On the Web site for the show, the write-up for the Microsoft session said that the UK showing on March 10 will be the first outside the U.S. (As noted above, Microsoft has removed the information from the conference Web site.) Microsoft is going to be showing off Communicator 2010 at the UC Expo conference in England in mid-March. Office Communications Server (OCS) is Microsoft's unified instant messaging/VOIP/conferencing product. But officials declined to say anything more, when I asked.) I'm betting the Softies still might discuss and show the next Communicator release at the conference, and maybe even release the private 'Metro' beta in early April (which would be the Q2 reference on the timeline I've included here. I see they've now removed all the information about that session, rather than correcting the public data date. Update (February 11): Microsoft officials told me late yesterday that the March public beta date stated in the conference agenda to which I pointed was incorrect. But it looks like testers are going to be able to get their hands on to see a demo (possibly ) of a beta of one component of the 2010 release - the Communicator enterprise instant-messaging client.

As I've blogged before, the next release of Microsoft's Office Communications Server is in development, with a final release slated for the last calendar quarter of 2010.

Microsoft office communicator 2010