Microsoft will break tradition next week when it unveils its first product for the aged 13-24 crowd, the "NetGen." The program, called threedegrees, is an online application that will allow young people to express their social graces, and sometimes disgraces, among friends,reports Senior Editor Steven Levy in the current issue of Newsweek. Levy, with an exclusive first look at the program, reports that it's a surprising departure from Microsoft: the company that relentlessly focused on productivity has now produced an anti-productivity tool, constantly interrupting you and urging you to waste time with your friends.
The visionary behind the program is Tammy Savage, a 33-year-old manager in business development who told a meeting of Microsoft brass that if the company wanted to be relevant in the future, it had to adjust to NetGen, a crowd that's "on instant messenger before their morning coffee," even if it meant producing software that the middle-aged guys in the room didn't care for. Savage knew the only way to produce the software would be to hire a NetGen team straight out of college.
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