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Reporting Back: Microsoft at the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference
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Posted by Rob Bernard
Chief Environmental Strategist
Two weeks ago, I laid out some of the reasons I and a team of technology and issue experts from Microsoft were traveling to Copenhagen to support the UN Climate Change Conference (COP15).
We’ve recently returned to Seattle, and we’re hopeful that reports that world leaders have finalized a climate change agreement as COP15 will ensure that countries act quickly and meaningfully to secure our climate future.
As I noted before the conference, and as I’m even more convinced today, the world needs to quickly establish emissions-reduction frameworks to address climate change on a global scale.
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Advancing Understanding Between the U.S. and China on Internet Issues
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Posted by Pamela Passman
Corporate Vice President
The Third U.S.-China Internet Industry Forum (“USCIIF”) concluded last week in San Francisco, and we greatly appreciate all the contributions from American and Chinese participants as well as the positive feedback we have heard on the event. We wanted to share a little bit of the thinking behind the USCIIF, and what we think has been accomplished so far.
The US-China relationship is fundamental to the world’s economic situation, and to a host of societal and business concerns – including the Internet. Indeed, the Internet has proven to have extraordinary potential for transforming the way people work and live, and has raised a variety of issues that a broad set of stakeholders – including industry, government, and civil society – must address. In many cases, there are strong differences of opinion, and this is no less true with respect to the US and Chinese Internet communities. The way forward, we believe, is through constructive dialogue to both identify opportunities for collaboration and generate better understanding on points of difference.
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Interoperability: The Other Side of Our Settlement with the European Commission
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Posted by Dave Heiner
Vice President and Deputy General Counsel
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On Wednesday the European Commission announced its decision to approve a resolution of its long-running competition law inquiry concerning Microsoft. Commissioner Kroes remarked that the decision has the potential to herald a “new, more positive” era in Microsoft’s relationship with the Commission. We are obviously very pleased to reach this milestone. We’ve posted the details here.
While most of the press attention has focused on the Commission’s decision regarding Web browser software in Windows, the Commission also announced Microsoft’s agreement to implement a series of measures to promote interoperability. The interoperability piece is important too because consumers of everything from cell phones to mainframe computers want assurances that their products will work seamlessly with other devices, software and services. In speeches in June 2008 and this October, Commissioner Kroes outlined a vision for how leading firms should address competition law concerns relating to interoperability. Commissioner Kroes championed industry standards as “the foundation of interoperability.” Products from different firms can work well together when they implement common, well-designed industry standards. In addition, when firms innovate in a proprietary manner, Commissioner Kroes observed, interoperability can be facilitated if firms (i) disclose sufficient technical information to enable other firms to build interoperable products; (ii) provide other firms with a remedy if the technical information disclosed is not complete and accurate and (iii) charge fair royalty rates for any intellectual property that is needed.
As part of the settlement announced Wednesday, Microsoft has pledged to implement this approach to interoperability across all of our most widely used products—Windows, Windows Server, Office, Exchange and SharePoint.
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Improving E-Government Interoperability--Beyond Technology
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Posted by Steve Mutkoski
Senior Standards Strategist
Steve Mutkoski speaking at the Internet Governance Forum in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt
While participating in e-Government panel discussions on three continents last month, I heard loudly that the impediments to effective e-Government interoperability are no longer primarily technical. Leading policymakers, practitioners and academics agreed that the real challenges today are semantic, organizational, legal and political. You can have perfect technical interconnection of your information systems, for example, but you won’t have interoperability unless people in different agencies know how to collaborate on information sharing and are willing to do so.
This human factor was spotlighted on the first page of the program for the United Nations University 3rd International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance, which noted “growing recognition that over-reliance on technology, insufficient collaboration in government, lack of building human capacity and inadequate public consultation all limit possible benefits of [e-Government] initiatives.” The bulk of the presentations focused on these non-technical impediments to e-Government.
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Using Technology to Advance the Fight against Global Poverty
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Guest post by George Conard
Executive Director, Technology for Microfinance
Grameen Foundation
Microfinance has grown tremendously in the last decade, moving from little NGOs working in tiny villages to large institutions providing loans, savings accounts and insurance to hundreds of thousands of poor women and men. Grameen Bank in Bangladesh alone has more than seven million clients, while institutions like Grameen Koota in India serve more than 300,000. In fact, according to the Microcredit Summit Campaign there are more than 3,300 microfinance institutions (MFIs) providing services to more than 155 million poor people and their families globally.
As these MFIs have grown, so has their need for technology to help them manage their overall business operations. Technology plays a key role in Grameen Foundation’s mission to alleviate poverty. From equipping MFIs with the capacity to manage technology to building and delivering industry-wide solutions like the Mifos™ platform, our goal is to advance the use of technology so all MFIs can better serve more of the world’s poor.
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A Childhood for Every Child
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Posted by Ernie Allen
President & CEO, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
For most of us, the word “childhood” conjures up thoughts of innocence and security. But for thousands of children, it is shrouded by darkness and pain, because of the vilest kind of sexual abuse and exploitation. And when that abuse is recorded and shared online among pedophiles as child pornography, the abuse continues indefinitely; each time images of a child’s abuse are viewed and passed on, that child is victimized again.
We can help these children and prevent others from suffering their fate. Technology is a critical part of the solution, and that is why I’m proud to announce that Microsoft is donating to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) an important technology, called PhotoDNA, to help power the fight against online child pornography. PhotoDNA was created by Microsoft Research and helps to calculate the distinct characteristics of a digital image in order to match it to other copies of that same image.
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Global Development from the "other Washington"
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Posted by Akhtar Badshah
Senior Director, Global Community Affairs
(Cross-posted from The Huffington Post)
Earlier this week the first annual Global Washington conference (a "Blueprint for Action") brought together 300 individuals representing organizations from across Washington State that are focused on global development issues. The event, which was hosted on our campus in Redmond, WA, was keynoted by Nick Kristof of the New York Times (and two time Pulitzer winner) and Ambassador Elizabeth Bagley of the Global Partnerships Initiative at the U.S. Department of State. The conference highlighted some unique perspectives on how this region supports global development efforts.
One of the most interesting aspects of the conference was how this work crosses the academic, private and nongovernmental sectors. For example the University of Washington has the highest number of students that serve in the Peace Corps, and many of the volunteers return to live in this area, bringing their experiences with them and continuing to contribute to global development issues. From the private sector, Kirkland, WA based Costco provided incredible insight into their commitment and approach to creating a responsible supply chain. The company procures the majority of cashews that are grown in the world. They believe that sustainable farming practices are essential to make sure that they get the best crop, so they invest significant time and resources in working with producers in Africa and elsewhere to ensure that there is a direct distribution channel, helping farmers get the best price.
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Microsoft Settlement to Fund $60 Million for Eligible Public Schools in Iowa
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Posted by Rich Wallis
Deputy General Counsel
Hundreds of public schools in Iowa will soon begin receiving approximately $60 million for education technology as part of the settlement of a class-action lawsuit against Microsoft in the state. Schools with a high percentage of students coming from low-income families are eligible to receive the funds, a provision Microsoft specifically negotiated to help bridge the technology gap that exists for low-income students.
This is a positive resolution of competition law concerns first raised in the 1990s. When we began settlement discussions in these cases several years ago, we sought to structure each settlement to support education. Microsoft has long worked to bridge the “digital divide” between those students and teachers who have access to the latest technology, and those who do not. Beginning with the earliest antitrust class-action settlements, such as Montana in 2003, we pushed to provide a significant portion of unclaimed proceeds to benefit schools serving students eligible for free or reduced-price lunches. When the case in Iowa reached a point where settlement was possible, we insisted on the same basic structure. As part of this approach to settling antitrust class-action claims, Microsoft has provided over $600 million in technology vouchers to schools in 19 states and the District of Columbia over the past six years.
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Microsoft and the FTC: A Continued Focus on Privacy (Update)
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UPDATE: December 7, 2009 – 7:30 a.m. Pacific
Posted by David Bowermaster
Administrator, Microsoft on the Issues
The Federal Trade Commission’s roundtable series on “Exploring Privacy” begins today in Washington, D.C. Microsoft Associate General Counsel Mike Hintze is participating in the first panel of the day, entitled “Benefits and Risks of Collecting, Retaining and Using Consumer Data.”
Links to a Webcast of the event and background materials are available here. The extensive public comments that Mike Hintze filed on behalf of Microsoft last month are also available online, if you’d like to delve into the specifics of our position and our privacy protections.
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Posted by Frank Torres
Director, Consumer Affairs
(originally posted November 9, 2009)
On December 7, the Federal Trade Commission will host the first in a series of day-long roundtable discussions “to explore the privacy challenges posed by the vast array of 21st century technology and business practices that collect and use consumer data.” The goal of the sessions, according to the Commission, “is to determine how best to protect consumer privacy while supporting beneficial uses of the information and technological innovation.”
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Microsoft Applauds the Appointment of Victoria Espinel
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Posted by Horacio Gutierrez
Corporate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel
Late Thursday, the Senate voted to confirm Victoria Espinel as the first United States Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator (IPEC). Microsoft applauds this action and welcomes the opportunity to work with Ms. Espinel as she moves into her new role.
The U.S. software industry has been an engine for jobs and economic growth. In 2007, the software and related services sector employed 1.7 million people in jobs that – on average – paid 195 of the national norm. And the sector contributed more than $261 billion to GSP, making it the largest of the U.S. copyright industries. Balanced IP laws and enforcement polices at home and abroad are necessary to safeguard these contributions.
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