Professional Developers Conference 2009 Technical Leaders Panel 3

Don Box is a former

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washin ...

Technical Fellow. Before joining Microsoft in 2002, Box was a contributing editor and columnist at ''Microsoft Systems Journal'', which later became ''

MSDN Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) was the division of Microsoft responsible for managing the firm's relationship with developers and testers, such as hardware developers interested in the operating system (OS), and software developers developing ...

Magazine'', and was one of the founders of DevelopMentor, a software training company; he left DevelopMentor to join Microsoft. Box led the

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...

platform development team from its inception through launch on November 22, 2013. Prior to that, Box led the development team that produced the Xbox SmartGlass platform (which was the basis for what is now known as Project Rome), worked on Brad Lovering's team working on model-driven runtime and tool support at Microsoft including "Oslo", and was an architect on

Windows Communication Foundation The Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), previously known as Indigo, is a free and open-source runtime and a set of APIs in the .NET Framework for building connected, service-oriented applications. .NET Core 1.0, released 2016, did not sup ...

(formerly known as "Indigo") and related technologies. In 2017–2021, Box was Vice President of Engineering for Mixed Reality, where he led the engineering team that builds

HoloLens Microsoft HoloLens is an augmented reality (AR)/ mixed reality (MR) headset developed and manufactured by Microsoft. HoloLens runs the Windows Mixed Reality platform under the Windows 10 operating system. Some of the positional tracking tech ...

Windows Mixed Reality Windows Mixed Reality is a platform introduced as part of the Windows 10 and 11 operating system, which provides augmented reality and virtual reality experiences with compatible head-mounted displays. Its flagship device, Microsoft HoloLens, w ...

Windows Hello Windows 10 is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It is the direct successor to Windows 8.1, which was released nearly two years earlier. It was released to manufacturing on July 15, 2015, and later to retail on J ...

, and other initiatives that live at the edge of the physical and digital worlds. In 2014–2017, he led the Silicon, Graphics and Media development team in the Windows and Devices Group, and was responsible for driving silicon/hardware/software co-engineering across the Windows product line. Leading up to the launch of

Windows 10 Windows 10 is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It is the direct successor to Windows 8.1, which was released nearly two years earlier. It was released to manufacturing on July 15, 2015, and later to retail on J ...

, Box drove the initiative to converge

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ser ...

Windows Phone Windows Phone (WP) is a discontinued family of mobile operating systems developed by Microsoft for smartphones as the replacement successor to Windows Mobile and Zune. Windows Phone featured a new user interface derived from the Metro design l ...

Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand created and owned by Microsoft. The brand consists of five video game consoles, as well as applications (games), streaming services, an online service by the name of Xbox network, and the development arm by the ...

, and

onto a common set of components known as OneCore. On March 31, 2021, Box announced that he would be leaving Microsoft in May. On May 3, 2021, Box joined Meta as VP of Engineering, AR Glasses. Along with Bob Atkinson, Mohsen Al-Ghosein, and

Dave Winer Dave Winer (born May 2, 1955, in Queens, New York City) is an American software developer, entrepreneur, and writer who resides in New York City. Winer is noted for his contributions to outliners, scripting, content management, and web servi ...

, Box was one of the original four designers of

SOAP Soap is a salt of a fatty acid used in a variety of cleansing and lubricating products. In a domestic setting, soaps are surfactants usually used for washing, bathing, and other types of housekeeping. In industrial settings, soaps are use ...

, a basic messaging layer for web services. At 2001 TechEd Europe, Box performed a talk about XML and SOAP from a bathtub. Box was a conspicuous figure in the Component Object Model (COM) community, where he coined the phrase "COM is love". He is also a series editor for Addison Wesley where he launched two successful series targeting the Microsoft developer audience.

Books

* ''Essential .NET, Volume I: The Common Language Runtime'', with Chris Sells * ''Essential COM'' * ''Essential XML: Beyond MarkUp'' * ''Effective COM: 50 Ways to Improve Your COM and MTS-based Applications'', with Keith Brown, Tim Ewald and Chris Sells

References

External links

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Biographical interview with Don Box

NET Rocks! interview, Don Box and Chris Sells talk to Carl and Richard
Microsoft employees Microsoft technical fellows Microsoft evangelists Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) Industry and corporate fellows {{compu-bio-stub