Danny Thorpe: Hosting the Windows Live Contacts gadget
- Posted: Sep 06, 2006 at 11:31 AM
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In this video, Ken Levy interviews Danny Thorpe discussing scenarios around what the Windows Live Contacts gadget is for and how a developer can integrate it on any web site.
The Windows Live Contacts gadget is a client-side browser JavaScript object that enables visitors to use their Windows Live contacts with your Web site. Instead of typing a shipping address into a shopping cart form, for example, the user could simply
select one of their Windows Live contacts from the contact gadget. The user saves time and effort in completing the order, and you gain the benefits of an address book for your Web site without having to implement, maintain, and provision data storage and
management UI on your servers. The user maintains control of their personal contacts data, while you focus on providing services with data the user gives you.
Danny Thorpe is a senior program manager and architect in the Windows Live Platform group at Microsoft. Danny's blog link is
http://blogs.msdn.com/dthorpe/. The Windows Live Contacts gadget can be found at
http://dev.live.com/contactsgadget/.
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Is there a way to extend the data associated with a Windows Live ID?
Say I want my dental records now that I've moved to Seattle from California, and I hate more unnecessary x-rays and the insurance claims bloat associated with it. Can both ends share a dynamic schema for data we put on the repository ~ Windows Live? Like a massive import mechanism?
Danny, you need to discover the right word for it. De-gadgetize. Is it a shim? I'm glad you are at Microsoft.
What you're describing there sounds like massive amounts of data. The Windows Live Contacts database isn't set up to handle that kind of thing - it's designed to handle lots of small data. For massive amounts of personal storage (like high-definition X-Ray scans) you'll need something more like the rumored "LiveDrive" mentioned in Microsoft Watch awhile back.
Once you have massive storage, then yes, it only makes sense to store things there using common schema.
Your example of medical records is wonderful, because that also demands very carefully considered access control - one medical facility placing records into your storage area with your permission, another medical facility retrieving it with your permission, and yet you the end user and owner of that data might not have access to the raw data yourself. You see this in real life when a lab refuses to release data like xrays into the custody of the patient - they will only release the materials to a licensed physician, and only transport by courier. (I've been charged courier fees to transport x-rays across the street!)
It's conceivable that metadata for smaller bits of data could be added to the Windows Live Contacts storage - the back-end database can do it, but there is the issue of provisioning, monitoring, etc. Adding fields to the backend is not something to be left to an arbitrary third party web developer - that would require a close partnership relationship with Microsoft.
We're working on the name question. Nothing separates the wheat from the chaff like shipping code. ;> It seems likely that the internal discussion will produce more than just a name for this one thing - more like an entire taxonomy of web things!
Is it a shim? No. The contacts gadget implements specific functionality beyond what the back-end data server provides. A shim is just a thin veneer with little or no substance. The contacts gadget has substance - UI presentation plus secure user-controlled cross-domain data access.
So is Microsoft. [6]
Thanks! Rattling on about endless possibilities gets old fast. Dreaming is easy. Doing is hard. The real headrush is when some first tiny inkling actually works. Look! Actual code!
That, and blowing stuff up. Oh, did you need that power supply? No, you won't want it back now. Trust me.
-Danny
How about Microsoft gain some street cred. and not make me have to reverse engineer their JS library in order to figure out how things work?
I hope to dig into the gory details Real Soon Now on my blog. There are a few internal procedural hurdles to clear first.
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