Microsoft bringing technical learning to rural China
3 June 2008
[photopress:IT_Bill_Gates_Hu_Jintao.jpg,full,alignright]It is possible to have several views, simultaneously, about Microsoft. At times it acts as a totally insensitive monster — who else could have let the world suffer with Vista? And, at times, it can be quite sensitive. First there are the truly wonderful charity efforts of Bill and Melinda Gates (and let us not forget Warren Buffett) and then there is the way it donated money to support the Chinese government’s Sichuan earthquake rescue efforts and is now ready to provide training as well as donate PCs and technology classrooms. The company will donate two fully equipped InfoWagons, open a Partners in Learning (PiL) school, launch a Family Education PC program for rural communities in Miyun county outside Beijing, and provide digital literacy content and training in libraries and iCafés across Xinjiang. Orlando Ayala, Microsoft senior vice president, Unlimited Potential Group, says these latest rural moves are an extension of the work the company has already been doing in China for many years with its PiL education program and the mobile InfoWagons. [photopress:it_Microsoft_partners_in_learning_1.jpg,full,alignleft]The digital literacy content and training program initiative, a partnership between Microsoft and the Xinjiang government that strives to bring Internet and IT training and education programs to local communities through public libraries and iCafés, is expected to be the first of many across China. This will be done along with the local PC producer Founder and the Founder Windows PC for Education will have Windows Vista and Windows Live preinstalled, along with new learning software tailored for the Chinese education market. And, yes, that is Bill Gates at the back of the illustration at the top with Hu Jintao front and center.
