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Contents .NET live Introduction .................................................................. 2 Entertainment and media British Show Jumping Association ........................................................ 9 EnglandNet ...................................................................................................... 13 Subaru World Rally Team ......................................................................... 19 Industry AGCO Corporation ........................................................................................ 25 BSH Appliance Care ................................................................................... 28 TheTrainline Business ............................................................................... 32 Public sector Inland Revenue .............................................................................................. 37 Southend Hositals NHS Trust ............................................................... 42 Transport Direct ............................................................................................ 45 Retail services DABS.com ........................................................................................................ 51 Figleaves.com ................................................................................................ 56 Wellness International .............................................................................. 61 1 Looking ahead to Longhorn At the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference, held in Los Angeles in October 2003, Microsoft debuted Windows ‘Longhorn’, the code name for the next generation of the Windows platform, along with other key, next-generation platform technologies, such as Visual Studio ‘Whidbey’ and SQL Server ‘Yukon’. Microsoft Longhorn will enable developers to build great applications that connect people, groups and organisations, and that make mountains of digital information Chris Anderson meaningful and actionable. To get a fuller sense of what users can expect from the next version of the Windows platform, Information Age spoke with Chris Anderson, Don Box, and Quentin Clark, who are all helping architect Windows Longhorn. Information Age (IA): How would you describe the driving forces behind the next generation of Windows? Clark: Windows Longhorn represents Microsoft’s effort to provide a new spectrum of possibilities and opportunities for the developer community. Much of what we are doing is based directly on what software developers, our partners, and our customers have told us they want from the platform. Windows Longhorn is about opening up innovation and getting the whole industry excited about the new kinds of applications they can build. Box: Increasingly we’re seeing developers being asked to build programs that talk to other programs. That’s a vitally important scenario in an increasingly connected world, and I think there’s lots of innovation within Longhorn that will enable those building applications to integrate code from a variety of sources. That’s going to make it much easier for developers, both to integrate applications with the Windows platform as well as solve a lot of common business problems – many of which depend on programs that don’t run on Windows. Quentin Clark Anderson: With .NET, we took the first step toward elevating the whole platform, and Longhorn is all about continuing that journey based on developer, partner and customer demand. One of the things we’re doing in the evolution of the Microsoft platform and Longhorn specifically is applying the concept of managed systems in more than just code. We’re going to have a notion of managed applications, which means that, by redefining what it means to be an application, the system can provide more services and value in the ecosystem around those applications. It’s all linked together to help developers focus on solving the problems they 2 Introduction have rather than being preoccupied with the infrastructure they need to build around the problems. IA: How is each of you involved with the platform developments Microsoft spoke about at PDC? Clark: I work on ‘WinFS’, the code name for a fundamental new storage capability. As part of this managed-code platform, it will enable a whole new set of storage-based applications and capabilities that allow users to easily find and relate things and act on data that they have in their systems. With today’s storage systems, users have to remember things like, “What is the path to the PowerPoint slides I need?” With WinFS, users think about their data more naturally, and can get questions answered like, “Where are the slides I presented last week to this customer? What’s it related to? Who worked on this? Have I received any feedback?” Along with WinFS, the emergence of XML and Web Services has made information easier to describe and organise, and it has enabled a standardised way to store, process and share it. Box: In ‘Indigo’, which is what I work on, the main concept we deal with is that a single program by itself is nowhere near as interesting or useful as several programs that can work together in concert. We’ve spent a lot of energy in the past five years working with the industry to develop interoperable protocols based on Web Services, XML and service orientation. What we’re doing with Indigo is giving people a simple, unified way to take advantage of virtually any program that’s out there and to incorporate it into their world in an easy, reliable and secure way. In addition to making sure we have excellent implementation, we’re working with industry partners to ensure we’re all heading in the same direction so we can all provide the system interoperability that people want. The end result is connected systems that wire all the individual pieces together. Anderson: WinFS gets to store your data, while Indigo lets you talk to other machines, applications, systems and devices. Everything you see and feel on the PC goes through the presentation layer, which we’ve code- named ‘Avalon’, and which is my area. You could say Avalon is the Common Language Runtime’s face in the next version of Windows, it is the presentation layer. Developers want the ability to deliver rich text and great user experiences, and they want to blend those capabilities seamlessly with things like animation or video. The next generation of the 3 Windows platform will support all of this much more simply. With Avalon, we’re exploring the types of experiences developers want to enable, what are they being asked by those in their organisations to deliver and then looking back at the technology we have to let them accomplish those tasks. By integrating two-dimensional and three-dimensional graphics, documents, video, audio and animation, as well as tools to distribute and protect digital content, developers can more easily build software that is ‘LONGHORN’-ERA visually remarkable and offers a breakthrough experience to customers. GLOSSARY IN BRIEF IA: What was the significance of PDC 2003? Longhorn (code name): The Clark: We walked into PDC this year with an incredibly integrated, broad next major release of the platform offering that addresses many of the key needs of our customers Microsoft Windows and industry partners. We have a long way to go until we ship Longhorn, operating system. certainly but it’s very clear how what we’re doing all fits together. And it is also clear to everyone that there is a great path forward that starts Avalon (code name): today with managed code and the .NET Framework. Developers’ Graphics presentation investments in skills, code and tools will carry them into the future. technologies in Windows Anderson: I think PDC 2003 was amazing. I worked on PDC 2000, when Longhorn that provides a we announced .NET, and I believe that this year’s event absolutely unified architecture for eclipsed that one. Even with all the enthusiasm that was building up presenting user interface, before the PDC, people didn’t really understand what we’re going to show documents and media in them. PDC showcased some incredible innovations, from Whidbey [the the system. next version of the Microsoft Visual Studio .NET developer tool system] to Yukon [the next version of the Microsoft SQL Server database ClickOnce: Technology in management and analysis system] to Windows Longhorn. It’s exciting Windows Longhorn because we’re building on the .NET vision that generated so much buzz designed to speed and three years ago; we’re setting the stage for people to use those tools and simplify deployment of move the .NET Framework forward. applications. Box: We have spent a lot of time thinking about developer continuity. The Indigo team actually manages several technologies that are already out in Indigo (code name): .NET the field, such as COM, COM+, MSMQ and DTC,