NetGen
Many of you have heard me talk about this Microsoft project I've been working on. I mean I was basically gone all of January on this baby. It's called NetGen and for the most part its about tapping into college students and observing them.
We proposed a day in the life project where we'd follow them for a day as flys on the wall and talk about the technology they use and about this "wish" they asked for and old Bill granted.
Cool thing was, most of the time, the "wish" just didnt pan out. Which was excellent cause it makes for great data. You thought X but it turned out you really just want Y and maybe E.
Well while I was surfing tonight I came across Microsoft Watch, and that took me to a few links that really explain this work we're doing for them pretty well in fact, so i'll toss you the links as well.
Newsweek Article on an aspect of it.
Microsoft Watch's piece on it all.
Whats cool about the net is just digging you can dig endlessly. So I was just about to finish this up but then I saw this link to threewhatever.. is this what they're working on as a result of our research? I mean theres this kinda push internally for us to come out and make a big deal with our findings, even though we just did the exit interview segment on this year long study.
So then I do a search on google for this url.. now I get more data like this and i get to read a few people post back in forth in a fourm about what this 3degrees is going to be. I think p2p is an aspect, and instant messaging is in there as well, and phone technology as well.
Then I see things like this "in any event, if you go download MSN Messenger 5.0 (http://messenger.msn.com/) and add me to your buddy list (hint, my email address ends in threedegrees.com) we might be able to play together in the near future..." Now thats interesting...
Well NetGen covers a broad range of topics really, i'm sure it all funnels into multiple projects but this is just one thing we do. Also, just to note.. Lextant had a piece in Monday's Connect Section of the Dispatch this week.