Microsoft plans first-half rollout for Live Meeting 2005, Istanbul client, IM connector.

Microsoft is sticking to its most recent realtime collaboration road map. The company plans to launch and ship Live Meeting 2005, Istanbul, the next client, and the connectivity pack for Live Communications Server (LCS) 2005 in the next six months, said Dustin Grosse, general manager of sales and marketing for the realtime collaboration group. The next Live Meeting iteration of hosted conferencing software will be the first to be completely built on Microsoft technology, Grosse said. Microsoft purchased PlaceWare and its Live Meeting franchise in spring 2003. (The last Live Meeting version added a native Windows client. Live Meeting itself had its roots in Unix and Java infrastructure.) The current LCS 2005, which targets on-premises use, along with the current client have been criticized by some partners for their inability to host multiparty whiteboarding, screen sharing, video or voice sessions. "You can't host an internal Powerpoint presentation to 20 people on LCS the way you can with [Lotus] Sametime," said one solution provider who specializes in collaboration.