Well, I can’t believe it’s been almost a decade since I joined Microsoft in May 1997.  I thought when I joined that I’d be lucky to last the 4 years of my initial stock option vesting.  Here I am well past that (and without the golden nose ring of steadily increasing stock values) and just now finding the fields irresistibly greener elsewhere.  As of tonight, I’ve turned in my badge, though it will probably be quite a while before I don’t feel part of the family.

It’s amazing how much software has changed in that decade.  Remember in 1997 Windows ‘95 was just getting traction as a usable GUI OS?  With rough parity with Mac OS at last, the final knell for DOS applications sounded and the GUI was ubiquitous.  Desktop publishing was still one of the killer apps, and Netscape was still the revolutionary darling of the stock market.  Then think about where we’re at today and the amazing new capabilities for Internet applications, rich yet connected clients, media everywhere every time, real-time communication and collaboration, the device ecosystem, unsurpassed processing power devoted solely to the user interface, video and computer games surpassing movies in gross revenue, Internet advertising profits surpassing other channels - I could go on and on - and 10 years seems like an eternity in software development.  Microsoft clearly has been central in many aspects of that continuing revolution.

Contrast that exponential pace to the glacial pace of standardization efforts, where I’ve focused for several years.  Back in 1997 XML was just becoming a standard, and since then we’ve slowly fleshed out XML-related technologies pretty well, with technologies to manipulate, display, and message XML.  Each of these fairly simple ideas was years in the conception, community-building, and standardization process.  WSDL alone has been under standardization for 5 years, not even counting the original development time for WSDL 1.1, and completion (let alone success) is still not assured.  Standards isn’t a career path for those seeking quick rewards on their energy investment.

However, what working in standards lacks in a rapid pace it often makes up in broad influence.  I have been involved in a number of technologies that have proven invaluable to the industry, such as XML 1.0, XSLT 1.0 and XPath 1.0, the XML Information Set, WS-Addressing 1.0, the WS-I Basic Profile.  I’ve pushed a few that haven’t been all that popular (to my bafflement) such as XInclude, the XPointer Framework and associated XPointer schemes, and xml:id.  And a number that are flops: XLink, XML 1.1 and XML Namespaces 1.1.  In hindsight I’m fortunate there weren’t more flops on my resume!

But beyond the contributions Microsoft has allowed me to pursue in these efforts, I’ve found one of the highlights of my job is the Microsofties I work with.  Some of them have had a lasting effect on developing my capabilities, and changing the way I look at the world, such as:

• Adam Bosworth (no matter how much you like abstract architecture, keep getting your hands dirty)
• Jean Paoli (keep your perspective on what’s important, and what’s not)
• Andrew Layman (keep your eye on the big idea, and big ideas take time)
• Paul Cotton (yes it is possible to juggle 1000 balls at a time)
• Jeffrey Schlimmer (don’t tell someone the answer, help them find it themselves)
• Asir Vedamuthu (you can’t be overprepared)

Being able to associate with the likes of these guys is worth sticking around for almost a decade - thanks guys!

You’ll get an earful about my new endeavors later, I’m pretty excited about them too…