Steve Ballmer Announces Microsoft Office Information Bridge Framework at TechEd Today

Sorry this post is so late, i've had a hard time connecting to the network today via the TechEd wireless network.

I?m in the San Diego, CA Convention center attending the Microsoft TechEd 2004 conference. The show is sold out with 11,000 attendees (who said conferences are dead?) and the energy level is at an all time high.

This morning Steve Ballmer (CEO of Microsoft) gave the opening keynote. Here are a few highlights from his session:

The IT industry is improving, though the reality is that we as IT Specialist are being asked to do more (deliver more solutions) with less (less money and less resources) and we need to be prepared for this challenge. Microsoft is investing in the future. The only company that spends more on research than they do is the pharmaceutical Pfizer. Microsoft is totally committed to solving the ?security? problem. However, even if they had the perfect solution in place it takes time to get it in place. Reality: its hard to solve, but Microsoft is engaging on all fronts (internally, externally, with software and hardware partners). Microsoft finds SPAM to be one of the top issues for people, almost more important than issues any other security issue to individuals or corporations. The announcement of a new technical beta for the Web Service Extensions

Of particular interest though, Microsoft released a new toolkit for Microsoft Office called the Microsoft Office Information Bridge Framework. I?ll usually refer to it as IBF for short. IBF is a toolkit containing .NET components for the server and client that extend Microsoft Office to talk to Web Services in the enterprise. Why is this interesting? We now have a framework and architecture guidance in how to connect Office with Web Services in a consistent and repeatable way.

Today OfficeZealot.com is excited to introduce the Information Bridge Framework Zone (Or IBF Zone for short). The IBF Zone is a your starting point or as we call it the ?launch pad to IBF.? Our goal is to provide the best resources on the web that will help you learn IBF and advance your skills in IBF. However, the IBF Zone will grow to be more than that. Consider the IBF Zone to be a community

The IBF Zone community will feature IBF resources from OfficeZealot.com, Microsoft and 3rd party developers and ISVs. Keep checking back at the IBF Zone as we add more information.

As a side note, tomorrow I?ll post a shot the video of the IBF announcement during Steve Ballmer?s keynote session.