Microsoft signs deal to work on international development
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Microsoft&#160;has joined with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and other development organizations to attack AIDS and other humanitarian problems worldwide, the company announced Monday.
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Microsoft said it will open a software development center in Canada this fall, partly to help it recruit and then retain foreign workers who are affected by U.S. immigration laws.
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Microsoft Tuesday took the wraps off its Oslo initiative that it says will extend model driven development techniques in a variety of its products.
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Microsoft is giving away development and design software to university and high school students around the world through a program aimed at fostering technology innovation worldwide.Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates&#160;is expected to unveil the DreamSpark program Tuesday at Stanford University on the first stop of a U.S. and Canadian college tour. The program is now available to more than 35 million college students in Belgium, China, Finland, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the U.K. and the U.S.Software available to students through DreamSpark includes Microsoft&#39;s development environment, Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition, and its Web and graphic design toolset, the Expression Studio. Microsoft also is making available XNA Game Studio 2.0, SQL Server Developer Edition, Windows Server Standard Edition and other software and resources through the program.In the next six months Microsoft expects to extend the program to college students in Australia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Japan, Lithuania, Latvia, Slovakia and other countries. And in the third quarter, the software will be available to high school students as well, Microsoft said.DreamSpark is part of a company-wide effort to work with local governments, communities, and academic institutions worldwide to give potential technology workers a head start in the competitive job market to foster technology innovation and improve citizens&#39; quality of life, especially in developing countries.Microsoft also is trying to compete worldwide with open-source technologies such as Linux that are freely available to anyone and thus popular with student computer enthusiasts who may not be able to afford to purchase Microsoft products.One major benefactor of DreamSpark is Aisec, an international exchange student program. Its 28,000 students will get software such as Microsoft&#39;s Office productivity suite, said Michelle Galant, vice president of communications.Aisec, which has 1,100 offices in 100 countries, will also use the company&#39;s Exchange e-mail server, Gallant said. &quot;It enables us to run offices and enables us to run our exchange program,&quot; she said.More information about DreamSpark can be found on Microsoft&#39;s MSDN developer site.
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The two companies confirm their partnership, with Microsoft taking a $240 million stake in Facebook as well as gaining the right to sell ads for Facebook internationally.
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(InfoWorld) - When Microsoft made what appeared to be a minor announcement last week that it would expand its Canadian operations with the creation of the Microsoft Canada Development Centre for software development based in the greater Vancouver, British Columbia area, it went mostly unnoticed. One of the only exceptions was a story on InfoWorld, Microsoft Canada Responds to Immigration Woes, which recognized something new was afoot. What no one in the lower 48 states realized at the time was how significant this move north might be and how the Canadian immigration policy makes it all possible. Nevertheless, Canadian Katarina Onuschak, a licensed immigration consultant and owner of T&CS Canada, a consultancy for Canadian immigration, says she immediately recognized the significance of the Centre when she read the news.Â Â  "It will be a beginning of new era," said Onuschak. There are two pieces to the puzzle that, when brought together, may indeed represent a new era for Canada's high tech industry and for U.S. companies who prefer near-shoring as opposed to offshoring. Canada's far more liberal immigration policy for temporary high tech workers combined with Microsoft's stated intentions of opening the software development center to house developers "from around the world" makes it clear why Onuschak responded as she did.Â  This makes it possible for Microsoft and others to have their cake and eat it too. Near-shoring gives companies better time zone management and allows companies to hire programmers based on whatever parameters they choose, which may be skills or pay scale, while not having to face the limitations of green card and H-1B regulations. Of course it will also kick start a mostly slow-growing software development industry in Canada. As the Microsoft announcement plainly stated, "The Vancouver area is a global gateway with a diverse population, is close to Microsoft's corporate offices in Redmond, and allows the company to recruit and retain highly skilled people affected by immigration issues in the U.S." Many companies may follow Microsoft's lead say the experts.Â  The liberal Canadian policy comes from a project targeted specifically at information technology workers, who are considered a special category by Canada's immigration agency. The special category created by the Canadian government for information technology workers and the six categories under which workers must qualify was actually created back in 1997 as a pilot project to make sure Canada had enough programmers to deal with Y2K. As interpreted by the National Labor Market [Canada's equivalent to the U.S. Department of Labor], any software developers falling into the six major developer categories do not have to go to Service Canada, Canada's Immigration and Naturalization agency, to apply for a work permit. Workers can go straight to a Canadian visa office to apply. This speeds up the visa process. The ruling states that "under this process, no confirmation letter from Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) is necessary for specific jobs for which finding a foreign worker will not have a negative impact on Canadian or permanent-resident job seekers and workers." The six categories of software developers include the following: Senior Animation Effects Editor, Embedded Systems Software Designer, MIS Software Designer, Multimedia Software Developer, Software Developer -- Services, Software Products Developer, and Telecommunications Software Designer. The policy from Citizenship and Immigration Canada goes on to state, "This means that if you are coming to Canada to work in one of the jobs listed ... you do not need a letter from HRSDC, and your work permit application may be processed more quickly." There is little doubt that the Microsoft Development Centre will be home to software developers from around the world," as Microsoft says in its press release. Even critics who believe current U.S. immigration policy for high tech workers is too liberal agree on what this Centre will represent. "Make no mistake about it. That programming group Microsoft will set up in Vancouver won't be staffed with many Canadians ... you'll find that the programmers in that group will be mainly people on work visas, not Canadian citizens or permanent residents," said Norm Matloff, a professor of computer science at University of California at Davis. In the meantime, immigration lawyers on both sides of the border say that the leveraging of liberal Canadian immigration law by Microsoft has the potential to jump start a major move north for software development.Â  Greg Siskind, a partner at Siskind Susser Bland and an immigration attorney here in the States says that he's been warning lots of people who agree with CNN's Lou Dobbs when he rails against outsourcing at the same time that he complains about the H-1B visa program that they can't have it both ways. "I would say I am surprised it is taking this long. Companies have few choices. They can either make do without or move operations or steal workers from other companies," said Siskind Sergio Karas, an immigration attorney based in Canada, also believes Microsoft's move to Canada is in reaction to U.S. immigration policy.Â Â  "This move by Microsoft is H-1B driven. There is no cap in Canada. Depending on the country of origin, we usually prepare an application, and in three weeks, a person can be working here," said Karas. However, Karas believes the pilot program needs updating to better reflect current needs for software development -- Karas wants to see revisions in the six original software development categories -- as well as revisions in pay scales. "The pay scales required have not been revised for some time." Even at lower pay rates, however, Microsoft and others may very well be able to attract skilled workers to software development centers like Microsoft's. The fact is the U.S. and Canada are still both highly prized working environments whose standard of living and pay scales, even when low by national standards, are typically higher than what a worker can earn in his home country.Â  Karas says it is still too early to tell if the Microsoft move will create a wave of similar centers. Siskind says he is surprised it took so long to happen. And Onuschak says, "If that's Bill Gates intention, it would be great if it happens."
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At its Worldwide Partner Conference, the software giant will be working on its conflict resolution skills as it faces a new world order.
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In the six months since Microsoft announced Unlimited Potential, a company-wide plan to help bring technology skills and resources to developing countries to foster social and economic growth, it has been building programs and testing products around the world, said Will Poole, corporate vice president for the effort.Poole was in New York Friday to discuss Unlimited Potential, a program through which the company works with community leaders in countries where technology has not yet had as much of an impact on businesses and communities as it could.&quot;If you look at the challenge of addressing the needs of [developing countries], it isn&#39;t going to be met by donations by Microsoft [and others], it&#39;s going to be met by people building a business to serve the needs,&quot; Poole said.Analysts and observers have suggested another reason Microsoft is interested in working with emerging markets on technology efforts: The fight against Linux, which is proving a less expensive and easier to access option for people in countries with scant access to technology. In its effort to make it a Windows world, Microsoft has recognized the need to foster education and business development to get software like Windows and Office in the hands of people who wouldn&#39;t typically be able to afford it, they said.To do this, Microsoft is working with business leaders in countries to find the most viable business methods for bringing PCs to as many people as possible. Through this work, the company recently tweaked its FlexGo pay-as-you-go computing program it was piloting in Brazil with partner Telefonica to offer PCs on a subscription basis instead because it was a better fit for customers, Poole said.&quot;It depends on the dynamics of each market and the development of that market&quot; what kind of business models work in that country, he said.In fact, the new business model for PCs in Brazil grew out of work Microsoft had been doing in Mexico with telecom partner Telmex to offer PCs on a subscription basis as part of a bill for monthly Internet access and phone service, Poole said. That work was done through the Subscription Computing Program, which preceded the idea of linking Microsoft&#39;s global efforts under the Unlimited Potential umbrella but has since been subsumed into that more focused effort.&quot;We use the &#39;Unlimited Potential&#39; label to apply to ... things that have been going on for a number of years as well as new things,&quot; Poole said.Microsoft also is making progress on its commitment to building 200 more Microsoft Innovation Centers -- aimed at helping local software communities develop skills and create jobs -- in 35 more countries by 2009. Innovation centers in Hungary and Romania have opened in the last six months, Poole said.Another program that has been in place since 2004, Partners in Learning, is making progress as part of Unlimited Potential. Through the program, which promotes digital literacy for educators and hooks them up with one another to share best practices for teaching students about technology, Microsoft is sponsoring the Innovative Teachers Forum, which kicks off Monday in Helsinki. The forum brings together teachers worldwide who won regional prizes for sharing their methods to educate students about technology and promote digital literacy. Since its inception, the Partners in Learning program has trained nearly 3.5 million teachers and reach over 71 million students in 101 countries, Poole said.Microsoft also is piloting other technologies around the world that were developed specifically to meet the needs of people in developing countries. One of those is Windows Multipoint, a technology that enables multiple users to use one PC simultaneously to collaborate through educational software programs.Microsoft also developed technology called SteadyState out of research done in emerging countries that offer shared-access facilities like Internet cafes and libraries to give people access to PCs and the Internet. According to Poole, it was reported that it&#39;s difficult to maintain and manage these facilities because people make changes to the PCs -- like downloading software or deleting files -- that makes them crash or pick up viruses that disrupt other users&#39; experience with them. To remedy this, Microsoft developed SteadyState, which restores a PC to its original settings anytime it is turned off and turned on again.&quot;We looked at the global trend around shared access and made that trend more effective,&quot; Poole said.Microsoft will provide more progress reports on Unlimited Potential in the next six months, he added. More information on the initiative can be found on Microsoft&#39;s Web site.
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Microsoft Corp., a worldwide leader in operating systems, announced its decision to share Office 2003 source code with governments from over 30 countries.
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US software giant Microsoft agreed Tuesday to set up a joint venture with two South Korean firms for a foray into the country's nascent Internet TV market, officials said.
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Microsoft&#39;s company offices in Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and India are working with relief tsunami organizations, a spokeswoman said.
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Microsoft Corp., seeking to expand in the medical sector, has agreed to acquire the assets of a privately held, Thailand-based health information system company, the software company said Monday.
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Microsoft is to form multi-million pound partnerships with two Indian software firms, and is expected to double the 1,500 people it already employs in India.
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A pair of Taiwanese companies signed a technology agreement to develop 3G (third generation telecommunications) and 3.5G smartphones around the Windows Mobile OS, adding to the growing pool of companies developing mobile phones around the Microsoft Corp. software.
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SINGAPORE: Microsoft Corp is expanding its community and economic development programmes in Asia as part of its global campaign to give poor people access to computers, the US software giant&#39;s chief executive said last Thursday.
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Microsoft will spend $235.5 million in schools in developing countries over the next five years, part of a plan to increase the number of people trained on its software.
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Tokyo, June 27 (Jiji Press)--KDDI Corp.  and Microsoft Co. said Wednesday that they have agreed on a comprehensive tie-up in new software services for corporate customers.  Under the accord, the major Japanese telecommunications career and the Japanese unit of Microsoft Corp.