Ozzie's Mesh Mashup

Earlier today, Microsoft's chief software architect gave another pitch for the concept, which is expected to take on real form next week. There has been way too much Web buzz about Live Mesh, which Microsoft's Amit Mital is supposed to debut on Wednesday during O'Reilly's Web 2.0 conference. Mital is general manager of Live Mesh, by the way.

Maybe its my Northern Maine upbringing, but Live Mesh makes me think live bait or live worms—or live mush, whatever that might be. As for what it really is, speculation is widespread. I've said that Ozzie's mesh should be about synchronization.

As I looked over Ozzie comments, I decided to get a dictionary definition. Whoa, what a surprise, there are computing-related mesh definitions. D'oh, why didn't I know? These definitions come from the dictionary built into Mac OS X (I've been posting over at Apple Watch today and primarily using the Mac).

The second definition refers to "an interlaced structure," and then:

"Computing: a set of finite elements used to represent a geometric object for modeling or analysis. Computing: a computer network in which each computer or processor is connected to a number of others, esp. as an n-dimensional lattice."

Ozzie is a geek's geek, like Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates. I wondered: Is Ozzie using the literal computing definition when referring to the mesh? His comments earlier today to Microsoft MVPs (Most Valuable Professionals) sure suggest so.

Ozzie described the Web as "a hub. It can be viewed kind of conceptually as a hub of our social mesh and of a device mesh. So, fundamentally one of the things that the Web has brought us is a simple, easy way of bringing people together."

He then went on to discuss the Internet, in his usual cerebral hazy way: "The fact that it's there as a default way to bring people together makes it much easier to build systems that bring together business partners, bring together individuals to work on collaborative projects."

Regarding the social mesh:

"Thinking around the social mesh and how to weave things like shared content spaces, tagging, ranking of content, publish and subscribe of information from public sources, all sorts of new capabilities, and there are a core set of services in the social realm that pretty much every product has the opportunity to integrate that change the nature of the experience."

And the device mesh:

"From a device standpoint the Web can be a hub in terms of bringing the number of devices that we have together. We've done a pretty good job as an industry over the years helping enterprises manage tens of thousands of computers within their enterprises, but as individuals we've got more and more devices, we've got phones, we've got multiple PCs, we've got Media Centers, Media Players, phones and so on, and the Web connect is a very convenient hub to bring them together to synchronize information, to synchronize images and things like that."

What does it mean? The second computing definition kind of fits. If so, Ozzie is really referring to a massive mashup of people, devices and content into a three-dimensional lattice supported by an extended computer network. Cloud is the wrong metaphor. Air is perhaps more appropriate, but still inadequate.

But this mesh would require application of the same principles that popularized the Internet: Common communication and synchronization protocols and hypertext standards. What Ozzie really means by mesh is the natural evolution of the Internet. Everyone used the term "World Wide Web" starting in the early-to-mid-1990s and later "the Web." But what is a Web? It's a lattice, which is a mesh. The World Wide Mesh.

But Ozzie' vision, which really is a natural extension of the Web's evolution, likely isn't the same as Live Mesh. Microsoft isn't in the business of building common anything that's not based on its own technologies or protocols. I'm betting Live Mesh will be an inferior subset of the greater mesh concept because it will be Microsoft-centric.

I hope I am wrong about that.