Consumer groups fired up over Microsoft's .Net plan

You're going to love or hate the software giant's ambitious concept, reports PETER GRIFFIN

If you like the direction Microsoft is taking you with Windows XP, you are going to love .Net, the software giant's plan to scatter your business and home life across the web.

Imagine all the disparate devices and applications that keep your life in order connecting to each other and sharing information via the internet. That is the ultimate aim of .Net, which Microsoft hopes will build on the concept of the web browser to create an XML-based (extensible markup language) interface integrating everything from diary organiser programs to accounting packages and e-tailing ordering systems.

It is a concept that has riled a coalition of US consumer groups - the Consumer Federation of America, Consumers' Union, Media Access Project and the US Public Research Interest Group - who claim competition in areas of the new economy "will be threatened and consumers harmed if Windows XP and its tightly bundled version of internet software hits shelves as planned."

They are pressing for the Government to apply its antitrust arguments to XP, which would stop .Net in its tracks if successfully pursued.

Meanwhile, it is business as usual for Microsoft. While Windows XP has been primed for .Net with many of its connectivity features, users will not see .Net in true action until next year, possibly with the release of XP's successor - codenamed Blackcomb.

But early glimpses of what lies ahead are sprinkled throughout Microsoft software.

Perhaps the most tangible examples exist in the "Smart Tags" of Office XP, which prompt you to connect to web services when certain actions are carried out.

Office XP users can paste a table of share prices into an Excel spreadsheet that are dynamically updated when they connect to the internet.

New Zealand developers have been busy at work developing "digital dashboard" applications connecting non-Microsoft, back-end database solutions with user interfaces for businesses wanting real-time tracking of productivity.

The use of XML means that information can be displayed through a web browser or via a handheld computer or internet-enabled cellphone.

Angus Norton, a New Zealander and lead product manager at .NET Enterprise Servers e-Commerce Solutions Marketing Group, says the true potential of .Net lies in the fact that a vast array of software companies can achieve compatibility through the use of XML.

"We made a big bet on XML five years ago, before many of our competitors had even started to think about this computing model."

Central to .Net is SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol), a standard developed primarily by Microsoft and IBM. SOAP is the XML-encoding scheme that interacting XML-based services will use.

Another arm of the .Net strategy, Hailstorm, will serve the consumer and consist of sets of XML tags - everything from credit card numbers and passwords to contact book addresses and calendar dates.

Sitting within Hailstorm is Passport, a "wallet" service that will allow the type of "one-click" buying e-tailers such as Amazon.com have adopted, but will be much more expansive.

Windows XP buyers are likely to find themselves signing up for Passport eventually, if they have not already done so.

In turn, Microsoft is able to pitch Passport to an ever-increasing range of online merchants, talking up the huge customer base that Passport will adopt as XP users sign up.

For those with a valid hotmail account, access to Passport is already activated.

Major corporates in the United States such as Boeing have already expressed interest in dealing with its thousands of suppliers through .Net.

But crucial to its success will be Microsoft's efforts to convince people that the huge amount of information they submit online will remain safe - no easy task considering the security breaches Microsoft has been scolded for this year.

Consumer watchdogs have already had a field day tackling Microsoft on privacy issues surrounding Passport - a clear sign that not everyone is comfortable with the extent to which .Net could exist in our lives.