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Lenn Pryor
Director, Platform Evangelism
Microsoft Corporation
Blog: Glittering Generality
Pryor is Microsoft's director of platform evangelism and manages the team behind Channel 9. Channel 9 combines video blogging, wikis, RSS, and a forums-based comments engine to bring Microsoft and its developers closer together through transparency and dialogue. Channel 9 was inspired by United Airline’s in-flight audio channel of the same name in which passengers can listen in to hear pilots and Air Traffic Control guiding flights in real-time. Lenn and his team launched Channel 9 as a rogue effort inside Microsoft on April 5, 2004 without use of traditional advertising or media to promote it. To date, an average of 700,000 developers have visited the site each month including a growing base of over 5,700 developers who post regularly to the site.
Pryor has been at Microsoft for seven years and has worked with developers worldwide to help them succeed on Microsoft platforms such as Windows, IE, .NET, Windows Mobile, and the upcoming Windows “Longhorn.” Previously, Pryor co-founded two San Francisco-based Web consulting firm.