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Microsoft Student Partner Programme 2009- Apply today!

UK Academic Team Blog — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 08:18:00 GMT

What are Microsoft Student Partners (MSPs)? Microsoft Student Partners are some of the brightest, most innovative student technology enthusiasts who are currently studying at a university in the UK. What is Microsoft Student Partner Programme? The MSPs are part of a one year programme which is designed to help students get the most out of Microsoft tools and technologies. MSPs will work in partnership with Microsoft to reach out to technical students across the UK – helping at Microsoft events, running...(read more)

Open XPS – the Open XML Paper Specification is now an ECMA Standard

OSRIN.net — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 01:34:53 GMT

I’m surprised I missed this, I’ve been a little distracted by my recent move. It seems that back on the 16th June OpenXPS, the Open XML Paper Specification, was approved as an ECMA standard by their 97th General Assembly meeting, OpenXPS will be known as ECMA-388. A basic outline can be found on the specification download page; This [...]...(read more)

a time of subduction zones and tectonic IT policy shifts

Jerry Fishenden's technology policy blog — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 23:17:00 GMT

I've been contemplating what the barrage of announcements from government and opposition parties alike over the last few months portends. Maybe it's just the optimist in me, but I can't help feeling we are at, or rapidly approaching, the proverbial tipping point for technology policies and their future impact in particular on public services here in the UK. And not before time. Technology policy has long been in need of far more attention and a radical re-think if the UK is to realise technology's...(read more)

My new friend is a Twitter bot

OSRIN.net — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 20:20:59 GMT

For a little while now I’ve been using a really simple service that picks up on a hashtag in tweets and when possible connects travellers who happen to be in the same airprort. To use the service just tweet your flight number, the airport you are in and the hashtag #boarding in a single tweet. The [...]...(read more)

The Center For Forgotten Sticks – avoid with Office Live Workspace

Jonny's space — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 00:44:50 GMT

One of my colleagues in Microsoft UK just sent me a rather humorous video that suggests what happens to all of those USB sticks that students lose around the world every day. Pretty funny… I talk about this kind of thing to customers all of the time as well… The dog ate my USB stick. I left it stuck in to a library PC Someone stole it Someone stood on it at a party … One key benefit of using our Live Services is the amount of storage we provide… it adds up to a LOT. In the video we talk about Office...(read more)

GalSync 2010 releases for Outlook Live

Jonny's space — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 04:35:51 GMT

Something my colleague described at the “most anticipated 2676KB [he] has seen in quite a while'”… ILM support for Outlook Live is now with us. Webcasts by the Exchange team are planned, and I will do my best to blog on a few choice hints and tips here as well as these come up. GalSync 2010 can be obtained from the Outlook Live connection on http://connect.microsoft.com . Enjoy! Jonny...(read more)

GALSync 2010 documentation now available

Jonny's space — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 17:58:31 GMT

Many, many customers that I have been dealing with over the last year have been awaiting the launch of ILM support for Outlook Live. Well the wait is now almost over… more on this soon. In the meantime, feel free to immerse yourself in the extensive documentation we have just released to the web: http://help.outlook.com/en-us/140/dd575560.aspx . I get a feeling that this will generate a lot of chatter… Enjoy! Jonny...(read more)

Import Users feature added to the Outlook Live Exchange Control Panel

Jonny's space — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 17:54:44 GMT

As I have noted before, the great thing about hosted cloud services is that users and admins do not have to wait for major version upgrades to obtain new features. A new feature that has just landed in the Exchange Control Panel is an Import Users feature that allows an admin to stage a CSV file of new user mailboxes on our servers for processing instead of tying up a local desktop or server. Below is a nice pic of this in all of its shiny new glory :) Currently this feature is for new imports only…...(read more)

public sector number crunching

Jerry Fishenden's technology policy blog — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 10:33:00 GMT

It's not something that I usually read for fun, but the Office of National Statistics ' (ONS) latest update on public sector output and productivity reveals that the largest annual falls in public sector productivity were also the years when input growth was at its highest. Despite the decade from 1997 to 2007 witnessing an increase in the volume of inputs into the public sector of some 38 percent, the total public service productivity index fell over the same period by 3.2 percent. It's interesting...(read more)

innovation and a need to better understand our digital age

Jerry Fishenden's technology policy blog — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 20:10:00 GMT

I see that the OECD has published a timely warning on the threat to innovation posed by the current economic crisis. In its report, entitled " Policy Responses to the Economic Crisis: Investing in Innovation for Long Term Growth ", it warns that " innovation risks being hit hard by the economic crisis as the capital to finance it grows scarce ." Part of the report is a useful breakdown of government stimulus packages and measures taken to stimulate innovation. "Historically,...(read more)

Microsoft Bing Maps (formerly Virtual Earth) June Public Sector Webcast: Microsoft and IDV Solutions at Work for the Enterprise

Bing Maps's space — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 22:58:26 GMT

The Virtual Earth platform - now Bing Maps for Enterprise - is a critical component of the Microsoft geospatial story, enabling public sector agencies to serve up data in a manner that allows users to better visualize, understand, and ultimately to act on them in a more timely fashion, while simultaneously cutting costs and delivering clear value to their constituencies. Visual Fusion from IDV Solutions combines with Bing Maps, SharePoint and other Microsoft technologies to create a visual mashup...(read more)

Government Technology Article: LA County Housing Web Site Featuring Microsoft Bing Maps for Enterprise

Bing Maps's space — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 23:26:00 GMT

Back in April I blogged on the Neighborhood Stabilization (NSP) site from the Los Angeles County Housing Development that allows residents to search for and identify foreclosure property, and that features Bing Maps (formerly Virtual Earth ). The application has caught the attention of Government Technology and is discussed in an article on the publication’s web site entitled “ Los Angeles Fights Neighborhood Blight With Online Map .” The article provides good background and detail on the solution...(read more)

Microsoft Bing Maps for Enterprise featured in Earth Imaging Journal

Bing Maps's space — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 22:07:03 GMT

If you read Earth Imaging Journal, you will notice this month a feature story about Microsoft Virtual Earth (the story was submitted to EIJ prior to the Bing Maps rebranding) at work for Department of Transportation agencies in their efforts to provide better web services and travel information to citizens. The story, which highlights solutions from KDOT as well as VADOT and includes references to many other DOT agencies using our mapping platform, ran in the printed publication as well as here on...(read more)

New Bing Maps Imagery and World Tour Application

Bing Maps's space — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 15:42:45 GMT

Blogging on Bing Maps (formerly Virtual Earth) imagery releases is a little easier for me as of today. As readers of this blog know, Microsoft adds tens of terabytes of new content, including high-resolution aerial views, to our mapping platform every month and the list is sometimes rather long. I don’t always receive these updates formatted such that it makes immediate sense to the outside world and have had to massage quite a bit before posting. Lately it’s just been easier to let Chris Pendleton...(read more)

The Ultimate Steal: Microsoft Office Ultimate for just £38.95 for students only ending on June 26th

UK Academic Team Blog — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 14:28:33 GMT

The Ultimate Steal offer for students in UK Universities and Colleges is close to an end. You have until June 26th to go on the Ultimate Steal website , validate yourself as a student by providing your .ac email address and you will receive an email with further instruction to pay and download the software. What you will get is: the latest Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Outlook as well as Publisher, Access, Groove and OneNote. At £38.95, that’s 90% off estimated retail price. But you’ve got to have...(read more)

digital era governance

Jerry Fishenden's technology policy blog — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 09:45:00 GMT

When I was speaking recently at the 2009 Identity and Privacy Forum , I was struck by the presentation given by Professor Patrick Dunleavy from the London School of Economics * on Digital Era Governance . I usually consider the issue of public sector services primarily from an IT (and UK citizen) perspective, whereas Professor Dunleavy considered them from the angle of public policy. Whatever way you look at it, there is a fundamental problem in public sector IT which now needs to be addressed. For...(read more)

IDV Solutions Launches Visual Fusion in the Cloud: When Less is More

Bing Maps's space — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 23:46:05 GMT

Microsoft partner, IDV Solutions , today announced that its SharePoint-based geospatial mashup platform, Visual Fusion , is now integrated with Microsoft’s Azure , allowing rapid creation of enterprise “mashups” that integrate data from virtually any data source into an endless number of applications. If you are not already familiar with Azure, it is an internet-scale, cloud services platform hosted in Microsoft data centers. Azure provides an operating system and a set of developer services that...(read more)

Upgrading to WS2008 SP2 and Vista SP2 with PowerShellv2/WinRMv2 CTP3

Jonny's space — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 22:48:08 GMT

That’s a lot of letters and numbers up there in the title… isn’t it great that you can write stuff like that and folks still know what you mean? Anyway, what are we talking about here? Some of the early users of WinRMv2 and PowerShellv2 on Windows Server and Vista machines may now be upgrading their OS’s to Service Pack 2. In doing so, Powershell connectivity to Outlook Live may stop working, depending on what iteration of the bits you originally used. If you do upgrade to SP2 and PowerShell stops...(read more)

rethinking public services

Jerry Fishenden's technology policy blog — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 06:46:00 GMT

I suspect it would be hard to find many people who disagree with the notion of empowering citizens (although I have encountered a few). Public services need to put people first, investing power in the hands of citizens and our communities. For many years now we've heard much talk of the need to personalise public services and to provide citizens with greater choice and control. But why has the delivery of this objective been so slow, and how will the current economic situation affect the government's...(read more)

Returning home from Malaysia & #mscosconf

OSRIN.net — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 03:23:18 GMT

I just completed what will be the last business trip I’ll take in my existing role in Microsoft… my new position will not be hugely different from what I’m doing now, I’ll still be involved in many of the same conversations, I’ll still be with Microsoft, but I will have a slightly different focus. More [...]...(read more)

OnDemand Recording: Virtual Earth & MapDotNet for Economic Development

Virtual Earth for Public Sector's space — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 01:32:54 GMT

If you missed last week’s " Virtual Earth & MapDotNet for Economic Development" webcast featuring yours truly, Mark Alexander of IS Consulting , and Julie Puckett from the Economic Development Council of Tallahassee/Leon County, you can still catch it through the OnDemand recording found here . You will definitely want to set aside an hour and watch this informative video that spells out how the Microsoft Virtual Earth platform (now Bing Maps for Enterprise) and ISC’s MapDotNet integrate...(read more)

Introducing Outlook Live Answers

Jonny's space — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 23:03:49 GMT

We are pleased to announce the release of Outlook Live Answers . This forum and blog site provides Live@edu Outlook Live administrators and end-users with a friendly “Q&A” forum to quickly find answers to their questions and for administrators to get dynamic information about their Outlook Live service. The site complements our help.outlook.com product documentation and will extend and replace our chalktalk DL . Instead of dispersing information in DLs, use of the forum by you and your student,...(read more)

Microsoft Virtual Earth Now “Bing maps for Enterprise”

Virtual Earth for Public Sector's space — Thu, 28 May 2009 16:50:08 GMT

Bing! You’ve got maps. Microsoft today announced the release of its new search engine, Bing . As part of this, the Virtual Earth mapping platform and the Live Search Maps consumer site for location-based search and mapping that Virtual Earth powers will be rebranded as “Bing maps for Enterprise” and “Bing maps,” respectively. So what does this mean to customers of the Virtual Earth platform? Good news: not all that much,, actually. If you are using our Virtual Earth mapping APIs, you will see the...(read more)

Virtual Earth 3D for WPF and Microsoft Surface

Virtual Earth for Public Sector's space — Tue, 26 May 2009 22:49:27 GMT

Attention all developers! If you have been following this blog for the past year and have read the write-ups on Microsoft Virtual Earth 3D running on the Microsoft Surface computing unit and wished for someone to make it easy to get started developing Virtual Earth applications for the Surface, wish no more! You can now find on CodePlex (Microsoft hosted web site for open source software) a Windows Presentation Format / Surface control provided by Microsoft partner, Infostrat . The project—InfoStrat.VE—allows...(read more)

Breaking into Public Sector markets as a small system integrator

OSRIN.net — Tue, 26 May 2009 03:22:02 GMT

A little while ago I wrote a piece that talked about why I believe large system integrators often fail to meet the needs of public sector customers, exploring what it takes to build skills within their own organization and help their customers make best use of new and evolving technology. I thought it might be [...]...(read more)