It looks like the Longhorn information floodgates are officially open—again. Microsoft employee and Longhorn evangelist Robert Scoble announced on his blog this weekend that he has been authorized to restart the "Team 99" Longhorn evangelism effort. On Microsoft's Channel 9 Web site, Scoble is soliciting member nominations for the third-party evangelism team, which initially is expected to include about 20 individuals. "All (Team 99 members) will need to sign NDAs (non-disclosure agreements) cause there are things in Longhorn that we don't want to leak out, but they'll be your proxies," Scoble blogged. "They'll tell us where we're screwing up, what we're doing well, and will be world's top authorities on Longhorn."
Scoble's announcement follows by a few days Microsoft's first public preview of its latest Longhorn build, No. 5048. Build 5048, which Microsoft distributed to attendees of its Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) last week in Seattle, is an alpha release. Microsoft is characterizing Build 5048 as one aimed primarily at PC makers and software developers, whom the company is hoping to entice to write third-party drivers and applications for the next-generation version of the Windows desktop.
