Microsoft is providing open connections to Windows Vista, Office 2007, and many other high-volume products and additional information to enable software developers better interact with these Microsoft products. O the face of it, it looks like a move to keep the regulators happy. However my view is this is an attempt by microsoft to attract developers away from facebook,google etc.
This is a great oppurtunity to create some really good applications. Considerig the massive userbase of the products, the potential looks huge. See the released documents here. It will be fun to see the reaction of the developers to this.
Good TryMicrosoft releases office specification323|just some value|7