Microsoft’s TownSquare internal social network provides employees with feeds and updates about their colleagues

At the request of its SharePoint and Office product development teams, Microsoft ’s Office Labs operation has created and is testing a prototype of an internal social network that can provide employees with feeds and updates about their colleagues.

Chris Pratley, general manager of Office Labs , is slated to disclose details of the prototype — called TownSquare — Thursday at the Enterprise 2.0 Conference in Boston. He spoke to Computerworld about the project, which was launched in January and has already been used by about 8,000 Microsoft employees.

With a layout that is strikingly similar to Facebook.com’s (in which Microsoft invested $240 million in October 2007), TownSquare is fueled by enterprise news feeds that use Web services to query SharePoint for public information, such as promotions and company anniversaries, about an employee.

TownSquare also notifies users when a document or file is modified. Users can customize their feeds and monitor who is receiving information about them.

In early January, Pratley’s group told 100 Microsoft employees about the network. Since then, 8,000 employees who learned of TownSquare by word of mouth have visited the network at least once, Pratley noted. About 700 use it daily.

Some Microsoft customers, which he declined to name, are testing the TownSquare network for use in their companies.

Office Labs works as a sort of advance development team that tests technology concepts suggested by employees and, as in this case, development teams. Pratley stressed that TownSquare is not a product, but a platform to test the technology concepts. By hammering out the various likes and dislikes of its users before releasing a product, “We’re trying to get version three goodness into a first release,” he added.

“We have instrumentation ?so we know which things people use,” Pratley noted. “We share that with the client teams we work with. They take the knowledge about usage so they don’t make so many mistakes in product design.”

Many third party vendors have targeted SharePoint as the core data source for information to feed their enterprise social networking and other Enterprise 2.0 applications. Several have announced upgrades to their products or new integration with SharePoint this week at the conference.

Anecdotal evidence has shown that employees like the TownSquare tool, Pratley noted. Employees especially appreciate being able to monitor the creation and editing of documents by colleagues, he added. One employee used the network to find a sponsor within Microsoft to fund her trip to the Enterprise 2.0 Conference.

“That is the kind of information that spreads through an enterprise social network,” he said. “By posting it out there, the people interested can pick up on it, and other people can ignore it. It’s a way to keep in touch in a social way with people you work with.”

Like Facebook , TownSquare also includes a photos of users and allows them to note when they are away from their workstations, such as at a meeting or in the cafeteria for coffee.

While some employees have expressed initial surprise at all the information that Microsoft has about them in its intranet, once people see the type of information that is included in the feeds about them, “they see it’s pretty safe stuff and say okay,” Pratley said.

By Heather Havenstein, Computerworld

Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer 7 for Windows XP/Vista/2000/Server 2003/Server 2008 (KB950759)
Security issues have been identified that could allow an attacker to compromise a system that is running Microsoft Internet Explorer and gain control over it. You can help protect your system by installing this update from Microsoft. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer.

Security Update for Windows XP/Vista/Server 2003 (KB951376)
A security issue has been identified that could allow an unauthenticated remote attacker to compromise your Microsoft Windows-based system and gain control over it. You can help protect your computer by installing this update from Microsoft. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer.

Security Update for Windows XP/Vista/Server 2003 (KB950762)
A security issue has been identified that could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause the affected system to stop responding. You can help protect your computer by installing this update from Microsoft. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer.

Cumulative Security Update for ActiveX Killbits for Windows XP/Vista/2000/Server 2003/Server 2008 (KB950760)
Security issues have been identified in ActiveX controls that could allow an attacker to compromise a system that is running Microsoft Internet Explorer and gain control over it. You can help protect your system by installing this update from Microsoft. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer.

Security Update for Windows XP/Vista/2000/Server 2003/Server 2008 (KB951698)
A security issue has been identified in Microsoft DirectShow that could allow an attacker to compromise your Windows-based system and gain control over it. You can help protect your computer by installing this update from Microsoft. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer.

Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool - June 2008 (KB890830)
After the download, this tool runs one time to check your computer for infection by specific, prevalent malicious software (including Blaster, Sasser, and Mydoom) and helps remove any infection that is found. If an infection is found, the tool will display a status report the next time that you start your computer. A new version of the tool will be offered every month. If you want to manually run the tool on your computer, you can download a copy from the Microsoft Download Center, or you can run an online version from microsoft.com. This tool is not a replacement for an antivirus product. To help protect your computer, you should use an antivirus product.

‘Slap in the face’ to UK business, says SEO firm

The hosting of UK government sites such Job Centre Plus and the Pension Service in the US is a slap in the face to UK businesses, according to search engine optimisation firm NetCallidus.

Routine research and analysis performed by the the company discovered a number of .gov.uk sites being hosted in Sunnyvale, California.

“At a time when the UK economy is teetering on the edge of a recession, this is an out and out insult,” said Mark Furber, managing director of NetCallidus.

“There is no good reason why this work should be given to another country. It might save a few pounds, but sends the wrong message about how much the government cares about British business.”

Furber believes that this socially irresponsible and that the work would be better done by a UK business anyway.

“We always advise our clients to host their websites in the country they are aiming at, as it is one of the factors that can influence search engines like Google.”

“These sites are clearly aimed at UK people so should be hosted in the UK to ensure that the highest number of people find them.”

Furber also highlighted issues around latency, security and management as reasons for governments to host public service sites within their own country.

The various departments were not immediately available for comment regarding this issue.

Written by Ian Williams

An American military supercomputer, assembled from components originally designed for video game machines, has reached a long-sought-after computing milestone by processing more than 1.026 quadrillion calculations per second.

The new machine is more than twice as fast as the previous fastest supercomputer, the IBM BlueGene/L, which is based at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.

The new $133 million supercomputer, called Roadrunner in a reference to the state bird of New Mexico, was devised and built by engineers and scientists at IBM and Los Alamos National Laboratory, based in Los Alamos, New Mexico. It will be used principally to solve classified military problems to ensure that the nation’s stockpile of nuclear weapons will continue to work correctly as they age. The Roadrunner will simulate the behavior of the weapons in the first fraction of a second during an explosion.

Before it is placed in a classified environment, it will also be used to explore scientific problems like climate change. The greater speed of the Roadrunner will make it possible for scientists to test global climate models with higher accuracy.

To put the performance of the machine in perspective, Thomas D’Agostino, the administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, said that if all six billion people on earth used hand calculators and performed calculations 24 hours a day and seven days a week, it would take them 46 years to do what the Roadrunner can in one day.

NEW YORK (AFP) - Microsoft’s failed attempt to buy Yahoo will send it searching for new allies and likely see Yahoo’s share price plummet, leaving Internet giant Google the big winner, analysts said.

Microsoft announced Saturday that it had given up its quest for the struggling Internet pioneer Yahoo, which rejected Microsoft’s offer even after it raised the original bid by five billion to more than 46 billion dollars.

The announcement ended three months of overtures by the software giant, which wanted to merge its Internet resources with Yahoo’s worldwide offerings to gain ground on undisputed online advertising juggernaut Google.

Google meanwhile has increased its share of the Internet search engine market and multiplied its innovations. The firm recently also announced a way to refine its image searches, based on technology that recognizes images, not text.

Analysts believe moreover that the Microsoft-Yahoo talks have benefited Google, and suggest Microsoft did well to cut them short.

“Microsoft did the smart thing — they walked,” said Silicon Valley analyst Rob Enderle. “Yahoo’s stock price is going to come down like a rock on Monday.”

(more…)

Saturday May 3, 9:33 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp (NasdaqGS:MSFT - News) withdrew its offer for Yahoo Inc (NasdaqGS:YHOO - News) on Saturday as negotiations fell through on price, even after the software giant raised its bid by about $5 billion to $47.5 billion.

Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said his company increased its offer to $33 per share, from the $31 per share cash-and-stock bid that it initially made on January 31. But Yahoo was looking for $37 a share, Ballmer said.

“Despite our best efforts, including raising our bid by roughly $5 billion, Yahoo has not moved toward accepting our offer,” Ballmer said in a statement.

“After careful consideration, we believe the economics demanded by Yahoo do not make sense for us, and it is in the best interests of Microsoft stockholders, employees and other stakeholders to withdraw our proposal,” said Ballmer.

Yahoo was not immediately available for comment.

(more…)

SEATTLE - Microsoft Corp. may go hostile in its bid for Yahoo Inc. as soon as Friday, according to a published report.

Citing unnamed people familiar with the matter, the Wall Street Journal reported early Friday that the world’s largest software maker may be preparing to go straight to Internet pioneer Yahoo’s shareholders.

An announcement was “likely” to come Friday, according to the report, though the newspaper said its sources cautioned that Microsoft may delay.

(more…)

Microsoft’s controversial bid to have its Open XML format fast-tracked as an ISO standard has turned into a riot, according to a leading analyst.

Speaking at a Microsoft-hosted event, analyst David Mitchell revealed he used to lecture police on riot control, before eventually becoming the senior vice president of IT research at Ovum. “I thought I would never come back to talking about riot control until I got into the Open XML debate,” he claimed.

Mitchell said that people involved in riots fell into two camps: “decent orderly protestors and nutters”, and claims that both are participating in the OOXML process. “There are a number of comments that are decent technical debate,” he said. “There’s also a fair amount of radical activists who are protesting just to cause disruption.”

“I feel like getting hold of people and saying ‘get a life’,” he adds. “It’s only a document format. It’s just got too silly.”

Mitchell claims that opponents of OOXML have resorted to intimidation. “People have been trying to track down what hotels people have been staying at for the BRMs [Ballot Resolution Meetings]. Many voting decisions are not taken until the day. If you’ve had no sleep on the night before a vote [because of noisy protests], you might change your voting behaviour,” he said.

Conspiracy theory
The Ovum analyst also claimed that opponents are making a mountain out of a molehill over minor flaws in the standard. “Just because Microsoft makes mistakes it doesn’t mean it’s up to something,” he argued. “People build specifications, people build software, people make mistakes.

“Microsoft is not perfect. If some of the things said about Microsoft were true, Microsoft would have to be an awfully lot better organised than it is.”

Mitchell also attacked the ‘no’ voters who can’t justify their actions. “If people vote no or yes you would really like to know why. I have spoken to some people who’ve voted no and asked them why and they said ‘because we don’t like it’. If people are representing their country they should be able to more clearly defend what their national technological position is.”

“This a relatively simple process - it’s got way out of hand” he added.
Fanning the flames
Mitchell finally offered his hosts some advice, cautioning them to “chill out” when the criticism reaches fever pitch. “The more you fan the flames the more it gets worse. If you get upset personally and react to it, it gets worse.”

Sadly it appears Microsoft hasn’t taken the analyst’s advice. Included in its gargantuan press pack for the event is an eight-page document entitled “Open XML and ODF Adoption: Separating Fact From Fiction” which contrasts the so-called “FUD” from Microsoft’s opponents with Microsoft’s “facts”.

The third page of the document claims that “Microsoft has never opposed [rival format] ODF before governments, ISO, or elsewhere.” Page seven then lists the positions of various US states on document formats, which includes headlines such as “Oregon: ODF is too expensive to implement” and “Texas: ODF implementation costs too high and credibility too low.”
Author: Barry Collins

 
Dean Hachamovitch, the guy who runs the Internet Explorer team, will be one of our keynoters at MIX.  As he promised on the IE Blog, Dean is going to share more about Internet Explorer 8 including a sneak peek at some of the features his team have been hard at work on.  Dean’s keynote at MIX06 was one of the highlights of the inaugural MIX conference.  Since then, IE shipped a new version with a new UI and dramatically improved standards support, and the browser industry has heated up with an emphasis on web standards and new entries in the browser market.  You won’t want to miss this keynote to see how the next version of Internet Explorer is shaping up and learn how Internet Explorer 8 fits into today’s browser marketplace.

Read more about it on Microsoft Office Internet Explorer Blog

Yahoo rebuff sets up tense battle with Microsoft
Next move unclear; some analysts expect higher offer from software giant

SAN FRANCISCO - Yahoo Inc.’s rejection of Microsoft Corp.’s unsolicited takeover bid left investors guessing the next move in a tense mating dance that may hatch a more imposing challenger to Google Inc. or disintegrate into a bruising brawl.

The rebuff, formally announced early Monday, wasn’t a surprise because Yahoo had leaked its intention over the weekend.

As expected, Yahoo’s board unanimously decided to spurn Microsoft after concluding the offer — originally worth $44.6 billion or $31 per share — “substantially undervalues� one of the Internet’s prized franchises. The cash-and stock deal is now valued at about $40 billion, or $28.91 per share, because of a drop in Microsoft’s market value.

But Yahoo didn’t raise antitrust concerns about the proposed deal and included language that seemed to invite a higher offer from Microsoft, the world’s largest software maker.

“The board of directors is continually evaluating all of its strategic options in the context of the rapidly evolving industry environment and we remain committed to pursuing initiatives that maximize value for all stockholders,� Yahoo said in a statement.

Microsoft, though, didn’t seem inclined to raise the bid Monday, releasing a statement describing its current bid as “full and fair.�

(more…)