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Windows 7 and Browser Choice in Europe
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Posted by Dave Heiner
Vice President and Deputy General Counsel
A week ago the European Commission said it welcomed our proposal to provide Windows users a “consumer ballot screen” to select the Web browser of their choice to surf the Internet. We believe this approach addresses the Commission’s previously stated competition law concerns regarding our inclusion of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE) browser in Windows.
I’d like to use this post to explain in more detail how the consumer ballot screen would work. But first I’d like to update you on our Windows 7 launch plans for Europe, which I blogged about on June 11.
As I explained at the time, we are committed to making Windows 7 available in Europe at the same time it is available to consumers worldwide on October 22.
To meet that goal, and in light of the Commission’s pending legal inquiry of our inclusion of IE in Windows, we decided last month that we would ship a unique version of Windows 7 in Europe—which we dubbed Windows 7 “E”—that would not include a Web browser. Instead, we decided to offer IE separately and on an easy-to-install basis to both computer manufacturers and users who wanted the Microsoft browser.
We have now decided to alter that launch plan. In the wake of last week’s developments, as well as continuing feedback on Windows 7 E that we have received from computer manufacturers and other business partners, I’m pleased to report that we will ship the same version of Windows 7 in Europe in October that we will ship in the rest of the world.
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Microsoft and Boys and Girls Clubs of America: Training tomorrow’s leaders
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Posted by Pamela Passman
Corporate Vice President
There are few institutions that can boast an alumni list that includes Bill Cosby, Michael Jordan, Brad Pitt and Bill Clinton. There are even fewer that have been positively impacting the lives of young people for over 100 years.
But that’s exactly what Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) has been doing. BGCA challenges kids to “BE GREAT” while providing a supportive environment that fosters learning and development. In fact, some 52 percent of Club alumni feel that the Club saved their life. BGCA’s incredible work is helping kids across the United States and on U.S .military bases around the world.
BGCA has been consistently successful because it adapts to the changing needs of our youth, while providing a consistent, supportive environment in the neighborhoods where it operates.
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Health Care Needs New Rules to Enable Innovation and Reward Experimentation
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Posted by Peter Neupert
Corporate Vice President, Health Solutions Group
Technology is playing a major role in helping bring healthcare into the 21st century. Many of us have seen it first hand in treatment from our doctors, from MRI scans to laser surgery.
But these clinical advancements represent only a small piece of what technology can do to transform health care. The power of technology lies in the potential to transform the rest of the health care system, enabling new ways of working and communicating, new economics and new business models. As consumers, we’ve experienced how technology impacts nearly every other area of our lives—how we manage our financials, travel, communicate, shop and so on—with more self-service, more control, more convenience and ultimately better value for what we spend.
Similar business innovation and consumer engagement has been slow to reach health care, where many physicians still opt for a pen-and-paper over a computer to maintain patient histories and chronicle treatments. Patients continue to navigate frustrating and hard-to-understand medical and insurance organizations, physicians don’t always talk to one another about care and medical errors, waste and duplication drain the system of resources.
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Celebrating 10 Years of Service to Annapolis’ Clay Street Neighborhood
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Posted by Fred Humphries
Managing Director, U.S. Government Affairs
At Microsoft, we talk a lot about the power of technology to transform people’s lives and expand their opportunities. This morning, I had the pleasure of witnessing that power first-hand while attending a celebration of the Clay Street Computer Learning Center’s 10 years of service to a low-income neighborhood in Annapolis, Md.
Stocked with computers and educational software for all ages , the Clay Street Center offers an after-school program that gives the neighborhood’s kids a place to get help with their homework and to use, and learn more about, computers and the Internet. During the summer months, the Center brings kids into the lab as part of an ongoing program that enables them to keep and build their computer skills when school is not in session. And during the fall and winter, the Clay Street Center offers participants a hot meal.
I was particularly moved by seeing Clay Street founder Mary Wolf with Tye Curtis, one of the Center’s summer workers and a graduate of the center. As a young man, Tye helped Mary set up the computers in the Clay Street Center and visited for many years, taking advantage of the safe and nurturing environment it provided. This December, Tye expects to graduate from Southern University in Louisiana with a degree in computer science.
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Keeping the Promise of Inclusion
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Posted by Laura Ruby
Director, Accessibility Policy and Standards
In recent months there has been a lot of debate in Washington, D.C. about Government 2.0, or the use of Web 2.0 technologies and social networking tools such as RSS feeds, blogs and wikis to give citizens greater access to information and to make government more transparent. Some people wonder if valuable social policies, such as ensuring accessibility for people with disabilities, can be maintained at the same time that the government implements Web 2.0 technologies.
At Microsoft we believe the true spirit of Government 2.0 (Gov 2.0) can only be achieved if social policy is honored, and accessibility is assured, as new technology is adopted.
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Microsoft’s Proposal to the European Commission
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Posted by David Bowermaster
Administrator, Microsoft on the Issues
Microsoft recently made a proposal to the European Commission to address competition law concerns that the Commission has raised with regard to Internet Explorer and the interoperability of certain Microsoft products. The Commission issued a statement concerning the proposal today, and we subsequently issued a statement from General Counsel Brad Smith.
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Open Government Doesn’t Equal Open Source
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Posted by Teresa Carlson
Vice President of U.S. Federal Government Sales
(Cross-posted from the Microsoft FutureFed blog)
The term “open” has many different connotations across the federal landscape. According to the president, open government is the promise of transparency, public participation, and bridging the divide between citizens and their government. When it comes to technology, some are connecting the vision of open government with open source software development, but that connection is false and self-serving.
Yesterday, Government Computer News reported that government agencies are increasingly embracing open source software, some in an attempt to lower IT costs. And although many open source applications make sense for specific agency challenges, the idea that open source always equals cost savings is debatable. In fact, a recent Gartner report states that “through 2013, 50% of mainstream IT projects using open-source software (OSS) will not achieve cost savings over closed-source alternatives.” The report goes on to say that although organizations can save on license fees through open source, “they are often merely shifting costs from one area to another (for example, commercial operation support to internal employee support).”
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Building bridges at OSCON
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Posted by Tony Hey
Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Research
Earlier today I had the opportunity to speak to many passionate members of the open source community at OSCON 2009 (short for ‘Open Source Convention’) in San Jose, Calif. While Microsoft was engaged in this event at many levels, the goal of my presentation was to shed light on some of the external research projects Microsoft Research is engaged in, since so much of this work involves collaborating with scientists and academic researchers throughout the world. Simply put, some challenges are too complex for one entity to tackle alone, and it’s clear we all need to come together in order to drive true innovation to address global -challenges confronting our health, knowledge and environment.
In my talk, I discussed the organic nature of Microsoft’s open collaboration with the external research community, and described how these programs often surface in response to research needs and the demands of continuing innovation. Recent examples of such collaborative efforts at Microsoft Research are open tools like Project Trident and the Ontology Add-in for Microsoft Office Word 2007. In both cases, we contributed our technology and innovation to support the widely shared goals of fueling scientific discovery and propelling research and education forward.
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A Critical Time for Health Care Reform and Health IT
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Posted by Frank Torres
Director, Consumer Affairs
Washington, D.C. is always a busy place before Congress breaks for its summer recess. But even for the nation’s capital, the amount of activity currently happening around health care is extraordinary.
President Obama is expected to discuss health care in a press conference Wednesday night. Health reform legislation is moving forward in the House and Senate. And the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Health Information Technology Policy Committee is meeting to decide which technologies will qualify for approximately $20 billion in stimulus funding to spur adoption of technology by health providers (what’s being called “meaningful use”) and establish certification procedures for technologies that meet the “meaningful use” standard.
Against this backdrop, leading think-tanks – the Markle Foundation, the Center for American Progress (CAP), and the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform at Brookings – held a forum July 15 to frame their vision for information-driven health care. Their primary theme: Efforts to boost health IT must be aligned with the broader health reform effort underway to achieve the goals of President Obama and Congress to expand coverage, improve outcomes and control costs. At Microsoft, we couldn’t agree more.
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Collaboration, Competition and IP in the Real World
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Posted by Horacio Gutierrez
Corporate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel
In the last few days Microsoft has made a number of announcements that reflect the pragmatic approach the company takes on intellectual property rights and open source software.
- On July 20, Microsoft announced the release of 20,000 lines of device driver code to the Linux community. The code, consisting of three Linux device drivers, was licensed under the GPLv2 license and submitted to the Linux kernel community for inclusion in the Linux tree.
- Similarly, on July 21, Microsoft announced the release of the Microsoft Live Services Plug-in to integrate Microsoft’s Live@edu services with the Moodle course management system. This plug-in is a free download specifically designed for Moodle, and was also licensed under the GPLv2 license.
- Earlier, on July 15th, Microsoft announced a patent agreement with Melco Group, maker of the Buffalo-branded devices, under which Melco’s customers receive patent covenants for their use of devices running Linux and related open source software, in exchange for the payment of royalties to Microsoft.
Some observers question how a company can contribute to open source projects while, at the same time, insisting on respect of its intellectual property rights by its competitors. In fact, these two things are not inconsistent, and striking a balance between them is one of the key things every commercial technology company must do in order to compete effectively in a mixed source world.
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