RSS: Microsoft on the issues

By Brad Smith, President, and Amy Hood, Chief Financial Officer In 1979, Microsoft made the Puget Sound region our home when the company’s first 30 employees moved into an office building next to The Burgermaster in Bellevue. Over the decades, we’ve grown from a small start-up to become one of the world’s leading technology companies.... The post Ensuring a healthy community: the need for affordable housing appeared first on Microsoft on the Issues. […]

By Brad Smith and Carol Ann Browne This past year we’ve addressed some of history’s most important innovations in our Today in Technology blog and video series. Our focus is always on what we can learn from the past and apply to today’s issues. Today we look back at more recent history – the past 12... The post Today in Technology: The top 10 tech issues for 2019 appeared first on Microsoft on the Issues. […]

Our goal is to make these principles operational by the end of March 2019. The post Six principles to guide Microsoft’s facial recognition work appeared first on Microsoft on the Issues. […]

Last week, people around the world celebrated Computer Science Education Week. Millions of kids participated in an Hour of Code, a global call to action to spend an hour learning the basics of coding. At Microsoft we know that computer science is more than just “coding.” It is a way to think, and a tool for creation. It enables people to do, build and invent. Importantly, it also puts youth on the... The post Microsoft Computer Science Education Week 2018: Cracking the code appeared first on Microsoft on the Issues. […]

Microsoft’s Council for Digital Good captured the spotlight of our online safety work in 2018, along with new efforts to tackle online child sexual exploitation, including a cross-industry initiative focused on child grooming. Although we officially sunset our U.S. council pilot program this summer, we hope new regional councils across the globe will continue to... The post Year in review: Council for Digital Good shines; new councils to spread digital civility in 2019 appeared first on Microsoft on the Issues. […]

Ten years ago, Microsoft launched our Law Firm Diversity Program – an effort to work closely with our law firm partners to increase diversity.[1] In conjunction with internal efforts to grow diversity and foster inclusion in Microsoft’s legal department, this program was an opportunity to see if we could encourage our industry to become more... The post Celebrating 10 years of Microsoft’s Law Firm Diversity Program and honoring 2018’s top performer appeared first on Microsoft on the Issues. […]

By Marianne Phillips From the melting glaciers in the Arctic Circle to algae blooms in the previously pristine Lake Atitlan to ecosystem change around Murchison Falls to penguin tracking in Antarctica, the need for greater knowledge about the world around us and how it’s changing is both apparent and acute. Today, in partnership with the... The post Microsoft and National Geographic Society announce AI for Earth Innovation grantees appeared first on Microsoft on the Issues. […]

By Brad Smith & Carol Ann Browne Seven decades ago on this day, the world came together to adopt the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Eleanor Roosevelt, who led much of the work to craft the declaration, called it a “Magna Carta for all mankind.” As she hoped, it remains an important document that has... The post The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: An important anniversary for people and for technology appeared first on Microsoft on the Issues. […]

In July, we shared our views about the need for government regulation and responsible industry measures to address advancing facial recognition technology. As we discussed, this technology brings important and even exciting societal benefits but also the potential for abuse. We noted the need for broader study and discussion of these issues. In the ensuing... The post Facial recognition: It’s time for action appeared first on Microsoft on the Issues. […]

Every day the world is becoming more digital. Cloud computing combined with new productivity, communication and intelligent tools and services enable us to do more, do it more quickly and in ways that were simply unimaginable a generation ago. But participating in this new era requires a high-speed broadband connection to the internet. While it’s... The post The rural broadband divide: An urgent national problem that we can solve appeared first on Microsoft on the Issues. […]