Perspectives is a series of in-depth conversations with passionate innovators. Most work for Microsoft; some work elsewhere; all are advancing the state of the art in areas as diverse as robotics, digital identity, e-science, and social software.
Information technology is the common thread, and Perspectives appeals to the technically-minded, but the show also aims to tell stories in ways that make sense to a wider audience.
Each installment of Perspectives is delivered as an audio podcast, and supplemented by a partial text transcript.
About Jon Udell
Jon Udell, a technical evangelist in Microsoft's Developer and Platform Evangelism group, is an author, information architect, software developer, and new media innovator. His 1999 book, Practical Internet Groupware, helped lay the foundation for what we now call social software. He has been a software developer at Lotus, was BYTE Magazine's executive editor and Web maven, and has worked as an independent consultant. He's a hands-on thinker who is constantly experimenting software, information architecture, and new media.
From 2002 to 2006 he was InfoWorld's lead analyst, author of the weekly Strategic Developer column, and blogger-in-chief. During his InfoWorld tenure he also produced a monthly series of screencasts about software, and a weekly series of audio interviews with innovators -- which now continues at ITConversations.
In January 2007 he joined Microsoft as a technical evangelist. In his new role he continues to explore and explain a range of technologies, both inside and outside Microsoft. He aims to build bridges not only within the technical community but also, and crucially, across the chasm that divides elite technologists from everybody else.