ranging visionary with the clout of a corporate vice president. In January 2006， flake started Live Labs， a rapid-development web team that exits outside of any specific product group.
Flake's Lie Las employs 170 researchers， developers， engineers and designers. In less than three years， Live Labs has launched dozens of new technologies （and Flake has filed for more than 100 patents）。 Some launches take mere weeks-lightning fast for a company with multi-years development cycles-those tend to be new features for existing software. Several stand-along products have also rolled out， or are about to.
Volta is a web-based service that facilitates complex software programming. Political Streams charts political blog activity with an interface similar to a stock chart， it's part of an eventual blog-analysis product that will identify and track the most-popular Internet memes. Ad in August， to Google-like buzz， Live Labs released Photosynth， a web application that offers an entirely new way to view photos online by Turing everyday snapshots into 360-degree virtual worlds.
A collaborative photo experience
The Photosynth launch illustrates Flake's guiding principles of the web. Thanks to the network effect， ultimately there will be more photos of more places， more ingredients for collaboration， and more experiences for people to share. Flake believes that the Internet is becoming a mirror of the physical world. He calls Photosynth a semi-synthetic world between Second Life and real life.
But Flake thins his group's most substantial impact will be as a "perpetual startup" that spawns other startups. Since Live Labs isn't tied to a specific product group， it's positioned to reverberate throughout Microsoft， releasing its new technologies and teas to the divisions and， in the process， prodding Microsoft's culture.
"Success，" Flake says， "is getting kicked out of Live Labs."
Vocabulary Focus
Clout （n）影響力；力量
Power and influence over other people or vents
Roll out （phr n）推出新產(chǎn)品；首度上市
To make a new product， service or system available for the first time
Specialized Terms
Meme （n）文化基因；彌 （母）
An idea， story or cultural unit that is passed around within a culture