Yochay Kiriaty

PDC 08 is due in few months (October 27-30, 2008) and as I wrote in a former post, if you are a developer, it is the one place for you to be.

In this year PDC we are going to talk about a lot of cool things. Some you heard already like Oslo, some are completely new like . . . I wish I could told you but then it will not be a Surprise. However, last week, the Live team, unveiled a new technical preview of Live Mesh service.

What is Live Mesh? Well Live Mesh is a "Software-plus-services" platform and experience that enables PC and other devices (Mobile, XBox, Zune, Mac, etc...) to "come alive" by making them aware of each other through the Internet, enabling individuals and organization to manage access, and share their files and application seamlessly on the web and across their world of devices.

Or in a more simple terms, Live Mesh is a "Software + Services platform for synchronization and collaboration."

Basically, the current version enables you to synchronizes data across multiple devices. I am sure most of you owns more than one computer. One at home, one (or more) at work and one laptop. And you have some much storage place (for all the emule downloads) that you cant find anything. I want to ask you a question, did it ever happen to you, when you need one specific piece of content, and at the end you find out that this specific content is on some other machine, just not the one you have right now. using Live Mesh will solve such features.

And what about accessing your computer from remote, without using VPN?! Another extremely cool feature Live Mesh enables you is to have a similar experience  to Remote Desktop over the web across firewalls!!!, called Live Desktop. (just make sure you do not break your work security policy)

How it works?

Essentially, Live Mesh is a collection of feeds (formatted as ATOM, JSON, RSS, WB-XML, or POX). The main transport is FeedSync - which is an open source (under Microsoft Open Source License) data syndication protocol based on Atompub service.

Every piece of data entered into a user's Mesh either it is a file, a folder, a message, a user permission, or a new device, is rendered as a piece of information in a feed. The feeds are then synced with other devices that are part of that Mesh following rules for how to sync each particular piece of information (meaning file A may sync with Users 1, 2, and 3, while File B may only be told to sync with Users 1 and 2).

Using Silverlight from any web browser, or from a client based application, you can launch the "Ring of devices" (one ring to rule them all). Here are two images showing the Windows client and the Web versions.

Live Mesh client on the desktop showing all the devices

Live Mesh shows you your synced devices in a cute animated "ring"

Once you have a device you can easily setup "Mesh" folders and start syncing between devices as show in the next image

And if this is not enough for you. Here is Live Desktop, which enables me access to my desktop from anywhere in the web

• Few disclaimers. Live Mesh is a limited technology preview and only by invites. And sorry I have no invites!
• It is not a full product, it is not even a beta or a CTP.
• It will be shown in great detailed in PDC08
• And It is extremely cool!!!

• Introduction to Live Mesh - an interview with Ray Ozzie who is the father and mother of Live Mesh.
• Hands on with Live Mesh - a 25 min video showing Live Mesh
• Ten things to know about Live Mesh - a detailed blog
• A gimps of Live Mesh Architecture on Channel 9

More to come soon. . .