William Lai is a multi-disciplinarian with a firm belief in effecting positive changes thru creative use of technology. 

He wrote his first computer program at a department store computer kiosk, printing obscene messages in an infinite loop, ranting against The Man.

William started his professional career doing “dark projects” for the Pentagon and the intelligence agencies.  He hasn’t had to kill anyone yet due to improper disclosure of state secrets.

He joined Microsoft in 1994 to enable touch interface for computer peripherals such as printers, copiers, and fax machines.  The iPhone UI was not yet available.

William was a pioneer in the development of instant messaging, having led the development team that was nominated as “Legendary Development Team of Microsoft” and releasing MSN Messenger.  He grew the service to become a cornerstone of the Microsoft web offerings.  Ten years later, the technological infrastructure he invented is still being used to connect 350+ million people around the world.

He battled AOL in 1999 on IM interoperability but the companies decided to call détente.  He still can't believe that an MSN user can't chat with an AIM user a full decade later.

Believing that the free IM movement should make money too, he started up a monetization follow-up to Messenger, called Microsoft Alerts, that leverage the untapped asset of the hundreds of millions of IM users. Partners such as eBay, Citibank, ESPN, and MSNBC sent billions of customer care messages using Alerts at a very cost effective way.  You may better know it as the “toast” that pops up at the corner of your screen.

William participates in the community via being a City of Bellevue Planning Commissioner, volunteer at Literacy Bridge to help eradicate illiteracy around the world, and practicing sustainability by growing some veggies and raising a few chickens for eggs at home.

In life, William believes in: the creative freedom to experiment; the insatiable need to create; and the never-ending need to simplify, simplify, simplify.

William can be reached at william (at) 8ninths (dot) com, and can be found musing on twitter as wlai.