MP3tunes and Project Oboe

Back in March, 2005 I joined MP3tunes, a new Michael Robertson company, to head up the development team. The initial site was developed by the Linspire web team, and soon after launch the site was spun off into a separate company. My initial team was pretty small. Including myself, the team consisted of, well, one person. The development team quickly grew to three, lost one, and has now grown to a half dozen or so developers.

The most recent addition to the team, one Jon Lech Johansen, has garnered us some media attention (and here and here, among other places). The most mystery was perhaps generated by Michael’s personal site, where he talks about our latest project, code named “Oboe.”

So what is project Oboe? From Michael’s site:

Oboe is the code name for a significant new project we have underway that will launch before the end of the year. It’s as momentous as anything I’ve ever done in my technical career, but I won’t say more since I despise vaporware. I know this project will be even better with Jon on board.

Indeed it is interesting, and indeed it will be significant. Although Jon has the highest profile of any member of the team, I can say first hand that it is only due to the effort of the entire team, which also includes the infamous Cody Brocious, that this project will succeed.

Stay tuned.