I had the chance to catch up with Ed Simnett (Lead Product Manager for the-technology-formerly-known-as-RTC, now Microsoft Office Live Communication Server), yesterday. I have sniped Microsoft a few times about the name change, since RTC had become engrained in the general market buzz about instant messaging, but the thrust of the first release is strongly linked to a close and deep integration into Office, so the name really makes sense.

The vision that Microsoft is pursuing regarding what I call "Presence in Context" is compelling.

I receive an email from someone, and the presence status of that person is shown to me within Outlook, and rather than replying, I simply click on the presence indicator and start an IM session with the email's author. Or I am in the context of a Sharepoint project workspace, and the presence indicator of a report's author shows that she is on-line: one click later, we are conversing, and editing the document together in real-time. Or I am editing a shared Powerpoint file, I have a question about a comment that someone left on a key slide: I see he is on-line, and click through to talk.

In this sort of presence-threaded environment, every object, every document, every folder, every comment, every appointment is associated with an implicit buddy list. Every context offers immediate access to the community of those people who are somehow associated with it.

This is a departure from the 'buddy list' or chat room concept of presence, which is associated with first generation instant messaging applications. In the second generation, in solutions like Office Live Communication Server, presence information will form a fundamental part of the environment, like air. You will still use your statically defined buddy list for some purposes, but it will become a secondary mechanism. Every document represents a potential chat room with its reviewers and authors only a click away.

Presence is the killer app: it is the driving wheel for real-time messaging. Bringing presence into every context is going to rework how we work, and how businesses operate. I can't wait.