Zaske’s web log

Wow it's been a hectic day for Luke and I, both of us humbled by the amount of people visiting makeofficebetter.com.  Our plan was to "Launch" the site tomorrow at an internal Microsoft event called the Productivity Science Fair.  The event, hosted by Office Labs highlights 30 or so projects by Microsoft employees, all built in our own spare time.  MakeOfficeBetter.com is one of these projects.  Early this morning Scott Hanselman tweeted about the site and the news quickly spread.  My first thought was "I'm not ready for this!"  I feel like one of those party hosts who hasn't cleaned his house before everyone arrives.  "Let me just but these dirty clothes away".

Why build the site?
I'm a huge fan of crowd-sourcing, and love Dell's IdeaStorm website, so I thought I'd build one for Office.  It is also a bit of a test to see if people are really interested in sharing their ideas in a positive manor...or if the trolls will ruin it for everyone.  Luke and I removed all of the captcha code in an attempt to make the site as easy as possible and I definitely hope we don't need to add them back again.

Now What?
The site is still very much a "beta", with lots of basic functionality missing.  We'll work to add those features ASAP.  My hope is that the site can become a trusted repository of good Office ideas and a place where there can be an honest discussion about the pros and cons of various ideas.  You can help me by giving me constructive feedback and helping me make the MakeOfficeBetter.com website better (Yes I know it's ironic that I don't have a way to get website feedback built into the site :-) ).  Send all feedback to feedback@makeofficebetter.com