Microsoft free to some of your students

[Liz Hale]

Please read the following release from the big Kahuna that landing in my inbox. I don't know more than this at the moment, but it bears tracking.

Message at a Glance

At the end of January, Bill Gates will announce the introduction of a program to give higher education students access to some of Microsoft’s developer and design platform tools at no cost. This program offering is part of our ongoing effort to ensure students studying technology have ready access to Microsoft development and design software for learning”

Details:

As you are probably aware, Microsoft has long had a commitment to programs and offerings that allow broad access to students studying and educators teaching information and computer technology subjects. Programs like MSDN Academic Alliance and Microsoft Learning IT Academy are aimed at ensuring the next generation of technologists has access to our software, learning material, and educational experiences.

Microsoft is announcing the introduction of a program to give higher education students access to some of Microsoft’s developer and design platform tools at no cost. This program offering is part of our ongoing effort to ensure students studying technology have ready access to Microsoft development and design software for learning.

Some details of the program of note:

• At this time, the offering will be limited to currently enrolled, higher education students. (Faculty, staff, and institutional-use computers are not eligible.) We will be actively verifying students’ enrollment status in order for them to receive the software. Our plans include the use of existing verification systems such as the InCommon Federation, National Student Clearinghouse, and ISIC enrollment.

• The list of products available through this offering will evolve over time. While the initial products included is not yet set, we expect that Visual Studio Professional, Expression Studio, and MS Developer Express products will be the core of the offering at launch.

• Since this program only covers students and their personally owned computers, we will continue to offer these products to institutions for use by faculty, staff, and for installation on institution-owned computers. Sales for these scenarios have always been the majority portion of revenue from developer and design tools, and we do not expect this program to significantly impact these sales. We will also continue to offer the products for sale to institutions if they would like to provide the software to students outside of this program. At this time, this program does not alter the list of MS products for sale.

• Our MSDN Academic Alliance program will remain in place as the mechanism through which tech departments and educators can get access to a wide number of our products.

[Liz Hale]

Doubtful. The last time they did this, the student had to go directly to the Microsoft website and the bookstore was unaware it was happening at all. At least this time they let us know! It will be available to any student, not just those in CNET as MS is expanding the program PAST the acadamy and MSDNAA. As I get more info, I'll pass it along.

[Greg Rehm]

Will this be run through the Book Store? Would be nice to have this available for non-CNET students. CNET currently is a MSDNAA member and a Microsoft IT Academy. That only benefits CNET students and faculty, however.