Office Professional 2010 Microsoft's next-generati

What do you receive if you mix Microsoft Live Meeting and ? MicrCommunicatorosoft Lync?Lync seems to become the new name of Microsoft;s next version with the Communicator consumer for Office Communications Server 14, Microsoft’s all-in-one instant messaging/VOIP/conferencing item.(I am hedging a bit here, as Microsoft officials won;t validate something about Lync. “We have nothing to announce today, but make sure you remain tuned for news about Microsoft Communications Server ’14,;” said a Microsoft spokesperson.)A reader pointed me to a blog mentioning anything called Microsoft Lync (a site which I believe may have been created by Microsoft Gold reseller partner Glueck & Kanja Consulting AG). (Update: A representative with Glueck & Kanja denied that company had any connection to the blog post to which I pointed.)From the description there:“Extend the capabilities and familiarity of Microsoft Office to connect with partners and colleagues around the world. Leverage your existing infrastructure to deliver audio,Office 2007, video,Microsoft Office 2007 Professional, and Web conferencing, immediate messaging and presence, and enterprise voice, all accessible directly from Office Outlook and the unified communications (UC) interface called Office Communicator/Lync.”According to the text on the blog, “(D)evelopers can embed Lync elements in their applications and provide access to all UC-enabled services from any phone.”On Microsoft;s Download site, there are a couple of mentions of “Lync,” as well. 1 of these is for a thing called “Lync 2010 Attendee,Office Professional 2010,” which sounds like a renamed edition with the Live Meeting conferencing software.“Microsoft Lync 2010 Attendee is a conferencing client that allows users without Microsoft Lync 2010 installed,Office 2007 Download, to participate in online meetings. A user with an administrator account on the computer can install Lync 2010 Attendee so that users of the computer can join Microsoft Lync Server 2010-hosted meeting.”Microsoft has shared bits and pieces of what;s coming with its next-generation Workplace Communications Server (OCS) Wave 14 product. That product is presently in private testing and is expected to be released in December 2010, most likely as OCS 2010.Microsoft officials said earlier this year that Live Meeting, Microsoft’s audio/video conferencing item, is being rolled into the consumer for OCS. (There also will be a Silverlight-based Web customer for OCS 14 for those who don’t have Communicator installed.)Microsoft officials also have said that OCS 14 will be able to federate with Windows Live Messenger Wave 4,Windows 7 Professional, in terms of both audio and video. (Microsoft still hasn;t shared publicly whether the item will federate with other instant-messaging products from third-party vendors, but it’s sounding unlikely that it will federate completely audio/video-wise with anything but Reside Messenger.)Microsoft execs said as of this summer that 74,000 Microsoft users were presently running OCS and were no longer connected to a PBX system.