As I look back on my career at Microsoft, I feel fortunate
to have had a front-row seat to witness an incredible
shift in how people and organizations communicate and interact.
I started at Microsoft in October 1994—about a year after
America Online released AOL 1.0 for Windows. As early adopters
of social media, Microsoft’s “technical evangelist,” Robert
Scoble, emerged as a social media pioneer, blogging and
producing videos of our employees and products as part of
Microsoft’s Channel 9 MSDN Video team. Since then, we’ve led
the way in embracing the power of online communities.
Today, people around the world are sharing their opinions
and experiences about practically everything and anything.
What started out as small groups of like-minded people talking
about their profession and passions has transformed into
an unbridled content democracy. Anyone with Internet access
can readily voice his or her opinion, create multiple forms of
content, create new products, and—in their own way—change
the world.