Vinny Guloto, General Manager for the Malware Protection Centre, presented today on the work that the centre is putting into the world of threat research, and both reactive and proactive response.

One of the interesting slides that Vinny used was about the history of development of industry standards in anti-virus development, and how the anti-virus marketplace has grown. It was broken down into:

• 1986 - 1990
  Very few viruses existed, and researchers in virus protection worked alone within their individual companies.
• 1990-1995
  Anti-virus organisations started to share information, and formed groups to build a common language, and started effective sharing across the industry. The AVPD created the "wildlist" and "wildcore" - starting to share standard signatures across the 20,000 viruses that were loose around the world at that time. This was pretty important to everybody - if you don't have all the viruses available, how can you develop detection and defence against it? (And, you don't want your AV software to rely on you being infected before they can work out how to prevent it!)
• 1995-2005
  All certified Anti-Virus software has to be able to detect all wildcore samples - a list which is expanding by 20-30 categories every month.
  By this time, the virus distributions (ie the virus signatures shared between anti-virus companies) exceeds the gigabyte mark for the first time.
• 2005-2007
  The Anti-Virus Coalition was formed. One of the shifts much more visible now, is that developing countries tend to be harder-hit by viruses as they come online. In India, China etc, the level of infections tend to be higher, because they are going through the learning experience we all went through before (When did you realise that you couldn't run a machine without virus protection?).
  Today there are 225,000 - 300,000 viruses in circulation.

More than 3,400 new software vulnerabilities were reported in the first 6 months of this year (please note, this isn't 3,400 vulnerabilities in MS software, but across the whole software marketplace that could threaten your PC or data). Seemed like a lot to me, until Vinny explained this is actually a decrease in a six month period for the first time since 2000.

Windows Defender is a piece of free software from MS which looks for things like adware and spyware, rather than specifically "malicious" software - it isn't anti-virus software. Using Windows Defender as an example, he shared some statistics:

• In the first six months of 2007, it detected 50 million pieces of potentially unwanted software
  • 16 million items of Adware
  • 7 million items of "potentially unwanted software"
  • 6.5 million Trojans
  • 3 millions items of "remote control" software

After the presentation, it is often the Q&A which contains a startling revelation. And this session was no different. Following a question about how things are changing, he threw in a statistic that was almost a throwaway - that the Malware Protection Centre have found that with Defender, Windows Vista machines have 3 times less "potentially unwanted" software than other Windows machines. Which provides a real life example of the way that the security built into Windows Vista is delivering (silently!) benefits to both the end user and the IT team running their networks.

To read more about the work that Vinny's team do, check out their Microsoft Malware Protection Center Portal

I'm at the IT Forum event this week - it's a week long tech-fest about current and future technologies from Microsoft. This year's event has 5,200 delegates and we're all sitting in a conference centre on the shores of Mediterranean in Barcelona (not quite as wonderful as it sounds - it was 10-degrees when we got here, and I didn't even think I needed a coat...brrrr). We're joined this year by around 80 IT support staff from colleges and universities around the UK, all here for the same thing - to get a behind-the-scenes, and in-depth look at the software that runs their services, and to see how new releases can help to improve your service delivery. 

I'm going to do my best to bring you some of the headlines of the event, and their relevance to education.

Windows Server 2008

The opening keynote focused on Windows Server 2008 - the first of a launch wave of products due to be launched on 27th February. It will bring a wide range of new features and functionality which will be useful for education, such as:

• Network Access Protection - allowing you to build policy based protection for devices connected via wired connections, wireless or VPN to your network. With this, you can set a quarantine mechanism, where newly connected devices are automatically quarantined until they have run through a security policy check, and that allows you to enforce your policies (eg, all Windows devices must have the latest security updates installed and up-to-date anti-virus definitions). The ability to differentiate between policies for wired and wireless is useful - for example, it could help you to minimise inconvenience to wired staff, whilst maximising security for wireless student users.
• Security by design - the core idea of Windows Server 2008 is that you only install the components you need, and not the reverse (today's model installs virtually everything on the server, and expects you to switch things off). This will provide better base-line security, and mean you will need to spend less time patching your servers with the latest updates. The outcome? Improved up-time, and less time spent fire-fighting.
• PHP applications will run in Native mode on Windows Server 2008.  So what does this mean for your learning applications like Moodle?  Well, a while ago we announced database neutrality for Moodle, which is the M part of the LAMP stack. You can already run Moodle on MS SQL Server 2005.  Now it seems organisations will be able to run their entire Moodle Learning Environment on a Microsoft platform - clearly this is something that you might want to investigate further, especially if your VLE environment sits alongside your core systems.

More detail on the Windows Server 2008 and Hyper-V announcements

Virtualization*

This has been the buzzword of the afternoon. And what's available helps meet some of the the unique challenges of education IT systems - the expectation from users that they can run whatever applications they want, at the drop of the hat. Oh, and that you'll keep the IT Services up and running whenever they need access.

We've got virtualization technologies coming out of our ears at the moment - Applications virtualization (through SoftGrid/Microsoft Desktop Optimisation Pack); Presentation virtualization (through Terminal Services); Desktop virtualization; and enhanced Server virtualization (through Windows Server 2008).

• Server virtualization under Windows Server 2008 has been officially called "Hyper-V" - an enhanced way of running and managing virtual servers, with an enhanced set of services through System Centre (System Centre Virtual Machine Manager & Data Protection Manager were announced today), designed to better integrate the management of your physical and virtual IT services. On the stage here at IT Forum, Bryon Surace showed us a server hosting 4 flavours of Windows Server 2008 (including the 32-bit and 64-bit versions) running alongside a full Suse Linux server, in a single virtual environment. He also announced new tools to integrate Linux servers onto the Windows Server 2008 platform.
• Application virtualization options seem to be expanding rapidly at the moment. Although there are not a wave of new product announcements (although Beta 1 of the Microsoft Application Virtualization was announced), it has become clearer how the different approaches can allow you to enhance your service delivery, and give your users a little more flexibility without having to compromise your core service delivery.

More info on the System Center announcements

* Which is it? Virtualisation or Virtualization? Normally, I go for UK spellings, but the latest versions of the Oxford dictionary seem to be shifting to a more agnostic approach on Americanised spellings - on this occasion, I'm going to go with it, because we've got product names in here too. Does it really matter? Do you care? I've know that some of the online training providers find they get a lower completion rate on versions using American spellings - sometimes 50% of the normal rate. Does that mean I've lost half of you half-way through this article? Discuss.

Yes, I know you might still think of SQL 2005 as a new product, but SQL 2008 is nearly with us and there are many reasons why people are looking to upgrade.  Here are a few notes I took during a session today at IT Forum.
Some of the main points of the session were:

• Managing massive amounts of data on multiple devices
• Bringing Business Insight to more users and making this simpler
  • There's a fantastic new report writer tool, with excellent visualisation.
• Spatial data management (at no additional cost)
• Transparent data encryption
• Sight and sound data types

Here are the notes I took during the session:

IT Forum SQL 2008

• In the last 4 years Microsoft has issued zero critical security vulnerabilities compared with another database vendor that has issued around 100 in the same period. So who has the most secure database?
• The price for SQL 2008 will be the same as SQL 2005.
• The upgrade experience from 2005 to 2008 will be as seamless as we can hope to make it and certainly better than in previous experiences. Customers should still consider upgrading from 2000 to 2005 as part of a migration journey.
• Data is everywhere and needs managing. Consider the fact that many laptops can have around 1 TB of storage. How do you manage that type of distributed data model?
• Transparent data encryption: the application, e.g. SAP, Blackboard or Agresso, does not need any changes for the database to be encrypted.
• 2008 has enhanced database mirroring to improve performance, thereby resulting in improved resilience. And also has optimised and predictable performance.
• Connect data from any device such as PC, laptop or phone
• Beyond relational
  • This means beyond words and numbers to sight and sound - a new data type has been added. This allows documents to be stored in a more cost effective manner. Then users can access these documents as data with full text search, query across relational and text data.
• New spatial data type
  • Location aware applications to help visualise location information.
    • By the way, this spatial ability is built into all flavours (including the free SQL) at no additional cost.
  • A great example used was how many coffee stores are within 1 km from the route to work? The answer is spatial and not traditional SQL. So the simple thing is to use long/lat as the storage type but when combined with a simple map and http://maps.live.com it's really powerful.
• Pervasive Insight.
  • What's this? Well, it's the ability to get the data out in a way that makes it useful to the right user communities/individuals in the organisation - to get more value out of their Business Intelligence.
  • Every user with actionable insight - delivers information via MS office with better integration between Word and Excel to bring data mining to a much broader audience
  • New report designer that gives significant ease of use to those every day users.

Get Safe Online week (12^th – 16^th November) is upon us again. And in the last 12 months, the subject of getting safe, and staying safe, online has become even more personal to me.

1. More personal like having to spend a whole day restoring a relative's PC, when it was subject to a self-inflicted trojan (self-inflicted - yup, he pressed the key to allow it in, and then watched it infect his machine with 30 other viruses).
2. And more personal like finding my own home PC with a trojan and 3 viruses in an hour, after an inadvertent key press (a little bit more training and guidance for members of the Fleming household!)
3. And more personal still when one of my friends asked for advice about a contact their daughter had made on Messenger, who was taking the conversation in an inappropriate direction (see below)*.

So, Get Safe Online week is a valuable contribution to reminding users everywhere to keep one step ahead of the criminals targetting us. Get Safe Online is the UK’s first national Internet security awareness campaign, founded in 2005 - a joint initiative between the Government, the Serious Organized Crime Agency (SOCA), Microsoft, and other private sector sponsors from the worlds of technology, retail and finance.

The initiative aims to help individuals and micro-businesses to protect themselves against Internet security risks by raising awareness of the need for Internet security and providing information, advice and updates through its website www.getsafeonline.org.

This November sees the third annual Get Safe Online Internet Safety Awareness Week, and, as in previous years, a road show will be touring the country next week visiting six UK cities from Bristol to Edinburgh. To find out more about activities in your area, visit the Get Safe Online website.

And if you want something for your staff or students, how about challenging them to see who scores highest in the "Just How Safe are you?" quiz - which teaches as well as tests.

* My advice on 3: Block the contact, sit down and talk about making contacts online, and if appropriate, hit the "Report Abuse" button in Messenger, that goes straight through to the police to report any appropriate behaviour online with or to a child.

There will be a number of sessions running on the   1^st and 3^rd Monday of every month, however look out for a number of specialist topics that will run on an ad-hoc basis. Check back here on a regular basis

Monday sessions – 10.00am -10.45am

·         Windows Vista in Education – Monday 5^th November 2007

·         Office 2007 in Education – Monday 19^th November 2007

·         Learning Platform for Schools  - Monday 3^rd December 2007

Specialist Topics

·         The Microsoft Computers for Pupils Package – Wednesday 14th November – 10.00-10.45am

·         Live Meeting 2007 – Virtual classrooms and remote learning – Thursday 6th December 3.30 – 4.30pm

See below for details of how to register and participate.

Details of Sessions

Windows Vista in Education – Live Meeting

This session will explore new features in Windows Vista for Teachers and Learners that make Windows Vista a tool for learning. We will also look at the new features for system administrators to create and to protect the virtual education environment.

Presented by Steven Audis, a Microsoft Education Technology Adviser in the UK Team

Click                       here to put this into your Outlook Calendar with the joining instructions

URL:                       https://www112.livemeeting.com/cc/microsoft/join?id=SQH3DD&role=attend   

 Call:                       0118 909 2000 and use participant code: 9395559

Microsoft Office 2007 in Education – Live Meeting

Get an overview of the latest Office system from Microsoft, which provides the ultimate arsenal of productivity tools for your students, educators, administrators, and support staff. From word processing to classroom presentations and animated Web design, the Microsoft Office system delivers a powerful and easy-to-use experience. Introducing Learning Essentials 2.0.

Presented by Steven Audis, a Microsoft Education Technology Adviser in the UK Team

Click                       here to put this into your Outlook Calendar, with the joining instructions

URL:                       https://www112.livemeeting.com/cc/microsoft/join?id=GMBMJ6&role=attend

Call:                        0118 909 2000 and use participant code: 9395559

Learning Platforms for Schools - Connected Learning Community – Live Meeting

The Learning Gateway from Microsoft is a solutions framework that helps improve education by integrating the tools you already use and putting them to work connecting people with the information and processes they need to teach and learn more effectively.

Presented by Steven Audis, a Microsoft Education Technology Advisor in the UK Team

Click                       here to put this into your Outlook Calendar, with the joining instructions

URL:                       https://www112.livemeeting.com/cc/microsoft/join?id=ZW4ZPZ&role=attend

Call                         0118 909 2000 and use participant code: 9395559

The Microsoft Computers for Pupils Package – Live Meeting

In this half hour slot, we will share how Microsoft have engaged in the Computers For Pupils initiative and dive into the package we can offer, including a discounted Office 2007 productivity suite (including OneNote, Groove and Communicator) and a specially developed curriculum materials pack. See how this can fit into your overall CFP package and join in our Q & A at the end!

Presented by the Education Team

Click:                      here to put this into your Outlook Calendar, with the joining instructions

URL:                       https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/microsoft/join?id=CFPnov07&role=attend

Call:                        0118 909 2000 and use participant code: 9395559

Live Meeting 2007  In Education – Virtual Classrooms, Remote Learning and more!

With the advent of the new version of Live Meeting (2007) functionality has now been implemented that’s been specifically designed for education faculties, training organisations and educational generalists. Live Meeting can extend the reach of education in enhancing the learning experience. Simon Palmer, former Learning and Development Manager for Dell in EMEA, will demonstrate some of this functionality illustrating how learning styles can be enhanced to improve learning either in the workplace or through educational establishments. Compelling new enhancements such as video, voice, rich media and break out rooms combined with an easy to use interface generates the right virtual environment to capture the pupils attention and will allow them to engage in interactive learning!

Presented by Simon Palmer, Technology Specialist for Unified Communications and former Learning and Development Manager for DELL EMEA.

Click:                       here to put this into your Outlook Calendar, with the joining instructions

URL:                        https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/microsoft/join?id=LM2K7edu&role=attend

Call:                        0118 909 2000 and use participant code: 9395559

Have you been looking for a way to convert older learning resources into SCORM format? Well Hunterstone may have the answer for you.

HunterStone announced it has developed a "Mass SCORM Conversion Tool."  The company developed the tool for use in projects that require large amounts of content to be converted to SCORM.  Targeted for use in projects with publishers and organizations that have very large databases of content and learning materials HunterStone President and CEO Neil Richards stated "the tool will save organizations countless hours of time which will directly translate into saving tens of thousand if not hundreds of thousands of dollars in SCORM conversion endeavors."

The tool is thought to be among the first of its kind used for commercial purposes.  SCORM's adoption rate is forecasted to accelerate during the next few years and HunterStone's strategy as a leading provider of SCORM eLearning services is further solidified by this announcement.  Previously, the company released its leading SCORM Conversion and Authoring product suite THESIS for general use by instructional designers, subject matter experts, and trainers throughout the world.  Additionally, Microsoft's Education Product Group licensed a portion of THESIS technology for use in its Learning Essentials Program and provides Microsoft Academic Customers the ability to author SCORM content with Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel.

THESIS is a suite of eLearning tools which adheres to the SCORM specifications and integrates with Microsoft Office. This enables a user to author eLearning resources and objects straight from familiar Microsoft Office applications such as Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Visio and Producer. The THESIS "Learning Object Manager" allows a user to author complete SCORM courses and quizzes for online instruction, using multiple learning objects from different sources. THESIS Librarian "SCORM enables" Microsoft SharePoint to create Learning Object Repositories where subject matter experts can collaborate on course development and also use the tool as a meta-data manager.

Over the next few months, we are going to running a series of briefings on specific aspects of ICT in education, relating to some of our newer technologies and their use in education. They are all running as Live Meetings, where you are able to watch the PowerPoint presentation on your screen, and hear the presenter talking through your phone.

• The upside is that you can join in during a normal day, without having to drive a hundred miles to get to a venue somewhere else in the country.
• The downside is that you don't get coffee and biscuits at the beginning of the meeting - unless you make it yourself!

You don't need to register in advance for these - simply login on the day (give yourself 5 minutes to download and install the free Live Meeting software at the beginning)

Education Infrastructure Optimisation

How mature is your IT Infrastructure? This session introduces Microsoft’s Infrastructure Optimisation (IO) initiative in Education. Get an overview of the tools and methodologies available to help you measure your IT infrastructure maturity, and produce a roadmap towards a dynamic IT environment. The IO model is based on a model from Gartner, and has been used successfully globally in the commercial world by businesses to help them to analyse the next steps in their IT infrastructure development.

Click here to put this into your Outlook Calendar, with the joining instructions

Attendee URL: https://www112.livemeeting.com/cc/microsoft/join?id=EDUIO&role=attend

The URL above will let you access the presentation. To hear the presenter call 0118 909 2000 and use participant code: 9395559

Presented by Nick Umney, an Account Technical Specialist in the UK Education Team

Windows Vista in Education

This session will explore new features in Windows Vista for teachers and Learners that make Windows Vista a tool for learning. We will also look at the new features for system administrators to create and to protect the virtual campus.

Click here to put this into your Outlook Calendar, with the joining instructions

Attendee URL: https://www112.livemeeting.com/cc/microsoft/join?id=SQH3DD&role=attend

The URL above will let you access the presentation. To hear the presenter call 0118 909 2000 and use participant code: 9395559

Presented by Steven Audis, a Microsoft Education Technology Adviser in the UK Team

Microsoft Office 2007 in Education

Get an overview of the latest Office system from Microsoft, which provides the ultimate arsenal of productivity tools for your students, educators, administrators, and support staff. From word processing to classroom presentations and animated Web design, the Microsoft Office system delivers a powerful and easy-to-use experience. Introducing Learning Essentials 2.0.

Click here to put this into your Outlook Calendar, with the joining instructions

Attendee URL: https://www112.livemeeting.com/cc/microsoft/join?id=GMBMJ6&role=attend

The URL above will let you access the presentation. To hear the presenter call 0118 909 2000 and use participant code: 9395559

Presented by Steven Audis, a Microsoft Education Technology Adviser in the UK Team

17th December 10.00-10.45am

Connect Learning Community - Learning Gateway for Further Education

The Microsoft Learning Gateway is a powerful education portal that enables the people throughout further education share information and work together on projects from a single point of access. The Learning Gateway uses innovative collaboration and communications technologies to help you get more out of your existing applications—using familiar tools and extending the value of your investment in Microsoft technologies.

Click here to put this into your Outlook Calendar, with the joining instructions

Attendee URL: https://www112.livemeeting.com/cc/microsoft/join?id=NTZ477&role=attend

The URL above will let you access the presentation. To hear the presenter call 0118 909 2000 and use participant code: 9395559

Presented by Steven Audis, a Microsoft Education Technology Adviser in the UK Team

We have a series of Live meetings scheduled over the next few months to provide more information on the use of SharePoint in learning. My colleague Steven Audis, the Microsoft Education Technology Advisor in the UK, will be running them, and he's provided some more information on their content:

"In these sessions we discuss how Further Education customers can benefit from Microsoft SharePoint Learning Kit and the Microsoft SharePoint Community Kit, which have both been designed to further extend Microsoft Learning Gateway and e-learning opportunities.

With the Microsoft Learning Gateway, colleges can readily build a standards-based education portal for administrators, educators, and students to share information, collaborate on projects, and access rich learning resources from a single point of access. The new Microsoft SharePoint kits are built on SharePoint technology that enables Web sites to provide document and information sharing capabilities. These kits offer tools and source code to help educators, administrators and industry partners to customise their portals to be as unique as their colleges and deliver e-learning resources through the Microsoft Learning Gateway.

The Microsoft SharePoint Learning Kit is a standards-compliant e-learning tool that makes it easy for educators to deliver both basic and interactive resources through the Microsoft Learning Gateway. The kit is compliant with Shareable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) 2004 and SCORM 1.2 and provides basic functions for any electronic resource in a SharePoint document library, including Microsoft Class Server resources."

 Tuesday, Nov 6, 2007 15:00-16:00

To attend, just log on to the following URL (about 5 minutes before, if you need to download the Live Meeting client)

https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/microsoft/join?id=MCGZW3&role=attend&pw=BRw%24Jh%27%3E4

You'll need the Meeting ID:   MCGZW3

And then dial into the meeting on your phone for the audio. Dial (0118) 909 2000 and use Participant code  2164215

Tuesday, Dec 18, 2007 10:00-11:00

To attend, just log on to the following URL (about 5 minutes before, if you need to download the Live Meeting client)

https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/microsoft/join?id=29ST4H&role=attend&pw=nz_Z9Nj%3F8

You'll need the Meeting ID:   29ST4H

And then dial into the meeting on your phone for the audio. Dial (0118) 909 2000 and use Participant code  2164215

A colleague has just told me about the free Software Asset Management events that Phoenix & Microsoft are running together, coming up in the next couple of weeks.

• Reading - Friday 19 October
• Edinburgh - Wednesday 24 October
• London - Tuesday 30 October
• Manchester - Friday 2 November

They may be of particular relevance if you are responsible for licensing in your college, or if you are looking for a way to expand your IT management capabilities. With the release of the new international Software Asset Management standard (ISO/IEC 19770-1), there are a set of standard ways of managing software, and tools available to help with this. As users start exerting more control over their computers, and can start to compromise your best-laid plans by downloading/installing software, you may want to consider how you respond.

We ran a smaller workshop last year, with IT managers from colleges and schools, and I was surprised to see the length of the "To Do" lists that the delegates wrote for themselves, and the way that they were going to use SAM techniques to wake up their senior managers to the need for them to be given more control to deliver more structured IT management practices.

The events start at 10am, and finish at 1:30pm

You can register for these free events on the Phoenix website

Steve Beswick, Microsoft UK's Education Director, was on stage yesterday at the Handheld Learning 2007 Conference in London, in the plenary "Technologies for Learning 2012". Steve looked at the world of work, home & education in 2012, and explored the impact of change, and technology, on each of these. Steve's slides are below, and I thought that if I shared the bullet points on his summary slide, you might get an idea of the direction of his message!

• IT in the home will drive IT in Education
• World class education is an imperative for competing in a global economy
• IT can help drive the UK to be a knowledge based economy

You can download the slides here:

During the presentation, two videos were shown of future technologies under development at Microsoft. You can find out more, and see both videos on the links below:

Photsynth

The Photosynth Technology Preview is a taste of a new and exciting way to view photos on a computer. The software takes a large collection of photos of a place or an object, analyses them for similarities, and then displays the photos in a reconstructed three-dimensional space, showing you how each one relates to the next. Here's the video that was shown at the conference.

Microsoft Surface

Surface, Microsoft’s first surface computer, provides effortless interaction with digital content through natural hand gestures, touch and physical objects. Surface computing breaks down traditional barriers between people and technology, changing the way people interact with all kinds of everyday information — from photos to maps to menus. It's easier to see than to read about - the Surface website contains some good videos which give you a feel for what it can do (but do excuse the voiceover!)

SeaDragon

SeaDragon is a current incubation project. Its aim is nothing less than to change the way we use screens, from wall-sized displays to mobile devices, so that visual information can be smoothly browsed regardless of the amount of data involved or the bandwidth of the network. It is also closely related to HD View, a research project working on creating multi-gigapixel images with a capability to just keep zooming in for more detail. It has uses on mobile phones and handheld devices, where you can overcome screensize and bandwith issues to explore rich and complex content

Here's the video that was shown at the conference.