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Mark Lucovsky
The brains behind HailStorm sees Web services as a hub for simplifying busy lives
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HAILSTORM'S GENESIS was not so much a lightning
bolt of inspiration, as it was like a soft Seattle rain
rolling together ideas that were brewing
independently within two different teams at
Microsoft. These teams faced the task of making
the most of the Web services technologies in
development at Microsoft. The result of their work is
HailStorm, now known as .Net My Services, the first
manifestation of Microsoft's XML Web services
efforts.
"If you look at Web services, the model is to make
addresses on the Internet sing and dance in
response to simple commands," says Mark Lucovsky,
the Microsoft distinguished engineer who is the
architectural mastermind behind HailStorm.
To hear Lucovsky tell it, he and Vic Gundotra, general manager of platform
evangelism at Microsoft, were on two different teams, both preparing for
Forum 2000, an event that turned out to be Microsoft's coming-out party for
.Net and Web services. Lucovsky, who is one of but 15 distinguished
engineers at Microsoft, was on the team responsible for developing the core
technologies. Gundotra, meanwhile, was part of a group concentrating on
end-user scenarios that could potentially be enabled by the technologies
Lucovsky's team was developing.
"I had these ideas that the way to really bootstrap Web services was to
come up with a model where data was the central pivot point, and we came
up with an architecture for connecting people and applications with
information," Lucovsky says.
With those ideas in mind, but without having previously articulated them to
Gundotra and his team, the two men met to discuss the scenarios in which
.Net My Services could work. As it turned out, Gundotra and his corps were
thinking pretty much the same thoughts as Lucovsky's crew.
"Both teams rendezvoused on the same basic ideas to use Web services to
connect people to personally relevant and user relevant information, and to
do it in a broad, broad way to leverage everything we've done with Web
services and Internet productivity," Lucovsky says.
When the folks in the technology trenches and the team concentrating on
higher-level uses clicked, the development of .Net My Services went into
overdrive, which led to more and more scenarios in which the software can be
used.
One year passed, and Microsoft unveiled the plan with nearly 15 services.
These include contacts, locations, calendar, wallet, alerts, inbox, documents,
and favorite Web sites.
With an eye toward the future, Lucovsky says he sees HailStorm as a central
point for all relevant information -- be it personal or business.
"I have never, ever liked the consumer vs. knowledge-worker split. We like to
think of it in our group as end-users, and not paint an end-user into either
consumer or knowledge worker. With HailStorm, if you need to plan your day
or know what you're doing next, it doesn't matter if you are a soccer mom or
a busy executive. If you have a calendar, you want to be able to get at it
from wherever you are," Lucovsky adds.
As an example, he points to his wife's Mercedes-Benz that has a 5-inch
screen in the center of the console. If Lucovsky takes that car to work, even
though it has two cell phone channels, a screen, and connectivity, Lucovsky
says, it cannot deliver the simplest piece of information about him, such as
where he has to go for his 8 o'clock meeting. If Microsoft has its way,
obtaining that sort of information in a connected world should be simple,
easy, and fast -- in a word, a breeze.
"When HailStorm is in full swing, it will just be a given that if you have
connectivity and a screen or voice, you're going to be able to get questions
like that answered for you," Lucovsky says.
"We essentially want no barriers between you and the software that is acting
on your behalf. Zero barriers."
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Larry Page and Sergey Brin - The Internet's most famous pair of Ph.D.s are still striving to make data more accessible
Clifford Neuman - For Kerberos co-author, security hasn't lost its allure
Ray Ozzie - Notes inventor envisions peer-to-peer technology supplanting e-mail
Vivek Ranadivé - Real-time computing pioneer is taking his message to the enterprise masses
Dave Winer - SOAP co-author strives for simplicity and drives decentralization
Mark Lucovsky - The brains behind HailStorm sees Web services as a hub for simplifying busy lives
Back to 2002 Technology Innovators
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Profile |
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| Mark Lucovsky - One of the few distinguished engineers at Microsoft, he is the architectural mastermind behind My Services. |
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Current position - Distinguished engineer, Microsoft |
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Age - 40 |
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Technology prediction - "We are moving into a new period of the Internet,
moving beyond the static HTTP era. The next revolution is all about taking
the idea of pervasive connectivity and making it programmable so that we
are not stuck with static views of this and that." |
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Related Links |
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Hall of fame 2002 - Several industry icons join InfoWorld's Innovators Hall of Fame |
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Ones to Watch 2002 - These up-and-comers are developing the technologies that will matter most in the coming months |
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Where are they now? - Since the 2000 Ones to Watch were named, many dot-coms imploded and the economy
soured. How have these technological talents fared? |
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