Give til it hurts! - Announcing Develop Without Borders
One of the great things I love about working for Microsoft is our charitable giving program. Microsoft will match any charitable donation I make dollar for dollar (I think there is a cap on this). We even now have a policy to match time spent working for a charity with $$ from Microsoft.
When you think about it, any charity has the same IT needs that any organization (large or small) has. You think you're IT department is underfunded, just imagine what the homeless shelter downtown has to work with, or the local animal shelter. I've had some experience with this. I used to donate my time to OneNorthwest, which is a non-profit that helps environmental charities with technology and matches those with high-tech skills with charities that need those skills. In my last project I found myself finishing an Access 95 application that someone had started for tracking a donor list. Pretty simple, but with no network, and a 386-era pc (this was probably 8 years ago), it was a challenge.
Here's your chance to get involved. The Office System Platform team is announcing a new contest for all Office developers out there who want to help their favorite charity.
The contest is called Develop without Borders. It was developed as a joint effort between the Office team with support from HP and offers over $150,000 in prizes.
The concept is simple: Developers choose a charitable organization that they would like to help, understand the business challenges that it faces, and propose a solution based on the 2007 Office system that addresses one or more of those challenges. The solutions that make the most impact on the organization and that best utilize the Office system technologies can win up to $50,000 to help pilot or implement the solution.
So go check out the details at www.developwithoutborders.com and get started.
