-
Realizing the “Buy Once, Play Anywhere” Vision for Digital Media
-
Posted by Paul Mitchell
General Manager of Policy & Standards, Entertainment & Devices Division
Paul Mitchell
The recent International Consumer Electronics Show was a showcase for how the media industry today is being completely transformed by new digital production technology and hybrid distribution models. Consumers now have many new ways to access video using the Internet – from Hulu and Fancast Xfinity on PCs, to Netflix Watch Instantly through Blu-Ray players, digital TVs, Xbox and other game consoles.
But all these new options are not trouble free. While any DVD will play back on any DVD player, each of the new digital delivery systems has tended to use its own special format, which means that a file prepared for one system doesn’t work with another. This has created confusion in the marketplace and raised the cost and complexity of digital distribution.
The ease with which digital files can be copied belies the complexity involved in creating a robust portable media format that supports everything from high definition to video more appropriate for a mobile device. The format must work with closed captions and other accessibility aids, and with multiple language audio and commentary tracks. The format must work for a variety of business models such as retail sale, rental, video on demand, and subscription. It must support an ever-expanding list of target devices, from Internet-enabled TVs to Smartphones and Wi-Fi enabled tablets.
...
-
Interoperability: The Other Side of Our Settlement with the European Commission
-
Posted by Dave Heiner
Vice President and Deputy General Counsel
%20formal%202004%2001_thumb.jpg)
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.
...
-
New Framework for Technology Collaboration
-
Posted by David Rudin
Senior Attorney
Here’s good news for everyone who appreciates technologies that play well with others: The independent Open Web Foundation has announced a new legal framework agreement that communities of Web developers can use in collaborating on new technology specifications.
This agreement was hammered out with support from Microsoft, Yahoo!, Facebook, Google and others. It will help communities lay the legal foundation needed for specifications to be successful and widely adopted as standards. Individuals and organization also can release their specifications under the agreement.
...
-
Bridging the Standardization Divide
-
Posted by Nasser Kettani
Regional Standards Officer, Middle East and Africa
This year’s celebration of World Standards Day (October 14) helped draw attention to the role that standards play in creating economic value and advancing innovation, but it also is a moment to reflect on the importance of ensuring that international standards are truly global.
Developing countries have long contributed to standards in many fields, but just a few have been actively involved in standards development for Information and Communications Technology (ICT). The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) defines this as the “Standardization Gap,” or “disparities in the ability of developing countries, relative to developed ones, to access, implement, contribute to and influence international ICT standards.” I would call it the Standardization Divide – part of the digital divide between information haves and the have nots – which ultimately hinders innovation.
At Microsoft, we believe all communities affected by standards should have a voice in the direction of standards development, their design and deployment, which is why we’re excited to participate in two important initiatives to bridge the Standardization Divide.
We support the Internet Society’s (ISOC) efforts to increase participation in Internet standards development by our technical colleagues from developing communities. We’ve contributed to the ISOC Fellowship to the IETF, which enables talented individuals in developing nations to attend meetings of the Internet Engineering Task Force.
...
-
A Celebration of World Standards Day
-
Posted by Bill Harmon
Global Standards Lead, Microsoft Legal and Corporate Affairs
October 14 is World Standards Day, which has been observed for more than 40 years to highlight the economic importance of global standards and to honor the thousands of volunteers around the world who participate in standardization activities. It’s a day well worth celebrating.
When you bank at an ATM or log onto a Wi-Fi network at your favorite coffee shop, you don’t think about the effort that went into creating the standards that make all this convenience possible. Often, it’s the result of extensive and complex discussions.
Wi-Fi is a great example. In the early days of wireless computing, competing technologies caused confusion, created security issues, and hindered adoption. Responding to consumer demand, more than 130 companies collaborated in the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers industry standards group on the 802.11 Wi-Fi standard, now available to all manufacturers.
...
-
Open Government Doesn’t Equal Open Source
-
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).”
...
-
Working with the White House to Make the “Smart Grid” a Reality
-
Posted by Anoop Gupta
Corporate Vice President, Technology Policy and Strategy
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending a leadership dialogue hosted by U.S. Energy Secretary Stephen Chu and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke to discuss the development of interoperability standards for a national “Smart Grid.” Along with executives from leading electric utilities, industry associations and technology firms, I offered my view on what it will take to make the country’s power grid smart, reliable and more secure.
At Microsoft, we believe the energy grid becomes "smart" by injecting software into the various control points in the grid, so that people and businesses have ready access to timely, user-friendly information that can help them make smart choices about their energy use.
We also envision a world where thousands of smart appliances can seamlessly plug into homes thanks to common standards and interoperability frameworks, just as the “plug and play” model allows thousands of devices to seamlessly plug into PCs today.
...
-
Following Through on Our Commitment to Interoperability
-
Posted by Tom Robertson
Associate General Counsel, Microsoft
Product announcements aren’t usually the subject of this blog, but I wanted to alert you to a product announcement we are making today that is the latest example of our commitment to help customers cope with today’s complex computing landscape by enhancing interoperability between products from different vendors.
Today we are releasing Microsoft Office 2007 service pack 2, a product update that contains (among other things) out-of-the-box support for more than 18 document file formats, including ODF, PDF, and XPS. Office 2007 now provides built-in support for more file formats than any other productivity suite on the market. SP2 is also shipping with a new programming interface that will make it easy for developers to make any other document format show up in the drop down menu and be selected by users as their default, putting it on a par with the major formats already supported in Office 2007. That means Office 2007 supports most government-preferred document formats today, and can adapt to support new formats that might emerge down the road.
...
-
Tear Down the Walls and Liberate the Data
-
Posted by Peter Neupert
Corporate Vice President, Health Solutions Group
(Cross-posted from Neupert on Health)
In 1987, President Ronald Reagan gave one of his most well remembered speeches. Few of us could forget his words to Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall”—proving to be prophetic when the German Democratic Republic announced the re-opening of the border in 1989, and the subsequent destruction of the Berlin Wall. What followed? A new flow of people, ideas, commerce, and capital—creating the groundwork for unification and a better way of life in Germany and Eastern Europe, benefiting all of us economically and politically in unanticipated ways.
A similar type of disruptive change needs to happen in the health ecosystem today. Just as the free flow of ideas and capital were the foundation for dramatic improvements in society, so should the free flow of health data be the foundation for realizing a future of secure, personalized, data driven medicine in health.
...
