September, 2010

With the release of “Waiting for 'Superman,'” the topics of education reform and the quality of U.S. public schools are getting mainstream attention. A lot of news headlines and opinions abound about what are the right and wrong solutions to fixing our classrooms and raising student outcomes and who to blame for the problems. It’s what the education community has been talking about for decades, and I’m pleased to see that the importance of education has finally elevated and...

If you’re into advertising, New York City is the most exciting place to be on the planet today as Advertising Week kicks off!  And even though I’ve been here many times before with Viacom and MTV Networks, this is my first with Microsoft.  There has never been a more exciting time to be in our business. Consumers are in control and engaging and participating with brands in a totally different way. 

There are some dynamic trends in marketing that I am looking forward to exploring and sharing at Ad week.   I really feel we are entering what I am calling Digital Advertising 2.0, where we push to innovate the ad experience in the digital environment.  Some of the best marketing campaigns are when ads become entertainment themselves, (ads that don’t feel like ads) and then have a life of their own as the consumer becomes passionate about the content of the advertising itself.  Look at what happened with Old Spice.  Digital advertising is becoming a critical component of the overall story that brands are trying to tell and for me personally, I am thrilled to be able to use my entertainment and content experience.

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During the past week we’ve been working hard to put in place the action steps we announced to prevent NGOs from falling victim to actions taken in the guise of anti-piracy enforcement. To ensure that we undertake a comprehensive and thorough approach to this challenge, I have asked Nancy Anderson, Microsoft’s Deputy General Counsel and Corporate Vice President responsible for delivering legal services to Microsoft subsidiaries around the world, to drive this effort. As Nancy leads this...

Recently, a few of us had the chance to spend some time with Windows DJ Darek Mazzone during his weekly modern global music show “Wo’ Pop” on KEXP , a radio station broadcasting in Seattle, New York and worldwide on the Web. We crammed into the small DJ booth to watch Mazzone and his crew work. While Mazzone queued up his song selections, show assistants Brenda Tausch, Liza Zinina and Rebecca Campeau scoured the Web for information on each group or artist to feed into KEXP’s...

In May we introduced the Technical Computing initiative at Microsoft. This initiative is focused on empowering a broader group of people in academia, business and government to solve some of the world’s biggest challenges. Our aim is mainstream technical computing with tools, platforms and services that take advantage of computing power across the desktop, servers and the cloud. You can learn more about our technical computing effort and see videos of some of the best minds in the international...

The last week or so for Microsoft has been a bit of wild ride, mostly in a pretty good way. Personally, as a big fan of consumer technology and entertainment, I’ve been like a kid in a candy shop. First was the RTM for Windows Phone 7 , and the ongoing coverage and speculation about hardware, software, games and so on . I’ve been using one of the prototype phones for a bit now, and am loving it – but the best part will come when we get to see the reactions from everyone to the...

Lately, when speaking with our partners, I have been struck by how often I’ve heard that customers of ours, like The Linc Group , end up choosing Microsoft Dynamics after considering Oracle solutions. This got me thinking about Oracle customers preparing to head to OpenWorld to get up to speed on Fusion Applications. If I were attending OpenWorld, and hoping to learn more about Fusion, here are a few questions that would be top-of-mind for me. What are Fusion Applications going to do...

Internet Explorer 9 is going to change a great deal about the way we produce and experience websites. If you want to get a ringside seat into what the future will offer, take a look at the live launch event. Here's a quick preview of what the new browser will look like: And finally, you can take a look at some of the fantastic sites being built with IE9 at the BeautyOfTheWeb site , as well as download the beta and try it for yourself.

A story in yesterday’s New York Times reports on anti-piracy enforcement actions in Russia that have been used for more nefarious purposes than protecting intellectual property rights. As General Counsel for Microsoft, it was not the type of story that felt good to read. It described instances in which authorities had used piracy charges concerning Microsoft software to confiscate computers and harass non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and others engaged in public advocacy. It suggested...

Ed note: [On October 27, 2010, the US District Court of Eastern Virginia issued a final judgment in this case, agreeing with Magistrate Judge Anderson’s recommendation to grant Microsoft’s motion for default judgment, and officially ordered the transfer of the domains behind Waledac to Microsoft.] Earlier this year, we wrote in this blog about Operation b49 – the groundbreaking legal and technical efforts led by Microsoft in cooperation with academic and industry experts around...

The preseason buzz on Halo Reach is building. Today, the Xbox team gave QB Mark Sanchez and some of his New York Jets teammates a chance to unwind from THEIR preseason by getting to grips with the new game. We'll let their reactions speak for themselves Guys from Xbox are bringing over Halo: Reach . Can’t wait to tear it up with @ nickmangold @ officialBraylon and @ DustinKeller81 . #HaloReach Just started playing Halo: Reach with the fellas...this game is SICK!! make sure you guys check...

This week was an exciting and important milestone for the Windows Phone team – with the completion of our internal development work and extensive testing, our Windows Phone 7 code was released to manufacturing. We are now in the home stretch and over the coming weeks, we’ll continue to work in collaboration with our hardware partners and mobile operators to cross the finish line -- you can expect an exciting range of Windows Phone 7 devices this fall, integrating hardware, software, services...