April, 2010

Those of you reading the blog this week can't fail to have missed our excitement about the U.S. finals for the Imagine Cup . This is the international student technology competition that we sponsor. It was a great event – guests included “Avatar” director James Cameron , as well as our own Craig Mundie , Microsoft’s chief research and strategy officer. And they saw some amazing projects all focused on tackling the world's greatest challenges as defined by the U.N. Millennium Goals. The grand prize...

Over the past few months there has been a ton of speculation about the "Courier" project from Microsoft. We’ve not discussed or confirmed the project. There is more speculation today, and below is what we are saying publicly: "At any given time, across any of our business groups, there are new ideas being investigated, tested, and incubated. It’s in Microsoft’s DNA to continually develop and incubate new technologies to foster productivity and creativity. The 'Courier' project is an example of...

Students always have been important to Microsoft —after all, Bill Gates was a student when he founded Microsoft 35 years ago. The enthusiasm and limitless imaginations of young people have inspired, created and shaped many new products. I’m general manager of Microsoft’s Education Products Group. As such, I have the good fortune to work with people who are devoted to helping students achieve their potential. I wanted to take a moment today to share a few ways that Microsoft is working with students...

Technology can help young children learn more about subjects that they naturally gravitate toward and are most interested in, said Suzy Amis-Cameron, who attended the final of the U.S. Imagine Cup in Washington, D.C., on Monday with husband and filmmaker James Cameron. She said she wanted to hear from the students in the competition about their ideas for solving some of the world’s toughest problems, but that she’s specifically interested in using technology to help grade school-age children do...

Since the launch of Windows 7 late last year, we’ve been thrilled by its success and the overwhelming response. Windows 7 is a great example of how Microsoft continues to evolve our platform with emerging technologies and leading innovations, creating partner opportunities that capitalize on new markets and maximize profits. We continue to see strong momentum with commercial customers and consumers alike. Building on the strength of Windows for PCs and Windows for phones, we are upgrading our...

In the anxious moments before they made their final presentation that would determine whether they advance to the Imagine Cup World Finals in Poland, Team Blog, one of two all-women teams who made it to the final round of competition, had an emotional group hug. Team Blob members have a group moment before making a final presentation that would determine whether they win the U.S. Imagine Cup software design first place award, which would mean they get to advance to the Worldwide Finals...

The Internet holds great opportunity, but as cybercrime evolves it can be difficult to know how to stay protected. For example, the newest Microsoft Security Intelligence Report version eight (SIRv8) released today reveals that cybercrime continues to mature and adopt more traditional business techniques. As businesses continue a gradual migration toward cloud computing, bot herders in the malware community have adopted their own version of cloud computing – a “black cloud” built on global networks...

In 2008, Yamini Girey flew from India to the United States to start her graduate studies. On a stopover in Frankfurt, she bumped into Krishna Rao, who just happened to be heading to the same school, Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT). The pair hit it off immediately. “We might not have met any other way because we’re in different areas,” Rao said at the U.S. Imagine Cup Finals on Sunday. The two teammates on Coders Inc. were in Washington, D.C., to present their project, AwareNet, which...

Looking at the way they carried themselves, you would never know they were still in high school. Team Red, ironically decked out in matching blue shirts, had just finished showing off a video game it had built from scratch. The game was good enough to have landed it a spot in the U.S. Imagine Cup finals, and the team members were feeling good about it after presenting it to a panel of judges. “We practiced profusely last night,” said Ryan Rehfuss, one of four juniors on the team from Springbook...

Today at the U.S. Imagine Cup Finals, teams of students presented their plans to solve some of the world’s toughest challenges. All morning long, students shuffled through Microsoft’s offices in Washington, D.C., and made their cases before a panel of judges. They all found their own ways to get pumped before making their pitches. “We woke up and listened to Led Zeppelin,” said Josh Light, a member of Extraplaid from Utah State University. Extraplaid – Team Extraplaid from Utah State...

Like every team at the U.S. Imagine Cup finals in Washington D.C. this weekend, Ifrit Salsa based its project on solving one of the UN Millennium Development Goals. University of Houston’s Ifrit Salsa decided to tackle environmental sustainability, I learned by reporting on the worldwide student technology competition sponsored by Microsoft. The team’s project is RoboRecycler, a video game that teaches children to make a difference in the world around them. To root their team on, Ifrit Salsa made...

Bleary after their red-eye flight from California to Washington D.C., the members of Team Darkwing Duck were still amped to have arrived on the day before the U.S. Imagine Cup finals were set to begin. Sitting in the lobby of the Embassy Suites while waiting for their rooms, Zachary McIntosh and Paul Purtell had arrived in at 5 a.m. They promptly hit the ground running and explored as much of the capital as they could. By 4 in the afternoon, though, they just wanted to catch a little rest. Slouched...

It’s Friday and therefore time to round up some of the things you may have missed this week with what we like to call Weekend Reading. Firstly a plug for the U.S. finals for the Imagine Cup , taking place this weekend. At Imagine Cup, student teams compete to find solutions to the most important challenges facing the world today. This year’s competition is focused on how we can help achieve the eight United Nations Millennium goals, which include tackling hunger, improving primary education...

Regardless of what skeptics are saying, the evidence of climate change becomes more real every day. So it is more critical than ever that we improve our understanding of what we can do to slow or even prevent climate change. With the world’s population expected to hit 9 billion people by 2040, all of us need to better understand our impact on the planet. In order to understand, we need to have better information and better ways to visualize that information. With Earth Day 2010 upon us, I’d...

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced a great partnership between Microsoft and Facebook this morning at Facebook’s f8 developer conference . Mark highlighted the launch of a beta of a new service that allows Facebook users to create and share Microsoft Office documents (Word, PowerPoint, Excel) directly with their friends (or the world if they choose) on Facebook. The partnership brings together an app we call Docs and a new site, Docs.com , which seamlessly integrate with Facebook. The...

I’m delighted to share the news that we have released SQL Server 2008 R2 to manufacturing . We’re very proud of this accomplishment and look forward to getting this release in the hands of our customers. SQL Server 2008 R2 will be available to TechNet and MSDN subscribers on May 3 and available for download worldwide on May 13. A few details are below and I encourage everyone to take the SQL Server 2008 R2 Digital Tour . The journey towards SQL Server 2008 R2 started as we were finishing up the...

Millions of people around the world use Windows Live to stay connected to the people they care about most. They send billions of e-mails and IM messages every day, share millions of pictures, and stay connected with the people they care about most. Chris Jones , our corporate vice president of Windows Live, has a blog post up this morning talking about the next generation of Windows Live – Wave 4, as we refer to it internally. While there are many new and exciting things coming in Wave 4, Chris...

Technology is dramatically impacting the way governments communicate and engage with citizens; how people and organizations take part in political campaigns and advocacy; and how people build communities of common interest. The 2008 election cycle brought this idea front and center with some dramatic examples of the power of the Internet to change the ways people engage and organize. Microsoft has built an application that combines the grassroots appeal of the town hall meeting with the reach...

This week many of our colleagues from around the world are here in Redmond for some meetings, and it has been good to catch up with so many old friends. Some of them look like they will be sticking around a bit longer than planned as the volcano in Iceland continues to wreak havoc with air travel across Europe. Here’s some of the reading they, and you, can catch up on while they wait. KIN: On Monday we took the wraps of the next generation of social phones. We call them KIN. These phones have...

When the Eyjafjallajokull volcano erupted in Iceland , it brought back memories for some of us of what life in Seattle was like when Mount St. Helens blew off its top almost 30 years ago. We aren’t getting any volcanic ash this time, but we’re still feeling the effects. Many Microsoft leaders from around the world are now in Seattle, where they convened for annual business meetings this week. As those sessions concluded today, our European colleagues were scheduled to return home. The volcanic...

Some really great news just in from Europe – this week Microsoft and it’s learning , an international learning platform provider based in Norway, signed a Memorandum of Understanding to transform teaching methods and advance next-generation learning. We are excited at the prospect of this new relationship to help many educational institutions utilize the benefits of cloud services while reducing costs and enabling new, optimized teaching and learning. The alliance between Microsoft and it’s learning...

As a company that sells a wide range of hardware and devices, we take very seriously our corporate responsibility to ensure that the manufacturing facilities and supply chain operations that we use comply with all relevant labor and safety requirements and ensure fair treatment of workers. We have rigorous standards in place , and have established a robust supplier Social and Environmental Accountability (SEA) program. We were therefore very concerned when we saw a report by the National Labor...

Today in San Francisco we unveiled KIN, a new Windows Phone designed for broadcasting and sharing everyday moments. You can watch the launch event and read all the KIN news on the special section on the Microsoft News Center . If you want to dig deeper you can visit the KIN site , for videos, demos and product specs. Thanks to a partnership between Microsoft, Verizon Wireless, Vodafone and Sharp, KIN blends the best of the phone, online services and the PC with some great new experiences...

We aren’t quite sure if it is spring or winter here in Seattle. The sun is shining and flowers blooming but yesterday we had snow falling too. We aren’t sure if it is Spring or Winter but we do know it has been another interesting week at Microsoft, and here are some of the things you might have missed: Women Worth Watching: One of the great things about working at Microsoft is the chance to work with talented, smart and passionate people. ZDNet’s Mary-Jo Foley shines a light on some of the brilliant...

I’m looking forward to seeing you all at the Gartner Business Intelligence Summit in Las Vegas, April 12-14. Microsoft will have a booth at the event, as well as a great customer presentation on Monday during lunch (I’d like invite you all to attend!). Business Intelligence often is associated with optimization, innovation and prediction, all of which are sure to be discussed at the summit. But business intelligence and analytics also are powerful tools for sharpening competitive skills. Not long...