I’ve been itching to post this content for MONTHS and now I’m finally able to. Back in August of 2008, the U.S. Department of Defense (U.S. DoD) had a little one-day event titled, “Defense 2.0: Transforming DoD Through the New Paradigm of IT.” As I browsed through the event page, I noticed a presentation given by Lewis Shepherd, Chief Technology Officer, Microsoft Institute for Advanced Technology in Governments. There are two slides of interest, so I’ll start with the first one pertaining to Windows Mobile 7 (click for larger image):

Notice how some of the text blends in with the larger white cloud clip art such that you can’t read it? Not exactly awesome for you, the reader, is it? Adobe Acrobat Reader didn’t help and Foxit PDF Editor was only good for showing me that I would essentially have to recreate the whole freakin’ slide to make it viewable, so I’m extremely happy that I’ve just run across the exact same slide in a Powerpoint presentation! Yay for Powerpoint! That being said, here’s a much prettier and more informative version of the slide (click for larger image):

(SIPRNET = Secret Internet Protocol Router Network)

Though the slide is fairly self-explanatory, the finer details of the clouds present on either side of the DMZ are of particular interest: MashupOS. What is MashupOS? Well, before we delve into that, let’s learn what a, “mashup” is (via wikipedia, since they have a great definition and example):

Mashup (web application hybrid): “In web development, a mashup is a Web application that combines data or functionality from two or more sources into a single integrated application. The term mashup implies easy, fast integration, frequently done by access to open APIs and data sources to produce results that were not the original reason for producing the raw source data. An example of a mashup is the use of cartographic data from Google Maps to add location information to real estate data, thereby creating a new and distinct Web service that was not originally provided by either source.”

Now that you are familiar with what a, “mashup” (say that word over and over to yourself… it starts to sound weird, trust me, lol) is, MashupOS is when you h4x0r a bunch of different operating systems rafh4x-style and mash up (get it?) all their components to formulate something… well, mashed up, I suppose (and, no, I won’t be quitting my day job, *sigh*). Only kidding. In all seriousness, though, MashupOS is, “a set of abstractions that isolate mutually-untrusting web services within the browser, while allowing safe forms of communication” being developed by Microsoft Research. Just to be clear for those of you who aren’t sure, it’s not an OS in the vein of Windows or Singularity/Midori. With that being said, here is the second slide of interest from Mr. Shepard’s presentation:

Now, I’m not sure how much of the aforementioned information is relevant under the hood of Windows Mobile 6.5, but in tandem with MashupOS, Windows Mobile 7 looks to be the major bet Microsoft is making in regards to secure government communications.

Resources:

1 – Lewis Shepherd’s, “Defense 2.0″ Presentation: Click Here
2 – Microsoft Research’s MashupOS (Link 1): Click Here
3 – Microsoft Research’s MashupOS (Link 2): Click Here

And if you’re interested in really digging in further with MashupOS, try utilizing Google via a custom query I’ve set up for you here. There is much more in-depth information regarding it than the scope of this article entails.

-Stephen

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