April, 2011

The Microsoft Midwest District donated 29 boxes of stuffed animals to "Loving Hugs." Lovings Hugs sends the stuffed animals to children in need in war zones, IDP camps, orphanages, and hospitals all over the world. We are very excited to bring even a small amount of happiness to children around the world. Thanks to everyone who donated.

The Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare Council (MCHC) announced today its decision to develop the MetroChicago Health Information Exchange (HIE), which will be built using Microsoft Amalga and technologies from CSC and HealthUnity Corp. Offering quality care improvements and cost efficiencies for 9.4 million Chicago healthcare consumers, the MetroChicago HIE is expected to be the largest unified metropolitan HIE in the nation. The capabilities of the MetroChicago HIE will improve individual care and population health. By enabling data flow across healthcare organizations, the new system expects...

Calling all Chicago business owners, looking for a way to help your business grow! Most consumers use the Internet to find out where to dine, shop or play, but it may be difficult to fully showcase the benefits of your business. Now, there’s a new tool that can help you. Last week, Bing announced the beta launch of the Bing Business Portal (BBP), available at www.bing.com/businessportal , a new service that helps business owners create and control their listings on Bing. With the new tools, business owners can customize their listings with enhanced details such as photos, logos, hours...

"We didn't just want to be four guys who sat in a room and made a game; we wanted to get involved with our community and help make a change”so said Imagine Cup 2011 competitors, part of Team Bloom (above), who are comprised of students from Chicago’s Tribeca Flashpoint Media Academy. Well, this team did more than just get involved. Their dream is becoming reality. In fact, last night Team Bloom won first place in the “Game Design – Windows/Xbox” category, beating out five teams, as well as winning the People’s Choice Award for the “game design”...

The Microsoft office was ranked the third best place to work in Chicago in this year’s Crain’s Chicago Best Places to Work competition. Crain’s Chicago Business , one of the most influential business publications in Chicago, annually ranks the best places to work, determined by employee survey responses. Congratulations to the Chicago office! To see how Crain's determined the rankings, click here .

Above: Rahm Emanuel delivers a speech in the Envisioning Center of the Microsoft Technology Center. Today, Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel visited the Chicago Microsoft Technology Center and toured the Chicago offices. During his visit, he discussed how his upcoming plans to increase digital transparency by publishing more city data online. During his visit, Emanuel proposed further technology initiatives that City Hall plans to take to engage citizens and make citizen services more efficient and effective . In particular, Chicago's 3-1-1 system will be opened to the public and residents will...

Vote for local Chicago students in the Imagine Cup People’s Choice voting. To vote for Team Bloom and to see a video from their team, click this link and you can also text bloom to 23000. To vote for Team Mintrus and to see a video from their team, click this link and you can also text mintrus to 23000. You can vote once daily through April 9. As part of my work at Microsoft, I have the opportunity to work with software developers, designers and IT professionals and enable them to bring their own innovations to market. Recently, some of the most impressive work I’ve seen was not...