Unlimited Potential World Updates

7 Ways Winner: Boys and Girls Clubs of South Puget Sound, Bremerton Branch

Unlimited Potential team — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:58:00 GMT

Today we are announcing the fifth winner of the 7 Ways to Change the World competition. Congratulations to Elizabeth Wallace who submitted the video on behalf of the Boys and Girls Clubs of South Puget Sound: Bremerton Branch. The video: “Our new club member” takes a creative look at how a new PC with Windows 7 gets welcomed into the club.

Boys & Girls Clubs programs have taken members from the Clubhouse to the White House; from the games room to the corporate boardroom; from the high school orchestra to Carnegie Hall. Boys & Girls Clubs of America has a lineup of tested and proven nationally recognized programs that address today's most pressing youth issues, teaching young people the skills they need to succeed in life. More than 25 national programs are available in the areas of education, the environment, health, the arts, careers, alcohol/drug and pregnancy prevention, gang prevention, leadership development and athletics.

Video - 7 Ways: Boys and Girls Clubs of South Puget Sound, Bremerton Branch

We would like to congratulate Elizabeth and everyone at the Boys and Girls Clubs of South Puget Sound Bremerton Branch for a creative and fun submission.

On Monday we’ll announce our sixth winner in the 7 Ways to Change the World competition.

In the meantime, why not take a look at some of the other video submissions which you’ll find in the online gallery.

You can also keep up-to-date on the winners by following @msftcitizenship on Twitter.

7 Ways Winner: United Way of Central Carolinas

Unlimited Potential team — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:30:00 GMT

Today we are announcing the fourth winner of the 7 Ways to Change the World competition. Congratulations to Sherill Carrington who submitted the video on behalf of the United Way of Central Carolinas. The video: “Impacting the Non-Profit Need” looks at how technology can help non-profit organizations to do more with less, helping them to reduce costs, and drive efficiencies, enabling non-profits to develop creative solutions to address the needs of their communities.

United Way of Central Carolinas is a local and regional partnership of volunteers, donors, staff, agencies and people served, that raises and distributes funds and strives to strengthen community capacity and individual ability to care for one another.

Video - 7 Ways: United Way of Central Carolinas

We would like to congratulate Sherill and everyone at the United Ways of Central Carolinas for a thoughtful and useful entry.

Tomorrow we’ll announce our fifth winner in the 7 Ways to Change the World competition.

In the meantime, why not take a look at some of the other video submissions which you’ll find in the online gallery.

You can also keep up-to-date on the winners by following @msftcitizenship on Twitter.

7 Ways Winner: American Red Cross: Dallas Area Chapter

Unlimited Potential team — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:50:00 GMT

Today we are delighted to announce the third winner of the 7 Ways to Change the World competition. We’d like to congratulate Jennifer Jackson who submitted an entry on behalf of the American Red Cross: Dallas Area Chapter which presents a humorous look at how Windows 7 will help the Dallas Area Chapter to snap it, shake it and stick it.

The Dallas Area Chapter provides all Red Cross programs and services throughout its twelve county - 144 city service delivery area: Collin, Dallas, Delta, Denton, Ellis, Hopkins, Hunt, Kaufman, Navarro, Rains, Rockwall, and Van Zandt counties. Each year the Dallas Area Chapter helps more than 3,200 people across North Texas affected by disasters such as home fires, flooding, and tornadoes.

Video - 7 Ways: American Red Cross Dallas Area Chapter

Congratulations to Jennifer and to everyone at the American Red Cross Dallas Chapter on a fantastic entry.

Tomorrow we’ll be announcing our fourth winner in the 7 Ways to Change the World competition.

In the meantime, why not take a look at some of the other 135 video submissions which you’ll find in the online gallery.

You can also keep up-to-date on the winners by following @msftcitizenship on Twitter.

7 Ways Winner: Mid Sound Fisheries Enhancement Group

Unlimited Potential team — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:11:00 GMT

Today we are delighted to announce the second winner of the 7 Ways to Change the World competition. We’d like to congratulate Danielle DeVoe who submitted an entry on behalf of the Mid Sound Fisheries Enhancement Group.

The Mid Sound Fisheries Enhancement Group is a 501(C)(3) non-profit organization that works with communities to maximize self-sustaining salmon populations. In King and Eastern Kitsap Counties, we work cooperatively with private landowners, agencies, tribes and others to identify, design and implement projects that improve salmon habitat.

Video - 7 Ways: Windows 7 Helping Salmon

Congratulations to Danielle and to everyone involved in the Mid Sound Fisheries Enhancement Group.

Check back tomorrow when we’ll be announcing our third winner in the 7 Ways to Change the World competition. Why not browse through the incredible contest submissions which you’ll find in the gallery.

You can also keep up-to-date on the winners by following @msftcitizenship on Twitter.

7 Ways Winner: The More than Me Foundation

Unlimited Potential team — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 18:05:00 GMT

Starting today, until November 24^thwe’ll be announcing the 7 winners of the 7 Ways to Change the World competition with one winner being announced each working day.

We are delighted to announce our first winning entry, submitted by Stephanie Hood on behalf of the More than Me Foundation.

The More than Me Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization that strives to bring education and mentorship opportunities to students in countries where access is commonly denied while strengthening and building our local community through the project work. Currently, More than Me is working in post war Liberia in an effort to bring primary education to all of her children.

Video - 7 Ways: More than Me Foundation

Congratulations to Stephanie and to everyone involved in the More than Me Foundation.

Check back tomorrow when we’ll be announcing our second winner in the 7 Ways to Change the World competition. While you are there why not browse through the incredible submissions which you’ll find in the gallery.

You can also keep up-to-date on the winners by following @msftcitizenship on Twitter.

Update: 7 Ways to Change the World - Video Contest

Unlimited Potential team — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:53:00 GMT

Good morning.

The deadline for submissions to our 7 Ways to Change the World competition closed last week.

The objective of the competition was to encourage people to share their ideas on how a PC running Windows could help an organization to have a greater impact in the community.

We would like to send our congratulations and thanks to everyone who took the time to share their ideas and we’d strongly recommend you view the entries in our online 7 Ways Gallery.

The response to the competition has been incredible, both in terms of the quality and the volume of entries. It has provided our judges with an incredibly hard challenge in selecting just 7 winners.

Later today we will announce the first winner here and we’ll then be announcing the other six winners each working day until November 24^th 2009.

Expanding Education’s Access to Technology with Windows Multipoint Server 2010

Unlimited Potential team — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:44:00 GMT

In our ongoing discussions with education institutions around the world, we’ve learned that customers want access to affordable, secure, and easy-to-use technology that provides students with the latest tools to prepare them for the global workforce. Educators appreciate, and many advocate, the use of technology to improve teaching and learning. They understand technology can help drive improvement in student achievement and they’re looking to Microsoft to help make this technology accessible.

Over the past few years, we at Microsoft have been exploring the area of shared resource computing—a new computing category that allows a customer to tap into a computer’s excess capability to let a single computer support multiple users simultaneously. In the world of education, shared resource computing has great potential to extend the reach and utilization of affordable computing for students.

Today, Microsoft is introducing its newest entry into the shared resource computing category: Windows MultiPoint Server 2010, an educational solution that extends the reach of technology in learning environments like classrooms, labs, and libraries by allowing multiple users to leverage the resources of a single computer, giving more students access to Windows technology that can help them to learn, share, produce, communicate and positively impact their future employability.

Designed for educational institutions with limited IT resources, Windows MultiPoint Server 2010 enables schools to access technology at a lower overall total cost of ownership with lower ongoing operations costs per user.

For Microsoft’s part, we believe that we can bring value into the education market that’s not available today— delivering more computing access to classrooms for the same budget and with a familiar and supported Windows experience, all with simple and easy-to-use technology.

Faced with ever-tightening budgets in the classroom, the availability of Windows MultiPoint Server 2010 will give all of those in the education world—from policymakers to students—an open door to the limitless opportunities that only the magic of technology can make possible.

Stay tuned here and at our website for more info to come—we plan to have Windows MultiPoint Server 2010 available to schools around the world in the first half of 2010.

-Ira Snyder, General Manager, Windows MultiPoint Server, Microsoft

Video Contest: 7 Ways to Change the World, enter today

Unlimited Potential team — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:23:00 GMT

Good morning,

I wanted to give you all a quick update on the 7 Ways to Change the World video contest.

As a little background, we asked folks how they would use Windows to help their local community and so far we’ve received some great videos.

ProjectExplorer.org is a non-profit organization that told a story of how donating a computer to 1,500 students at Mpontsheng Secondary School in Katlehong, South Africa made the children’s faces light up. They said they plan to use the grant to bring in a second computer.

Boys & Girls Clubs of the Peninsula illustrated how a high school student heading to work can help those around him by using his PC. For example, the young man could help feed the hungry by using the Internet to find the nearest place to buy food.

Founder of Roots and Wings International, Eric Swanson, speaks to how his organization changes lives through education and needs information tools to serve k'iche'-speaking students in Guatemala.

We encourage you to keep these great ideas coming!

But remember, the deadline to submit your entry is Nov. 11, 2009. We’ll be announcing the 7 winners from Nov. 16 -24, 2009, with each winner receiving a new PC running Windows 7 and a $7,000 grant for their chosen eligible nonprofit or NGO.

Check out what ideas people have posted, and upload your own at: http://www.7waystochangetheworld.com/gallery.aspx.

The EU-Africa Business Forum: ICT for Regional Economic Growth

Unlimited Potential team — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 17:01:00 GMT

The current moment is a particularly challenging one for the continent of Africa. Following in line with the global economic crisis, growth in Africa is now expected to be only 2.8 percent in 2009, following five years of consecutive growth above 5.5 percent. Yet no time is more important than now to bolster Africa’s investments in technology that can boost regional economic growth.

On September 28-29, nearly 300 business leaders and government officials gathered in Nairobi for the Third EU-Africa Business Forum to discuss a positive way forward towards improving the economic climate in Africa. The event, themed “Africa and Europe: On the Road to New Win-Win Partnerships,” discussed the issue of increasing regional integration and the notion of creating an EU-like entity “to achieve prosperity, well-being of the people, and development in the African region.”

In keynotes and discussions, a particular emphasis was given to the development of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as a critical backbone of economic growth and regional integration—among other factors like trade, entrepreneurship, infrastructure and energy. Expressed through our Unlimited Potential initiative, Microsoft has long believed that the power of ICT to encourage regional economic development is critical in the 21st century, so this topic was particularly encouraging to witness being addressed at such a substantial level among key African stakeholders.

Representing Microsoft’s viewpoint at the Forum, as well as serving as its Co-Chair, was Dr. Cheick Modibo Diarra, the company’s Chairman for Africa. Dr. Diarra explained how an economic climate of scarcity and challenge can actually benefit the use of ICT as a solution: “A lot of people still don’t realize that in fact when you are called upon to be more productive, to be more effective, more efficient, especially during this time of crisis, that is the best time actually to call on ICT to help you actually meet those challenges.”

(You can see coverage from the event, including quotes from Cheick Diarra, in a CNBC Europe World Business report here).

Broad support for the topics discussed during the Forum has been extremely encouraging—the EC has pledged €5 billion in funding, out of which €1.5 billion is designated for regional integration. Further, the European Commission is calling on private companies to contribute expertise for ICT applications and interconnectivity.

As always, it’s our hope that the ongoing progress of events like the EU-Africa forum that bring together stakeholders from across the world to help solve regional and global issues, including the furthering of ICT, will continue to make a positive impact for communities, governments, and people across Africa and the globe.

In Rwanda, Technology is Helping Education be a Catalyst for Peace

Unlimited Potential team — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 23:47:00 GMT

The 1994 genocide in Rwanda devastated the country’s economy and its education sector – the backbone of economic and social development. Since overcoming the tragedy, the government has focused on education as a means of reducing poverty and restarting the country’s growth. In recent years, it has increased the enrollment rates in primary education to 97% and has expanded the number of universities from just one in 1994 to 18. However, with such impressive advances, building the supporting infrastructure to manage education remained a challenge for educators and government officials.

To address this, in 2007 Agile Learning Company – a Microsoft partner – worked with the Rwanda Ministry of Education to develop and implement the Education Management Information System (EMIS). Whereas before schools received questionnaires to fill out by hand about the number of students, grades, etc, which were then collected physically in each district and brought to the ministry for the annual report, the EMIS platform digitizes this process by allowing teachers and administrators to input directly into a database. Other stored data includes information on the need for teachers and infrastructure, which serve to ensure that resources are well distributed according to local requirements. The program has been launched to provide the country’s 5,000 schools with EMIS and relevant training by 2011.

Microsoft is providing additional technical expertise and in-kind support for the EMIS project, including Unlimited Potential curriculum and training, while local schools are responsible for implementing the policies. James Curry, the CEO of Agile Learning Company, explains that, “the idea behind is it push down all the decision-making to the lower levels so that the Ministry of Education is basically monitoring and evaluating the policies that they set. The districts, the sectors and the schools are responsible for implementing those policies.”

Romain Murenzi, ICT Minister for Rwanda, stresses the importance of building the country’s capacity for effectively managing the education system. “In Rwanda we now have more than 2.6 million students – a quarter of the population – in school. This is very important,” he says. “This has a huge impact on peace. Education becomes the catalyst for peace.”

World Teachers' Day 2009

Unlimited Potential team — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 23:26:00 GMT

UNESCO celebrates World Teachers’ Day today on the anniversary of the 1966 signing of the UNESCO/ILO Recommendation Concerning the Status of Teachers which addresses teacher policies, rights and responsibilities.

There are over 59 million teachers around the world. They work tirelessly, often against barriers, to provide quality education for the 1.4 billion students around the world. Education is the cornerstone of economic opportunity, so any efforts to help young people realize their full potential must begin there.

All too often, schools and educators lack the resources to provide quality education to their students and prepare them for careers in the 21^st century. That is why we work to create technology solutions for educators and students that are affordable, accessible and relevant. Through programs like Microsoft’s Partners in Learning, which has reached over 135 million students and educators worldwide, we strive to create education experiences that remove limitations and give students the opportunity to experience the benefits of technology.

We want to take a moment and thank teachers around the world for their dedication to their students and the future of our society. Thanks!!

Bringing the Benefits of Technology to Refugees; Improving Education and Enhancing their Long-term Livelihood

Unlimited Potential team — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 20:25:00 GMT

Bangladesh, Rwanda and New York City may not seem to have a lot in common but they are all currently showcasing an innovative program to help refugees in remote camps with limited electricity supply to gain access for the first time to information and communications technology (ICT) education and resources.

The Community Technology Access (CTA) program is supported by UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), Microsoft and PricewaterhouseCoopers, to enhance livelihood and employment opportunities at refugee camps through ICT access and training.

The program was announced this week by President Bill Clinton, during the ‘Harnessing Innovation for Development’ plenary session of the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting in New York City.

So far, CTA projects are in place, two in Bangladesh (at Nayapara and Kutupalong camps) and one in Rwanda (at Kiziba camp). In each camp, a classroom is equipped with computers, a server, a WiFi connection and projector, productivity and life skills software and an education curriculum.

Because the camps are isolated and located outside of reliable electricity supply, UNHCR, Microsoft and implementing partner Inveneo developed a sustainable solution including the building of the standardized solar-powered computer classrooms and use of ultra-low-power computers and servers to further reduce energy requirements.

In Rwanda’s Kiziba camp, the lack of affordable local Internet access has required using long distance WiFi to connect to a regional provider.

The partners decided to tap into a WiMAX network, which has brought broadband connectivity to a rural area previously untouched by the Internet.

Global Give Back Circle featured at Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting

Unlimited Potential team — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 18:20:00 GMT

This week the annual Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) meeting is taking place in New York. The CGI website describes this event as a meeting that “brings together a diverse group of the world’s most distinguished leaders from government, business, and civil society to examine today's most pressing global challenges and transform that awareness into tangible action.”

In an opening plenary session, three young women from Kenya had a chance to tell their story of social and economic empowerment to conference attendees. The story starts with a program called Global Give Back Circle which was founded by international banking consultant Linda Lockhart in 2006 to help disadvantaged girls further their education and improve their circumstances. Read more about these woman, Khadija Abdulla Said, Caroline Macharia and Mary Mwende, here.

Khadija Abdulla Said, Caroline Macharia and Mary Mwende pose with Microsoft’s Pamela Passman.

Microsoft met with Lockhart this time last year and a partnership was formed. Now Microsoft is honored to provide funding and donated technology for a computer lab in Kenya. Microsoft employees in Africa also volunteer to act as mentors for the students.

An interview with Lockhart can be found here, and more from Pamela Passman at CGI can be found on the Microsoft on the Issues blog.

One day with OneApp

Unlimited Potential team — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 13:42:00 GMT

We’ve blogged a fair bit on the launch of OneApp, but I wanted to give some insight into how I’m actually using the local service, called mibli, here in South Africa, where we signed up our first partner, Blue Label Telecoms.

My day goes something like this:

I use my (quite old, actually) feature phone and log into mibli using my Windows Live ID. I browse to the What’s New applet to check on the latest headlines and friends’ updates. Using the IM function, I respond to a few comments and click straight into the call option to check up on a friend who’s status says he’s still feeling under the weather.

Driving to work, I stop to fill up with gas and while I’m at the counter, I buy a uKash voucher too to redeem with my mobile wallet. That means while I’m sitting in traffic (keeping one eye on the road, I promise, Officer) I manage to pay for both the download of a new song to my phone and respond to my son’s request for an airtime top-up via mibli.

Then somewhere between conference calls and more meetings than I can count, I keep an eye on the mibli powered by OneApp user commentary on Twitter and upload 10 photos of last week’s launch event in Johannesburg to my Facebook page. Not such a dumb phone now, eh?

Before the afternoon winds down, I log in briefly to the location-based technology app, miLocate, to check if my son made it home from school. Glad that he’s made it home safely, I check in with the family for the evening’s plans. I’m in charge of cooking dinner. Unfortunately, there’s no app for that … yet.

Ian Puttergill

Business Development Manager

Unlimited Potential Group, Middle East and Africa

Welcome to mibli powered by OneApp

Unlimited Potential team — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 14:21:00 GMT

Today in Johannesburg, our first OneApp partner, Blue Label Telecoms, officially launched its mibli powered by OneApp service. This new service provides customers with basic feature phones in South Africa with over a dozen new mobile apps, including a Mobile Wallet. Visit the website below to learn more about mibli!