News from Microsoft Ireland

A service free of charge from Microsoft lets students and lifelong learners tour the night sky using high-resolution images from the world’s best land- and space-based telescopes.

REDMOND, Washington: May 12th, 2008 — The final frontier got a bit closer today as Microsoft officially launched the public beta of its WorldWide Telescope, which is now available at http://www.worldwidetelescope.org. WorldWide Telescope is a rich Web application that brings together imagery from the best ground- and space-based observatories across the world to allow people to easily explore the night sky through their computers. WorldWide Telescope has been eagerly anticipated by the astronomical and educational communities as a compelling astronomical resource for students and lifelong learners, and as a way to make science fun for children.

“The WorldWide Telescope is a powerful tool for science and education that makes it possible for everyone to explore the universe,” said Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft. “By combining terabytes of incredible imagery and data with easy-to-use software for viewing and moving through all that information, the WorldWide Telescope opens the door to new ways to see and experience the wonders of space. Our hope is that it will inspire young people to explore astronomy and science, and help researchers in their quest to better understand the universe.”

The application itself is a blend of software and Web 2.0 services created with the Microsoft high-performance Visual Experience Engine, which allows seamless panning and zooming around the heavens with rich image environments. WorldWide Telescope stitches together terabytes of high-resolution images of celestial bodies and displays them in a way that relates to their actual position in the sky. People can freely browse through the solar system, galaxy and beyond, or take advantage of a growing number of guided tours of the sky hosted by astronomers and educators at major universities and planetariums.

“WorldWide Telescope brings to life a dream that many of us in Microsoft Research have pursued for years, and we are proud to release this as a free service to anyone who wants to explore the universe,” said Curtis Wong, manager of Microsoft’s Next Media Research Group. “Where is Saturn in the sky, in relation to the moon? Does the Milky Way really have a supermassive black hole in the center of the galaxy? With the universe at your fingertips, you can discover the answers for yourself.”

The service goes well beyond the simple browsing of images. Users can choose which telescope they want to look through, including the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-Ray Observatory Center, the Spitzer Space Telescope or others. They can view the locations of planets in the night sky — in the past, present or future. They can view the universe through different wavelengths of light to reveal hidden structures in other parts of the galaxy. Taken as a whole, the application provides a top-to-bottom view of the science of astronomy.

“Users can see the X-ray view of the sky, zoom into bright radiation clouds, and then cross-fade into the visible light view and discover the cloud remnants of a supernova explosion from a thousand years ago,” said Roy Gould, a researcher at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. “I believe this new creation from Microsoft will have a profound impact on the way we view the universe.”

Microsoft Research has formed close ties with members of the academic, education and scientific communities to make WorldWide Telescope a reality. NASA along with other organizations coordinated with Microsoft Research to provide the imagery, provide feedback on the application from a scientific point of view, and help turn WorldWide Telescope into a rich learning application.

Microsoft’s mission to make the universe accessible to everyone was begun years ago by renowned Microsoft Senior Researcher Jim Gray. WorldWide Telescope is built on top of Gray’s pioneering development of large-scale, high-performance online databases including SkyServer and his contributions to the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, a project to map a large part of the Northern sky outside of the galaxy. Microsoft Research is releasing WorldWide Telescope as a service free of charge to the astronomy and education communities as a tribute to Gray with the hope that it will inspire and empower kids of all ages to explore and understand the universe in an unprecedented way.

About Microsoft Research

Founded in 1991, Microsoft Research is dedicated to conducting both basic and applied research in computer science and software engineering. Its goals are to enhance the user experience on computing devices, reduce the cost of writing and maintaining software, and invent novel computing technologies. Researchers focus on more than 55 areas of computing and collaborate with leading academic, government and industry researchers to advance the state of the art in such areas as graphics, speech recognition, user-interface research, natural language processing, programming tools and methodologies, operating systems and networking, and the mathematical sciences. Microsoft Research currently employs more than 800 people in six labs located in Redmond, Wash.; Cambridge, Mass.; Silicon Valley, Calif.; Cambridge, England; Beijing, China; and Bangalore, India. Microsoft Research collaborates openly with colleges and universities worldwide to enhance the teaching and learning experience, inspire technological innovation, and broadly advance the field of computer science. More information can be found at http://www.research.microsoft.com.

Dublin: May 8th 2008 – Microsoft today announced that the online service, Windows Live Maps (http://maps.live.com) now includes “Bird’s Eye” views of a number of Irish towns and cities.  The Bird’s Eye view consists of full aerial photography (at a 45 degree angle) of a location, making it easy to identify and explore.  The new feature also enables Bird’s Eye views from four directions and is available along with traditional road map views and satellite views of Ireland. Windows Live Maps also lets you get directions, plan journeys, print maps, and save collections of different locations you have chosen.

Windows Live Maps bird’s eye views are now online for the following Irish towns and cities:

• Carlow
• Cork
• Dublin
• Galway
• Limerick
• Navan
• Wexford

Other locations will be added over time.

Picture: Microsoft Ireland's Atrium Building on Windows Live Maps

Windows Live Maps Features

Bird’s-eye imagery. In addition to standard aerial and satellite imagery, Live Search Maps allows users to change to a bird’s-eye (45-degree) view of the area, giving unique views of real-world locations and providing real insight into what it’s like there.

Standard Mapping. Windows Live Maps also provides standard roads maps of Ireland which you can easily use to find locations and find more details on driving directions.

Aerial imagery.  In addition to Bird’s eye view and standard maps, Windows Live Maps provides satellite imagery of the entire island.

Driving directions. You can use Windows Live Maps to find the best driving directions for your trip.  You can choose directions using criteria such as the shortest trip or the fastest estimate trip.

Custom Collections. You can also save locations and directions in Live Maps and create custom maps and lists of places for yourself or to share with others. Collections are sets of custom pushpins on the map that are ideal for everything from planning vacation stops on a drive down the coast to sharing a list of favourite pubs in Galway. With the new drawing features, they can now add colorful lines and drawings in a variety of colors, shapes and styles to personalize their Collection. In addition, users can easily determine the area of a shape drawn on the map in square feet, acres, square kilometers, and other measurements. Creators of a Collection control its visibility to others on the Internet. They can choose to keep a Collection private, such as their itinerary for an upcoming business trip, or mark it public and share it with others at http://collections.live.com.

Printing. Users can now print maps without printing driving directions as well. Further improvements in printing functionality include pushpins, routes and search results made visible on the printed map.

Availability

Live Search Maps is available at http://maps.live.com.

Microsoft Ireland has won the 2008 ICT Excellence award for Corporate Social Responsibility.

The award recognizes how the technology sector has shown leadership in the area of CSR.

The judges called out the work Microsoft Ireland is doing in delivering the benefits of technology to every charity in Ireland through a range of programmes such as:

• The Technology Donations Programme
• The Community MAR Programme
• Digital Literacy Curriculum

UPC and Dell were shortlisted for the CSR award.

You can read more on the award winners on the ICT Excellence Awards site and from Electric News.

Pictured: Paul Rellis, managing director at Microsoft Ireland collecting the 2008 CSR award.

The newest release of the suite of tools includes revolutionary capabilities for creative professionals including Silverlight functionality, PHP support and Adobe Photoshop import capabilities.

Dublin: May 2nd, 2008 - Microsoft today delivered on its commitment to rapid innovation for the newest Microsoft platforms and latest Web technologies by announcing the release of Expression Studio 2.

The suite of professional design tools includes Expression Web 2, Expression Blend 2, Expression Design 2, Expression Media 2 and Expression Encoder 2 and works seamlessly with Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio 2008, solving the age-old designer and developer workflow challenge. The innovations in Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML), used by both Expression Studio and Visual Studio, allow for unprecedented designer-developer collaboration for the creation of both standards-based and Microsoft Silverlight-enhanced Web experiences as well as Windows Vista and .NET Framework 3.5 client applications.

In line with the team’s commitment to short release cycles, Expression Studio 2 is coming to market one year after the last release with major updates to each product. The products together contain more than 100 new features and introduce new Microsoft Silverlight functionality for creating stunning cross-browser, cross-platform Web experiences. Key features include the following:

• Expression Web 2 adds support for PHP and Adobe Photoshop import based on customer feedback.
• Expression Blend 2, in addition to Silverlight support, adds vertex animation and an improved user interface with a new split design/XAML view.
• Expression Design 2 adds improved exporting functionality including the ability to export slices.
• Expression Media 2 is a robust asset management solution for professional photographers and other creative professionals. It adds support for the latest file formats supported by Microsoft Office 2007 and Microsoft Office for Mac 2008.
• Expression Encoder 2 is now a core offering of the suite. It allows creative and Web professionals to optimize almost any type of video content quickly for publishing on the Web, either in streaming video, rich-media advertising or other Web 2.0 projects.

This groundbreaking release brings creative professionals fully into the application development process, accelerating time to market, minimizing resource use and improving return on investment for new projects. A full overview of features is available at http://www.microsoft.com/expression/features.

“This release of Expression Studio 2 is focused on providing a great user experience that enables developers and designers to work together to build great applications,” said Sean Foley, Head of the Developer and Platform Group at Microsoft Ireland. “This latest release of Expression Studio, combined with the recent platform releases of Silverlight and Windows Presentation Foundation, enables designers and developers to build incredible end-user applications.”

Full product information is available at: http://www.microsoft.com/expression.

Microsoft, Cisco and Symantec to donate technology worth up to £20m through Charity Technology eXchange

Belfast: April 24th, 2008 - Ms Margaret Richie, Minister for Social Development today officially launched a technology donation programme for non-profit organisations in Northern Ireland. The programme, run by Charity Technology Trust, is supported by Microsoft, Cisco and Symantec and will provide every qualifying non profit with access to technology donations from the supporting companies. It is estimated that up to 4,000 organisations can benefit from this new initiative and can receive technology with a cumulative value of up to £20m per annum.

The Charity Technology eXchange Programme enables eligible organisations to gain access to donated technology, allowing them to choose from a wide range of products from Microsoft, Cisco and Symantec.  The goal of the programme is to help close the digital divide by enabling non-profit organisations to gain the same benefits of efficiency and effectiveness from IT as businesses have in recent decades.

Commenting at the launch Minister Richie said: “Technology is an enabler which will help organisations to achieve things for themselves and their clients which they would not otherwise be able to do. Cost can act as a barrier to technology for organisations operating in the community and voluntary sector. The Charity Technology eXchange initiative is to be welcomed as it will ensure that more nonprofits will benefit from advances in technology - something that will help them to further develop their own services.

“I commend all those responsible for establishing this programme in Northern Ireland and congratulate Microsoft, Cisco and Symantec for supporting the initiative with substantial amounts of technology and grants.”

The programme is being run in partnership with US based TechSoup, a non-profit technology assistance agency that has been supporting non-profits in the area of technology for 21 years. Microsoft, Cisco and Symantec have actively been involved in making technology donations for non-profits in the US and in other parts of the world through their involvement with TechSoup. Since 2006, TechSoup has expanded its software donations platform to 12 countries around the world including the Republic of Ireland last year which saw the launch of ENCLUDEit.

Technology Donations in Action

Laurencetown, Lenaderg and Tullylish Community Association is one of the early beneficiaries of the programme in Northern Ireland. The charity provides services for an outlying rural community. The local geography is one of the reasons for the charity’s existence.

“One of the biggest issues is social isolation,” explains Robert Stockley, the charity’s only full time worker. “People don’t have the same access to services as they would in a town – let alone in the city.”

To help address this, the Association runs a variety of practical activities and groups, such as youth groups and older people’s groups from its base in Laurencetown. Although the organisation enjoys lots of support from the local community, it manages on an annual budget of £76,000.

“The charity has recently set up an after-school youth group for secondary school kids,” explains Robert. “We provide Internet access for those who don’t have it at home and can’t get to a library; they come here to do their homework. Donated security software from Symantec and copies of Encarta and Microsoft Office has made a real difference to the initiative.” Would this have happened without CTX? “On a much smaller scale,” explains Robert. “They might have had to come in to use our office computer to type a letter, for instance.”

Speaking about the strong level of industry support Peter Russell, Regional Manager for Microsoft Northern Ireland, said: “Through our Unlimited Potential programme Microsoft is continually looking at new and innovative ways that technology can support people and organisations working with those in need. We have a long tradition of actively supporting organisations in the non-profit sector in Ireland through the donation of financial grants and software, however, the processes and structures that Charity Technology eXchange brings to the donation programme will broaden the reach of our donations and provide a simple and accessible way for nonprofits to access the latest technology.

“We see on a daily basis the impact that access to technology can have on people and on organisations - our primary objective is to ensure that everyone can reach their potential by providing access to technology for as many people as possible. We believe that Charity Technology eXchange is the right vehicle to help us achieve this objective and would encourage and welcome all eligible organisations to apply for a donation and would encourage other technology companies to join us in supporting this important initiative.”

William Hoyle, Chief Executive of Charity Technology Trust said that feedback from the non-profit sector to the donations programme has already been strong. “Having access to standard technology is vital for every non-profit organisation in order to offer their services at the high standard people deserve. However budgets are often under too much pressure to allow the necessary investment in ICT. Charity Technology eXchange will give these organisations access to critical technology to more efficiently deliver services to the most needy and better use donor funds. The technology donations also open the door to delivery of new and innovative services with better communication and participation with those who benefit from their service.”

”We aim to improve the communities in which we work through a combination of monetary donations, employee volunteerism and product donations,” said Austin McCabe, vice president, Symantec Corporation in Ireland. “The Charity Technology eXchange programme offers us the structure and means to get the latest Symantec technology directly into the hands of local organisations. Through software donations we see Symantec playing a positive role in helping non-profits in Ireland safely leverage the Internet to advance their causes and affect positive change while freeing up their funds to concentrate on charitable missions.”

"This is a wonderful opportunity for voluntary and community organisations in Northern Ireland.  NICVA is convinced that new technology, applied well, can greatly enhance the ability of our members to deliver more efficient and effective services to people who need them.  The high costs involved have put many organisations in a spot as their funds are always under pressure.  It is brilliant that organisations of the size and scale of Microsoft, Cisco and Symantec are going to help, and help big time," said  Seamus McAleavey, Chief Executive, NICVA.

For any organisation seeking to secure a donation they should log on to www.ctxchange.org for details. The process is simple and straightforward with a small administrative fee of between 4% and 8% of the value of the donated products payable upon receipt of the donation. The administration fee ensures that the service is sustainable for the long-term and helps to fund Charity Technology eXchange.

Galway: April 16th, 2008 - The Galway Microsoft Technology User Group is hosting the first ever Developer Developer Developer, (DDD), Community Event held in Ireland on May 3rd 2008.

The event, dubbed the ‘Craggy Island Techfest’ by organisers, will take place at the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology in Galway and will include international speakers and over 20 sessions on Microsoft technology. This is the first time that the “Developer, Developer, Developer” events, which were started in the UK, has come to Ireland. Attendance is free.

“The DDD event is all about providing software developers with the opportunity to learn, share and meet in a relaxed informal atmosphere. There’s a great line-up for Galway with 6 tracks and over 20 sessions being hosted by international and local speakers in the .NET community, The event will be jam-packed with great content, advice and most important the opportunity to mingle!” commented Clare Dillon, Developer and Platform Group, Microsoft Ireland.

When: Saturday, 3^rd May - Start time is 9:00 am

Where: Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, Dublin Road, Galway

Why: Expert speakers; 20+ sessions to choose from; small groups for in-depth topic coverage; plenty of opportunities to network with visiting experts.

Cost: Free

This event is being run by the Microsoft developer community, for the developer community. The speaker line up for DDD has many well known international and local speakers. In addition, presenters from BASTA! and JustCommunity’s NRW conferences are also joining us for DDD Ireland!

A number of activities have also been planned for attendees after the event on Saturday. Everyone has been invited to join the speakers for a trip into Galway’s Spanish Quarter for some more geek-talk and some Galway craic. On Sunday the organisers are also holding a ‘Geek Walk and Talk’ trip to Craggy Island (Inis Oirr).

About DDD Ireland This is an excellent event for students and professionals alike. Space is limited to 250 attendees. To register early and get a full agenda of the day’s events and speakers go to http://www.dddireland.com.

ParkIT to represent Ireland in global final in France this summer

Dublin: Friday 11th April 2008 – Minister for Education and Science, Mary Hanafin T.D today announced that Sligo IT will represent Ireland at the global finals of Microsoft’s Imagine Cup 2008, the company’s global student technology competition, with their project ParkIT. Now in its sixth year, Imagine Cup challenges students to "imagine a world where technology enables a sustainable environment". As winners of the Irish finals, ParkIT will travel to France this summer to compete against students from all over the world at the global finals of the Microsoft Imagine Cup 2008.

Speaking at the awards ceremony Minister Hanafin said, “For students to thrive in a world enabled by information technology, they must be equipped with the skills to make sense of and use the technology that surrounds them. They need to know how to learn new skills as quickly as technology creates new challenges.

“The Imagine Cup inspires creativity and ingenuity in the use of technology.  ParkIT have exhibited all these qualities and are worthy winners of the national stage of the competition.  I understand the standard of entry was outstanding and I have every confidence that ParkIT will go forward and do Ireland proud in the global finals. I would also like to acknowledge Microsoft’s invaluable support of this exciting initiative.”  

This is the second year that Ireland has hosted a national Imagine Cup competition.  It attracted entries from Universities, third level colleges and Institutes of Technology across the country with over 520 students registered for the competition from colleges, north and south of the border.

Paul Rellis, Managing Director, Microsoft Ireland congratulated the 2008 winners saying, “We were thrilled with the standard and quality of the projects entered into the 2008 Imagine Cup. It is great to have so many students in Ireland interested in technology and developing projects to enable a sustainable environment. I would like to congratulate all the finalists for making it this far and in particular congratulate our winners. Last year’s Imagine Cup was a huge success with Irish Students travelling around the world to successfully compete against the brightest minds from every corner of the earth.  This year we’ve seen an increase in the number of students participating and in the projects that have been submitted.  I believe that the Irish representatives in the 2008 finals will be a huge success.” 

Kieran Stafford, from the winning team said, “We’re delighted to have been chosen from amongst our peers to represent Ireland in such a prestigious competition. We look forward to representing Sligo IT, our fellow students and our country in France this summer and we are grateful to Microsoft for the opportunity.”

Many motorists travel around and around town centres trying to find parking spaces. This adds to congestion and adds significantly to carbon emissions. With this in mind students from Sligo IT are proposing an application which enables the provision of real time parking information. Using cameras and software, it monitors car park spaces and can determine when a space vacant. This information would then be sent to a central database, which would be used to drive a real time parking information system that provides users with available parking data near their location on request. The user would then be able to use a portable device such as a sat-nav system or their mobile phone to request a parking space near their current location or at a specified location.

Imagine Cup Sponsors

Last year, Microsoft brought together a group of leading companies to support the initial Irish Imagine Cup competition.  The success of last year has seen those sponsors return and a number of new sponsors getting involved.  This year the Gold sponsors are Enterprise Ireland and Riverdeep Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing. Other sponsors include Lenovo, Imag!ne Telecommunications and Lero, the Irish Software Engineering Research Centre.

Imagine Cup World Finals

ParkIT will now compete with students and projects from around the world at the final in France.  The overall prizes include a chance to Silicon Valley to take part in the Imagine Cup Innovation Accelerator.  It propels Imagine Cup software design champions into the next stage of developing their innovative ideas as a business. The Imagine Cup Innovation Accelerator, a joint project from Microsoft and BT, is a prize awarded to the best software design teams. Teams selected for the Innovation Accelerator program receive technical support and business coaching to create the must-have technology and communications applications of the future. Over an intensive two-week period, students further develop their designs and viable business plans with close guidance from some of the best minds at Microsoft and BT.

About the Imagine Cup

The competition, which is open to all third level colleges and universities, consists of nine categories spanning team-based challenges like software design and short film to individual challenges involving algorithms and game programming. Students’ work will reflect valuable, real-world solutions that address the pressing global environmental issues while giving them the opportunity to compete for generous cash prizes.

• New Microsoft Server technology set to save Northern Ireland businesses millions in annual energy costs
• 36,000 Servers in Northern Ireland today
• Only 5% of business virtualized today
• One Windows Server 2008 equivalent to Power of 16 Current Servers

Belfast: April 8th 2008 - The latest Microsoft Server product – Windows Server 2008 was launched today at the Waterfront Hall, Belfast. The event, was attended by over 300 IT professionals and software developers from businesses across Northern Ireland and marks Microsoft’s largest product launch in Northern Ireland.

Windows Server 2008 marks an incredible step forward in ‘Green Technology’ through increased efficiency and a new technology called virtualisation.  Virtualisation enables companies to reduce the number of computer servers they use by having multiple servers in one physical server box.  The launch, which incorporates three products; Windows Server 2008; SQL Server 2008; and Visual Studio 2008, is themed ‘Heroes Happen Here,’ to honour the thousands of IT professionals and developers around Northern Ireland who work tirelessly to bring the remarkable benefits of computer technology to their companies.

And as Bill O’Brien, Business Manager, Server and Tools for Microsoft Ireland explains the new server product can have a huge impact on the environment, “The issue of reducing our environmental impact is something that we are all aware of. New technologies such as Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 enable us to get more benefit from technology while at the same time reducing the power consumption of our computers resulting in less energy usage and a corresponding reduction in CO2 emissions.   If we upgrade every server in Northern Ireland to Windows Server 2008 we would reduce CO2 omissions by approximately 1 million tonnes every year - to put in terms we may better understand, that is more than the emissions from 120,000 midsized cars on the road.”

Energy Savings

There are currently 36,000 servers in the Irish market with approximately 10,500 more servers per year scheduled to enter the market according to the IDC.  The cost of running those servers 24/7 in terms of energy both in running cost and cooling systems annually is significant.

“The amount of CO2 emissions generated from that kind of usage is staggering,” added O’Brien.  “It’s estimated that only 5% of business are virtualised today, that represents a tremendous growth potential and an incredible saving in terms of businesses expenditure on energy year on year.

Early Adopters

Prior to the official launch of Windows Server 2008 a number of leading organisations throughout Ireland took part in an early adoption trail. UTV took the opportunity to be the first adopter in Northern Ireland and it has witnessed real benefits to its business operation since installing the new product.

“Windows Server 2008 has significantly enhanced our hosting customer propositions in UTV New Media” explains Jeremy Biggerstaff, Managing Director UTV New Media.  “The hosting features available in the product have enabled us to continue to provide the most innovative range of products in the marketplace. All clients will find it easier to deal with us, whether they are business partners, first time customers, complex solutions or traditional SME’s.  The new platform has strengthened our knowledge and our hosting business for the future”

He continued, “I am delighted with the way in which the early adopters programme was managed.  The onsite installation was carried out by local IT specialist and Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, Northgate.  Their expertise was invaluable and having dedicated access to them and Microsoft engineering specialists made the implementation process a lot smoother.”

Addressing delegates at the launch event, Peter Russell, NI Regional Manager with Microsoft stated, “This is an incredibly exciting time for Microsoft – these new enterprise products help customers more efficiently and securely manage their entire infrastructure and move to a virtualised environment while also delivering business intelligence and next-generation web experiences to boost business results.”

Wicklow: April 4th, 2008 - Paul Rellis, Managing Director, Microsoft Ireland, today highlighted the role technology, management capability and innovation can play in modernising government in his address to the Irish Management Institute national conference.

He focussed on the importance of productivity and competitiveness to the continued prosperity and growth in the Irish economy and emphasised the need for both the public and private sector to take an active role in addressing those issues.

Rellis emphasised that traditionally, when faced with economic challenges, Governments around the world have often taken measures to cut public services. However, there is an alternative. “By combining the potential of technology with increased management capability and a more innovative approach to public services, there are unprecedented opportunities for delivering improved citizen services and increasing the competitiveness of our public sector, regardless of the economic climate locally or internationally,” he said.

“We are just beginning to realise the potential of information technology as a tool in the modernisation of government services and its role in boosting the productivity of our public service and thereby increasing the competitiveness of our economy as a whole,” he said.

“Within the next decade, it is fair to say there will be as significant an explosion in the use of information technology as we have experienced over the past ten years. No government can afford to fall behind in harnessing appropriate systems to deliver services that will ensure the greatest efficiency and productivity in the use of public resources and public money,” he noted.

Microsoft has been working with governments around the world to understand how technology, innovation and management capability can assist in the delivery of public services.

“In our work globally, we have discovered that as well as enhancing the efficiency of delivery of public services, technology significantly increases the productivity of government. In an Irish context this means that even in economically challenged times, a focus on the benefits of technology, management capability and innovation to maintain levels of public service is compelling,” he concluded.

National Standards Authority of Ireland votes to approve Open XML specification - Final vote appears overwhelmingly in favour; input from 87 national bodies contributed to an improved specification.

[Update: April 2nd 2008 - ISO confirms approval of Open XML as ISO standard]

Dublin, Ireland: April 1st, 2008 — After more than 14 months of intensive review, a Joint Technical Committee of the International Standardization Organization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) has concluded its formal process to evaluate Ecma International’s submission of the Draft International Standard (DIS) 29500: Office Open XML (Open XML).

Ireland is one of the participating voting countries in the global ISO process to ratify Open XML as a global technology standard. Ireland’s decision to ratify Open XML was taken following a detailed review of the specification by the NSAI technical committee over a 14 month period, and followed a thorough process set out by the NSAI. Conditional approval was given to OpenXML in September subject to certain technical issues being addressed to the NSAI’s satisfaction. Now that these have been addressed, the NSAI has formally voted to approve the revised specification.

Open XML is a file format for documents, spreadsheets and presentations that enables computer users to create rich documents which can be shared among different computers, applications and systems. The format is freely available and is already being adopted by other technology providers including Apple, Novell and Palm and is already included in Microsoft Office 2007. The growing number of companies building Open XML applications illustrates the widespread support for the standard.

Over one hundred Irish companies made submissions on their support for the Open XML specification through the NSAI ratification process. Microsoft is committed to continuing the open and collaborative, consensus approach which brought input from an unprecedented number of technical experts from around the world and has greatly improved the Open XML specification.

While the final vote has not yet been announced formally, publicly available information appears to indicate the proposed Open XML standard received extremely broad support. According to documents available on the Internet, 86 percent of all voting national body members support ISO/IEC standardization, well above the 75 percent requirement for formal acceptance under ISO and IEC rules. In addition, 75 percent of the voting Participating national body members (known as P-members), including Ireland, support standardization, also well above the 66.7 percent requirement for this group. Open XML now joins HTML, PDF and ODF as ISO- and IEC-recognized open document format standards.

“This decision is good news for Irish customers, Irish government and the broader software industry in Ireland, who wish to ensure that they have document formats which meet their specific needs,” commented Sean Foley, Head of the Developer and Platform Group at Microsoft Ireland. “Throughout this process, we have spent a lot of time listening to business and technology experts from Ireland and around the world. We have used their feedback to improve the Open XML specification. We look forward to continuing our work with the NSAI and other standards organisations around the world as part of our commitment to promoting greater technological interoperability and ultimately greater innovation.”

“We fully support the NSAI’s decision to approve Open XML,” commented Conor O’Riordan, Managing Director at CP3 Group, an Irish software company involved in trade facilitation. “As we are focused on enabling small and medium sized Irish businesses to conduct international cross border trade faster and cheaper with UNCefact standards, we welcome the addition of Open XML to the standards base as it will be extremely beneficial for small business here. Open XML is based on technology and tools that Irish SMEs already use and that is an important consideration when you look at the standards we need to put in place to support Irish companies.”

“With 86 percent of voting national bodies supporting ratification, there is overwhelming support for Open XML. This outcome is a clear win for the customers, technology providers and governments that want to choose the format that best meets their needs and have a voice in the evolution of this widely adopted standard,” said Tom Robertson, general manager of Interoperability and Standards at Microsoft Corp. “The input from technical experts, customers and governments around the world has greatly improved the Open XML specification and will make it even more useful to developers and customers. Once it is formally approved, we are committed to supporting this specification in our products, and we will continue to work with standards bodies, governments and the industry to promote greater interoperability and innovation.”

The open standard has gained broad adoption across the software industry for use on a variety of platforms — including Linux, Windows, Mac OS and Palm OS. Hundreds of independent software vendors and platform providers around the world — such as Apple Inc., Corel Corp., Sun Microsystems Inc., Microsoft and Novell Inc. — are developing solutions using Open XML that offer real value for IT users around the globe. Thousands of companies have expressed support for Open XML and its ratification by ISO (http://www.iso.org) and IEC at http://www.openxmlcommunity.org.

Those working with Open XML can attest to the benefits of this open file format in the areas of file and data management, data recovery, interoperability with line-of-business systems, and the long-term preservation of documents. The formats are optimized for the level of precision and detail that facilitates carrying forward billions of existing files. Open XML file formats are uniquely capable of integrating other types of systems and data with Open XML documents, while maintaining a clean, simple separation of presentation (Open XML markup) and data (custom schemas and instances thereof). This means that organizations can use Open XML formats to report information from other applications and systems without having to translate it first, which is a key innovation for developers seeking to incorporate real-time business information into their documents, or those who seek to “tag” documents with their own categorization system to improve their understanding of the documents’ contents.

More information about Open XML, as well as available solutions using the open standard specification, is available at http://www.openxmlcommunity.org/inuse.aspx.

Leading Irish Mobile Operators Support Windows Mobile 6.1

Las Vegas, Nevada: April 1st, 2008 —Windows Mobile is improving smartphones to better meet people’s rapidly expanding work and personal needs, Microsoft today announced. At the CTIA Wireless 2008 event, the company unveiled the newest version of Internet Explorer Mobile, which adds desktop-grade Web browsing to Windows Mobile phones. In addition, Microsoft announced Windows Mobile 6.1, an update for its Windows Mobile software that includes new time-saving features, easier phone navigation and management, and increased security safeguards.

“It’s very clear that people want a single phone that has the flexibility to meet their needs wherever they are, or whatever they are doing throughout the day,” said Colm Torris, Windows Mobile marketing manager at Microsoft Ireland. “Our goal is to provide a phone that has both the capability to support working on the move and to support the rest of our lives outside work. The innovations we’re adding to Windows Mobile make it easier to manage your entire world.”

“Microsoft is taking the necessary steps to broaden its consumer appeal while also addressing the complex mobile needs of the enterprise,” said Ben Bajarin, analyst with Creative Strategies. “Internet Explorer Mobile and Windows Mobile 6.1 demonstrate Microsoft’s ability to harness its technologies to bring tangible innovations and benefits to customers and partners.”

Updated Internet Explorer Mobile Brings the Quality of Desktop Web Browsing to Phones

The new version of Internet Explorer Mobile adds the ability to easily view full-screen Web pages and multimedia on the Web with a smartphone. By taking advantage of Internet Explorer 6 technologies and supporting established and upcoming industry standards such as H.264, Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight, the updated Internet Explorer Mobile gives people a rich mobile Internet experience. The update will be available to mobile phone partners in the third quarter of 2008, with the first Windows Mobile phones using the new version expected to be available by the end of 2008.

Windows Mobile Update Drives Simpler Experience

Windows Mobile 6.1 features several key updates based on customer feedback, including the capability to make the most critical information readily available at a glance, quicker phone setup, and enhanced features adapted for the small screen. In addition, if coupled with System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 or Exchange Server 2007 SP1, Windows Mobile 6.1 provides the best experience for IT professionals to manage mobile phones for businesses.

Windows Mobile 6.1 will help people get more from their phones by bringing updates to what they care about most. With Windows Mobile 6.1 users will be able to accomplish the following:

· Stay up to date and share from a single location. Glance at and respond to notifications such as missed calls, upcoming appointments and new messages from the home screen as well as play music and share photos.

· Get up and running in minutes. From setting up e-mail, a Bluetooth headset or Wi-Fi, the new Getting Started Center makes the phone experience intuitive and simple.

· Save time with features adapted for the small screen. Easily flag, delete or move groups of messages and keep track of conversations through threaded text messaging. Zoom in on text or pictures, or view an entire Web page at once.

· Help keep business information protected. Support for System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 helps administrators manage phones similarly to a Windows-based PC or access company data that may be behind a firewall; and support for Exchange Server 2007 SP1 advanced mobile policies helps businesses manage and administer security for phones while enabling people to find, share, and use information no matter where they are.

More information is available at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/apr08/04-01EnterpriseMobilePR.mspx.

Leading Irish Operators Embraces Windows Mobile 6.1

Neasa Parker, Billpay Segment Manager at Meteor commented: “At Meteor, we are constantly looking for ways to improve our business customers’ user experience. The planned roll out of Windows Mobile 6.1 on a range of smart phones is critical to this, as it will provide users with superior functionality such as easier navigation and phone management, stronger security features and new time-saving features. All of these new features will allow us to not only provide our own customers with enhanced service but it will allow us to acquire new customers who are looking for devices that will enhance productivity.”

Billy D’Arcy, Head of Corporate & Business Sales, O2 Ireland comments, “O2 Ireland will be supporting the Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 operating system on its new range of Windows Mobile devices. For example the forthcoming XDA Orbit II, available exclusively from O2 later this month, will be capable of being upgraded to Windows Mobile 6.1. We’re continuously expanding our mobile office portfolio, and this announcement shows our commitment to finding new solutions for all types of customers. For business users Windows Mobile delivers a familiar, cost effective platform for advanced mobile communications, which can deliver significant productivity gains for small, medium-sized, and larger businesses. The improved features and functionality of Windows Mobile 6.1 will now allow our customers to take advantage of all the new security features within Microsoft’s System Centre Mobile Device Manager, such as over the air software deployment, and also the ability to allow IT Administrators to lock down features on the device such as Bluetooth, Camera, and WLAN. This is in addition to the existing benefits of Windows Mobile, which enables users to receive e-mail in real-time, update their schedule, access contacts, and use familiar Microsoft Office applications to read, create and edit documents, all in the palm of their hand.”

Eavann Murphy, Head of Business Marketing, Vodafone Ireland, said: “Vodafone Ireland welcomes today's announcement that Microsoft are launching the new Windows Mobile 6.1 operating system. Vodafone currently supports Windows Mobile 6.0 on a number of handsets and will support the Windows Mobile 6.1 operating system on a range of devices due to come to market. Windows Mobile 6.1 has a new home screen layout and user interface that will mean an even better experience for our customers. Windows Mobile has proved to be a real success with business customers and these enhancements will only strengthen Windows Mobile as an effective and efficient solution.

Device-makers for Windows Mobile 6.1:

– ASUS: New phones including the P320, ZX1, P560, M536 and updates for the P527, P750, M930

– HTC: A new Touch Dual for the U.S. and updates for the AT&T Tilt, Touch by HTC, Mogul by HTC from Sprint, TyTN II

– i-mate: 8502, 9502, 8150, 6150

– Intermec: CN3

– Motorola: MOTO Q 9c, MOTO Q 9h global, MC70, MC9000

– Pantech: Pantech duo

– Samsung: BlackJack II

– Toshiba: Portégé G810,Portégé G910

More information:

Windows Mobile 6.1: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/default.mspx

System Center Mobile Device Manager: http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/mobile/default.mspx.

Microsoft is today announcing the Interoperability Forum – a web-based resource designed to foster open communication, dialogue, and problem-solving about interoperability challenges. The forum is the latest step the delivery of our Interoperability Principles  - our commitment to promote greater interoperability, opportunity and choice across the IT industry of developers, partners, customers and competitors - which were announced in February (see below for more information).

The Forum contains information about what Microsoft is doing in the area of interoperability, and will enable an open dialogue on issues of importance to users and information technology companies.

The Forum is intended to enable an open conversation about interoperability among industry participants and contains three specific topic areas for discussion and collaboration.

1. Interoperability Conversations – An area in which participants can raise general questions, identify issues or propose solutions about interoperability in the marketplace. Discussions among industry participants on interoperability issues will ultimately help to create solutions that address key issues.
2. Technical Interoperability Scenarios - A forum to discuss technical interoperability issues and how they can be resolved. Some examples of discussion topics include:   developer tools and runtime; office productivity; systems management; and security and identity management.
3. Achieving Interoperability Through Standards - One way to achieve interoperability is through the implementation of industry standard technologies. While standards are not the only way to enable interoperability, they are an important part of the conversation. This forum encourages participants to start conversations related to standardizing technologies and implementing standards in products.

About Microsoft's Interoperability Principles

In February, we announced a set of broad-reaching changes to our technology and business practices to increase the openness of our products and drive greater interoperability, opportunity and choice for developers, partners, customers and competitors.

Known as the Interoperability Principles, they encompass four areas across our high-volume business products:

1. Ensuring open connections
2. Promoting data portability
3. Enhancing support for industry standards
4. Fostering more open engagement with customers and the industry, including open source communities.

These interoperability principles apply to the following high-volume Microsoft products: Windows Vista (including the .NET Framework), Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008, Office 2007, Exchange Server 2007, and Office SharePoint Server 2007, and future versions of all these products.

You can find more details on the Interoperability Principles here.

Pictured from left: Brad Smith, senior vice president and general counsel, Steve Ballmer, Chief Executive Officer and Ray Ozzie, Chief Software Architect, at the announcement of Microsoft's Interoperability Principles on February 21st, 2008.

Additional Interoperability Resources:

• The Microsoft Interoperability web site [Link]
• Microsoft and Sourcesense partner to contribute to open source, Apache POI to support Ecma Office Open XML file formats [Link]
• Microsoft partners with top Social Networks to put users at the centre of their data [Link]
• Microsoft Expands support for Web standards [Link]
• Microsoft launches Document Interoperability Initiative [Link]
• Q&A with Bob Muglia on Microsoft's Interoperability Principles [Link]
• Sun and Microsoft Expand Investment in Interoperability With New Centre [Link]
• Microsoft users to "Save as DAISY" [Link]
• Microsoft expands document interoperability for Scientific and Technical Authors [Link]
• Q&A with Terry Myerson on connecting Apple iPhone users to Microsoft’s Exchange Server [Link]
• Microsoft posts XAML Format technical documentation [Download link]
• Microsoft provides Accessibility Programming Model to industry group devoted to Interoperability and Accessibility [Link]
• Microsoft and Novell provide Renault with Interoperability [Link]

Limerick: March 27th 2008 - New "Bird's Eye" views of a number of Irish towns and cities have been added to Windows Live Maps - Microsoft's online mapping service. 

Irish towns and cities added in this revision include:

• Carlow
• Cork
• Galway
• Limerick
• Navan
• Wexford

One notable absentee from this revision is Dublin, but this will be added in a future release.

Pictured: Shannon-side via Windows Live Maps

You can find this and more Windows Live services at: http://www.live.com 

Note: If you've used Windows Live Maps before you might have to clear your cache for the new Bird's Eye views.

Dublin: March 26th 2008 - The Irish Microsoft Technology Conference (IMTC), a three day event featuring over 40 technology sessions will take place in Dublin and will be streamed online. The event, which is now in its third year, is being run by IrishDev.com and many of the local Irish Microsoft Technology User Groups (MTUG.ie). The event, which is sponsored by Microsoft Ireland will feature 8 tracks with over 40 technology sessions for software developers, IT professionals and students at Cineworld Complex Parnell Street, Dublin 1 with a reception and keynotes starting Wednesday 2nd April at 7:00 pm and sessions on Thursday 3rd April and Friday 4th April.

The event will be of great benefit to developers and IT professionals who have an interest in learning about the latest Microsoft tools and technologies, from Visual Studio to SQL Server to Windows operating systems, as well as a host of other Microsoft products. This is the first time so many expert speakers have been gathered together in Ireland for a Microsoft conference. Many of the speakers have been ranked as some of the most popular speakers among the top international line-ups at major Microsoft conferences such as TechEd. The conference also presents a great opportunity for students or recent graduates to network, keep up with cutting edge developments and hear from the industry’s key technical experts.

This year, for the first time, highlights of the IMTC will also be streamed live on the Internet. Each attendee will also receive a DVD with recordings of all the sessions after the conference.

Barry Alistair, commercial director of IrishDev.com believes that conferences like these are necessary and wants to encourage as many students as possible to attend. “Speakers such as big hitters like Doug Seven, Richard Heiges, Craig Murphy, Dave McMahon and Oliver Sturm will encourage and instil their enthusiastic passion for developing amongst students who may be contemplating entering the computer sciences at third level. If Ireland is to stay competitive we need to be able to show students the incredible creativity and innovation which comes out of the developer community,” commented Alistair.

“We are delighted to see that membership of the Microsoft Technology User Groups in Ireland has grown to over 4000 over the past few years. Each year, the user group members organise hundreds of technical session all around the country with expert speakers from Europe and the United States. The IMTC is their largest annual event and has grown to be one of the largest technical conferences in Ireland. It represents a fantastic opportunity for the Irish technical community to hear from world-renowned speakers that you would usually only see at international conferences like TechEd, but for a fraction of the price. Of course, at the IMTC, you also get the chance to go for a pint with the speakers afterwards! You wouldn’t get that opportunity at bigger conferences like TechEd and there is no better way to get all your technical questions answered. It’s great to see so many high-calibre speakers over in Dublin at one time,” commented Clare Dillon, Developer and Platform Group, Microsoft Ireland.

The event is sponsored by Microsoft Ireland, along with exhibitors Pocket Kings and Vantage Resources. The aim of IMTC 2008 is to provide an opportunity for the Irish ICT industry and the Microsoft community to come together.

How to register

You can register online at http://imtc.firstport.ie. The IMTC is one of the largest tech conferences in Ireland and this year each delegate will receive a free DVD containing all the sessions. The fee is €189 prior to the event or €245 at the door. The ticket includes; Registration drinks reception, two technology-packed conference days, refreshments, lunch, finale drinks reception. For full agenda information you can go to http://imtc.firstport.ie/agenda.aspx.

Redmond, Washington: March 19th 2008 — Reaching the next major milestone in virtualization development, Microsoft today made broadly available a feature-complete release candidate of Microsoft Hyper-V, the hypervisor-based virtualization software available with various versions of Windows Server 2008. A beta of Hyper-V was included with Windows Server 2008 when it launched last month, and this release candidate provides updated, near-final code.

Hyper-V provides customers with efficient and cost-effective virtualization infrastructure software. It enables customers to reduce operating costs by increasing hardware utilisation, optimising infrastructure and improving server availability. Customers and partners can download the release candidate at http://www.microsoft.com/Hyper-V by 6pm GMT today.

“Hyper-V, as part of Windows Server 2008, will help our customers to consolidate their IT systems and enable them to respond quickly to the changing demands of their business and their market,” commented Bill O’Brien, business manager, Server and Tools at Microsoft Ireland. “At our recent launch event for Windows Server 2008 is was apparent that Virtualization is a priority for a growing number of Irish companies. In the past it has been too complex and too expensive, which is why less than ten percent of servers are virtualized today. With Hyper-V we are addressing that complexity with a technology that is both cost-effective and easy to adopt. In addition we are providing the systems management capabilities that customers need to manage traditional and virtualized IT environments.”

Customers who started evaluating Hyper-V during the beta process in December 2007 and as part of their Windows Server 2008 installation are already experiencing more flexible IT systems, greater control, increased business agility and higher performance.

“We have a range of hardware running Server 2000 and Server 2003 and because of this I've been looking at both the core editions and the full edition with the view to using the core edition on older hardware for student usage and using virtualisation on our newest hardware. So far with all editions I've found the install particularly easy and fast. The changing of password on first install is great reminder and the "Roles" made it easier to configure the machines for what I wanted to use them for,” commented Willie O'Connor, Computer Science Department in Trinity College in Dublin

Larry Doyle of Netforce in Dublin said, “I have been testing Windows Server 2008 for a while now and I like it - it's fast & quick to setup. I particularly like the roles element as I would normally spend a considerable amount of time "trimming" un-required services from a production server that are auto installed or auto started in Windows 2003 Server installs (saying that I don't usually use the manage server wizards in 2003 which might save a bit of effort). I haven’t timed it, but it seems like 2008 will save me hours for each install I perform (and I’ll be happy that the end result is what I actually wanted).”

“I will be installing Windows 2008 for a couple of clients as soon as it is released...... to allow them to take advantage of new features such as increased security, faster IIS, improved management features, faster deployment time, improved performance, etc,” added Doyle.

Microsoft is working with partners to help them plan, build and test their own offerings built on Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V to address broad customer needs and expand and enhance the platform capabilities.

Hardware industry partners including AMD, Dell Inc., Fujitsu, Fujitsu Siemens Computers, Hitachi Ltd., HP, Intel Corporation, IBM Corp., NEC Corp. and Unisys Corp. are also working with Microsoft to test and evaluate Hyper-V. Once final code is available, these partners plan to integrate support for Hyper-V into their virtualization offerings in ways that best fit their business, including pre-installation on servers, device support, solutions and services. These partnerships will further lower barriers for customers as they adopt virtualization solutions, making it easier to incorporate virtualization into their server infrastructures.

The release candidate features an expanded list of tested and qualified guest operating systems, which now includes Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2), Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10, Windows Vista SP1 and Windows XP SP3. Host server and language support has been expanded to include the 64-bit (x64) versions of Windows Server 2008 Standard, Enterprise and Datacenter. The release candidate comes with support for more hardware configurations and offers improved performance and scalability. It also includes the option for installing Hyper-V Manager Microsoft Management Console on Windows Vista SP1 for remote management.

Deployment and management capabilities are essential when building a scalable virtualization infrastructure. With the Microsoft System Center suite and the next version of System Center Virtual Machine Manager, available in the second half of 2008, customers can seamlessly manage their physical and virtual servers with a single set of consistent, compatible tools. Customers will be able to rapidly provision and configure new virtual machines and centrally manage their virtual infrastructure, regardless of whether they are running on Hyper-V, Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2, VMware ESX Server or VMware Infrastructure 3. A future release of System Center Virtual Machine Manager will also add support for the Xen hypervisor.

The final version of Hyper-V remains on target for release by August 2008, which aligns with the previously stated timing for delivery within 180 days of the Windows Server 2008 release to manufacturing. More information about Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V is available at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/virtualization-consolidation.aspx, and more details about the Hyper-V release candidate can be found on TechNet blogs at http://blogs.technet.com/stbnewsbytes.

Dublin: March 18th, 2008: Microsoft has today announced the release of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) to Windows Update and Microsoft Download Centre. On February 14th, Windows Vista SP1 was released to m