Microsoft pledges $235M for IT in developing world

[OhioChick]

Source: ComputerWorld

January 22, 2008 (IDG News Service) -- Microsoft Corp. will spend $235.5 million in schools worldwide over the next five years, part of a plan to triple the number of students and teachers trained in its software programs to as many as 270 million by 2013.

The money, part of the Partners in Learning program, will go toward training and skills programs in areas with limited IT training and equipment, said Orlando Ayala, vice president of the Unlimited Potential Group, part of Microsoft's education division.

The announcement is one of several expected to come from the Government Leaders Forum (GLF) in Berlin, an annual conference where Microsoft courts educators and government officials. Microsoft CEO Bill Gates will be the keynote speaker at the conference tomorrow.

Microsoft's investment shows how important it views developing markets to its future business. Last year, Microsoft introduced the Student Innovation Suite, which includes the XP Starter Edition plus educational applications, for $3 per unit for qualifying countries.




Read more: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9058278&intsrc=hm_list

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~snip~ "Microsoft's educational donations look less generous when the company spends "it in order to create a market that's forced into buying its products," he said. But Ghosh added it's hard to argue that struggling schools "should refuse the computers altogether if there's no money."

"Microsoft has recently made significant deals in developing areas. A nongovernmental organization in Russia is buying 1 million units of the Student Innovation Suite over the next five years, Ayala said. The company is also supplying 50,000 units of the same software to Mexico and 150,000 to Libya, he said."

[Kutjara]

1. Self-serving corporate crap, as usual.

The developing world does not need overpriced, bloated, glacier-slow software, wrapped up in restrictive licensing and DRM. It needs lean, fast, adaptable software that it is free to use, customize, and redistribute. It needs Linux, not Windows.

[rAVES]

2. Bullshit.. normally I'm skeptical, but honestly don't see how this is bad

is the developing world to good to use the software I'm using?

[Kutjara]

4. Because the software is expensive, poorly written, and slow.

M$'s investment will be used to push its software down people's throats, hoping to produce the same OS monoculture in the developing world that it has here.

The One Laptop Per Child initiative expressly ruled out Windows for its low-cost pc, because the hardware requirements were just too high.


And, since you asked, yes, the developing world is too good to use the software you're using. YOU are too good to use the software you're using.

[thunder rising]

14. India is a developing country and MF gives out more shit them than Americans

He doesn't want to taint the well he drinks from, but he wants to feel warm and fuzzy.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

3. Indeed. That's like praising the drug dealer for giving free samples to prospective customers. -nt

[rAVES]

7. Sorry, No dice with this Analogue

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

13. Why not? See #8. -nt

[RevolutionStartsNow]

6. Sorry, but it's not a zero sum game

More than likely this is self-serving for MS, but it also does help foster education in the developing world.

Better that they get less bloated and better software than what MS has to offer, but at least they are getting it. I don't see anyone else ponying up that kind of money.

[Kutjara]

8. Unfortunately, you're right.

M$ has the deep pockets necessary to flood the developing world with its product, then use training to lock users into it under the guise of "aid." This is standard practice for monopolists and would-be monopolists.

While the developing world may be gaining a short-term benefit, it comes at a very high long term cost. Again, that's pretty much the definition of monopoly.

[Owl]

12. This I agree with.

though it would sure be nice to see this sort of thing used toward developing our own populace once in a while.

All these "off-shorers" of all forms are cutting themselves off at the knees for relatively modest and dwindling short-term gains.

[7 of 11]

5. Come on MS you could

do better than that. Hell man they make 200 million a week; I think they could be a bit more generous than that little pittance!

[FormerDittoHead]

9. Oh, didn't you hear? It's 2,000 of those "Windows Surface" tables...

Check this out:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=OoXhmqGFJmc

I'm sure those villages without electricity will be really able to use one of these!

..and did I mention? It's a tax write off!

[masonfl]

10. Naysayers might want check the facts before spouting off

Microsoft is the largest contributor to charitable causes in the high-tech industry and one of the largest among all businesses. Microsoft employees give more per person than any other company's employees. Last year Microsoft donated more than $68 million in cash and $331 million in software to non-profit organizations around the world. And, while not controlled in any way by Microsoft, it's obvious that a big part of the wealth that Microsoft has created is going to charitable causes through foundations founded by current and former employees. Bill & Melinda Gates foundation is one that you've probably heard of but there are dozens more.

It's a little silly to question Microsoft's giving of software...after all, that's what they create.

[OhioChick]

11. I Wouldn't Brag About the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation....

Dark cloud over good works of Gates Foundation

Published January 7, 2007


Ebocha, Nigeria - Justice Eta, 14 months old, held out his tiny thumb.

An ink spot certified that he had been immunized against polio and measles, thanks to a vaccination drive supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

But polio is not the only threat Justice faces. Almost since birth, he has had respiratory trouble. His neighbors call it "the cough." People blame fumes and soot spewing from flames that tower 300 feet into the air over a nearby oil plant. It is owned by the Italian petroleum giant Eni, whose investors include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Justice squirmed in his mother's arms. His face was beaded with sweat caused either by illness or by heat from the flames that illuminate Ebocha day and night. Ebocha means "city of lights."

The makeshift clinic at a church where Justice Eta was vaccinated and the flares spewing over Ebocha represent a head-on conflict for the Gates Foundation. In a contradiction between its grants and its endowment holdings, a Times investigation has found, the foundation reaps vast financial gains every year from investments that contravene its good works.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-gatesx07jan07,0,6827615.story

<snip> In addition, The Times found the Gates Foundation endowment had major holdings in:

Companies ranked among the worst U.S. and Canadian polluters, including ConocoPhillips, Dow Chemical Co. and Tyco International Ltd.

[thunder rising]

15. Have to wonder who's trolling around here ... MS is very powerful corp y'know

And try to suggest that if AT&T had to bend over and deliver info to DHS that Microsoft did the same and watch what happens. All of a sudden some very "concerned" members show up.

[JBoy]

16. In related news

Bolivia is donating $50million worth of crack pipes to western countries.