Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Microsoft's Off

Just when Valleywag has proclaimed that use with the Web two.0 cliche is around the downswing, Microsoft publishes a whitepaper explaining how Office 2007 seriously is a Web two.0 suite at heart.A variety of industry watchers feel it's only a matter of time until Microsoft throws in the towel and turns Office into a Web-based suite. Microsoft officials have been adamant that such a move isn't likely in the foreseeable future — although there's a distinct possibility that Microsoft could take its consumer Workplace suite, Microsoft Works, to the Web, in the not-so-distant future. In spite of Microsoft execs' continued belief that the shrink-wrapped Workplace suite is not dead, Microsoft isn't immune from wanting to cash in around the Internet 2.0 hype.Microsoft published the new whitepaper, entitled "Bringing Internet 2.0 to the Enterprise using the 2007 Workplace System," in mid-December. Microsoft's definition of Internet two.0, predictably, isn't very the same as others'. Here's how Microsoft is positioning Office 2007 to fit in: "Properly understood and deployed, Internet 2.0 technologies, methods, and patterns could be adopted by the enterprise to great effect. They can boost overall organizational productivity and create a much stronger customer and partner connection. To capitalize on this opportunity, enterprises require an agile infrastructure together with the tools and out-of-the-box solutions that allow users to interact with content, applications, and people in powerful new ways." Office 2007 "enables rich home business solutions that embody the following set of Internet 2.0 characteristics," the whitepaper continues: • Rich user experience • Data-driven architecture • User-driven organization applications • User participation • Collective intelligence • Low cost deployment and management What's Office 2007 got that qualifies? XML support; Ajax-based components (Excel Services and InfoPath Forms Services, Outlook Web Access,Microsoft Office 2010 Professional, and Communicator Web Access); the ability to expose RSS feeds for data; enterprise search capabilities; metadata services; collaborative workspaces; and integrated workflow functionality — something Microsoft admits isn't usually thought of as a Web 2.0 technology, but which can be a Internet 2.0 enabler, in Microsoft's view. Meanwhile, I'm starting to hear some rumors about new features in "Office 14," the next version of Office, that sound more traditionally Internet 2.0-like. Anyone else hearing any rumblings on that front?