Microsoft news – Page 136

Posted on January 22, 2020 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Xbox Game Studios and Ninja Theory’s Project: Mara explores new ways of storytelling

Today,
we are announcing Project: Mara, our new in-development experimental
title that explores new ways of storytelling, and we’re excited to share the
first details with you.

Project:
Mara will be a
real-world and grounded representation of mental terror. Based on real lived
experience accounts and in-depth research, our aim is to recreate the horrors
of the mind as accurately and realistically as possible. Project: Mara
will be an experimental title and a showcase of what could become a new storytelling
medium.

Since joining Xbox Game Studios in 2018, we’ve been hard at work on our upcoming multiplayer brawler Bleeding Edge, our new recently-announced innovative R&D project, The Insight Project, and of course Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II. These projects will continue to drive our development goals for the next few years and will help shape Ninja Theory’s vision for our future.

You can follow the development journey of all of our new projects – Senua’s Saga, The Insight Project and Project: Mara on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Posted on January 22, 2020 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Microsoft Advertising aims to plant 250,000 trees this year; here’s how you can take part

Microsoft’s commitment to harnessing the power of technology to help everyone, everywhere to build a more sustainable future is more important than ever. Last week, Microsoft announced an immense commitment to our environment and our earth’s future. Microsoft committed to getting to Carbon Negative by 2030 and by 2050, remove from the environment all the carbon the company has emitted either directly or by electrical consumption since it was founded in 1975. Microsoft has also created a new $1 billion climate innovation fund to accelerate the global development of carbon reduction, capture, and removal technologies.

Aligned to this company-wide mission, we at Microsoft Advertising are excited to announce our support of Microsoft’s global sustainability initiative with a goal to plant 250,000 trees in 2020 on behalf of our clients, and with support from our partners and employees. We’ll also be striving to be more sustainable at our events — by reducing swag, for example.

How, why and where we’re planting 250,000 trees

A key part of Microsoft’s culture is to empower employees to give back to and be active in programs that benefit our global and local communities. Microsoft Advertising has teamed up with our syndication partner, Ecosia to plant trees on behalf of our clients. Ecosia puts its profits from searches toward planting trees. We’re thrilled to work with Ecosia to support tree planting in the following locations:

The Jane Goodall Institute to reforest wild chimpanzees’ habitat in Uganda
Turning deserts back into forests in Burkina Faso
Reforestation in Brazil

How to have trees planted on your behalf

This is a journey and with Microsoft we’re making steps toward a more sustainable future. We hope you’ll join us in helping reach our goal of planting 250,000 trees in 2020.

Below are some ways you can have trees planted on your behalf. Over the coming months, we’ll be sharing more about other partners we’re working with and the various planting opportunities that Microsoft Advertising employees are driving.

How you can participate:

Subscribe to the Microsoft Advertising Insider to get our bi-weekly newsletter full of product news, insights, and more. We’ll have 10 trees planted for every sign up.
Share your support on social media. Find us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter where we’ll share monthly tips to support a more sustainable environment.
- When you implement any of these tips, or perform one of your own, share on social media with #MicrosoftForEarth, and we’ll plant a tree for every post.
- We’ll also plant a tree each time this blog post is shared or re-tweeted from our social handles.
Learn how to get the most of your ad spend by becoming a Microsoft Advertising Certified Professional, and we’ll plant 10 trees on your behalf.
Come meet us at Microsoft Advertising events, or industry events such as Cannes and Ad Week, and participate in customer contests such as ‘Get to Green’.

Bookmark the Microsoft Advertising blog where we’ll continue to share more details, and new activities and ways you can participate.

Thank you for being a part of creating a greener 2020 one tree at a time and helping us reach our 250,000-tree planting goal!

Posted on January 22, 2020 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Microsoft to launch new cloud datacenter region in Israel

Microsoft today announced plans to establish the company’s first cloud region in Israel to deliver its intelligent, trusted cloud services through a local datacenter region. This investment expands the Microsoft global cloud infrastructure to 56 cloud regions in 21 countries, with the new Israel region anticipated to be available starting with Microsoft Azure in 2021, with Office 365 to follow. The new Israel region will adhere to Microsoft’s trusted cloud principles and become part of one of the largest cloud infrastructures in the world, already serving more than a billion customers and 20 million businesses.

Azure is an ever-expanding set of cloud services that offers computing, networking, databases, analytics, and Internet of Things (IoT) services. The investment in a new Israel datacenter region will enable customers to use the most advanced technologies and adhere to data residency requirements to store data within Israel. Microsoft’s cloud services are also compliant with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and are certified for an industry-leading portfolio of international security and privacy standards. Azure will enable the local Israeli ecosystem to build on the latest advancements in the cloud, helping organizations drive their digital transformation. Office 365, the world’s leading cloud-based productivity solution, will be available from the new datacenter region, helping customers enable the modern workplace and empower their employees with real-time collaboration and cloud-powered intelligence while maintaining security, compliance, and in-country customer data residency.

“When I speak to customers across EMEA, it is clear that the power of the cloud is essential for their competitiveness,” said Michel van der Bel, President, Microsoft Europe, Middle East and Africa. “We have made significant infrastructure investments in the region and with this announcement, our planned region in Israel will join a growing number of EMEA markets recently made available including Germany, Norway, South Africa and Switzerland. Offering Microsoft Azure and Office 365 from a datacenter region in Israel forms a key part of our investment and involvement in the startup nation, as infrastructure is an essential building block for the tech intensity that public sector entities and businesses need to embrace.”

Establishing new datacenter regions entails significant investment of resources and this announcement reinforces the continuous commitment of Microsoft to the Israeli market. The company started its journey in 1989 in Israel by opening a local branch. In 1991 Microsoft established its Israeli R&D center – its first R&D center outside of the US – one of the first major tech companies to do so in Israel. In addition, 2020 will include another key investment in the local market with the launch of a new Microsoft Israel campus. Microsoft has deep engagement with the Israeli tech ecosystem – it operates a business branch, an R&D Center, a Venture Capital Fund and Microsoft for Startups programs.

Posted on January 21, 2020 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Microsoft shares its priorities for Washington state’s current legislative session

As we’ve done in recent years, I’d like to share what we’re focused on for Washington State’s current legislative session, as well as share our reaction to one key November 2019 election result. As we’ve said in the past, we believe in the transparency that comes from publishing a preview of the positions we’ll be sharing with legislators as they work in Olympia.

As a company, Microsoft is committed to furthering policies that create new jobs, opportunities and innovations here in Washington State. With more than 50,000 Microsoft employees and their families calling Washington home, these goals and the outcome of the decisions made today aren’t abstract – they’re personal.

As we embark on a new year, we are more committed than ever to two chief objectives: 1. Ensuring Microsoft’s success contributes to the overall success of the state; and 2. Engaging with elected officials and our neighbors to find ways in which we can help improve the quality of life for everyone who lives or works here.

From the 2019 Election to the 2020 Legislative Session

I-976
Affordable housing
Data privacy
Facial recognition
Broadband access
Cascadia Innovation Corridor – High-speed rail

Looking through the joint lenses of economic opportunity and quality of life, we were disappointed in the passage of Initiative 976, which will eliminate billions of dollars of much-needed funding for major transportation projects, city-level street maintenance, transit services, ferries and state patrol services over the coming years. Microsoft was a major supporter of the diverse business-labor-environmental coalition that opposed this measure, and we continue to believe that investments in transportation infrastructure are critical for the vitality of our state in the years ahead.

What’s next: While I-976 clearly resonated with voters, we believe it offered a false promise, namely that important transportation and transit service funding could be slashed without impacting the quality of life for Washingtonians. In the coming weeks and months, we’ll be engaging with the public entities that will have to further prioritize their expenditures as a result of the new shortfall created by I-976. Our hope is these conversations will be forward-looking and productive and will help identify strategies to keep our state moving forward.

Turning now from the ballot to the halls of Olympia, I’d like to share a few thoughts on where we stand on the key issues that the legislature will be tackling in its upcoming 2020 session.

We believe a lack of affordable housing presents a real barrier to many who are looking to become full participants in their communities. Today, this housing shortage is reaching crisis point in a number of cities across Washington. It’s the reason why, in January 2019, Microsoft announced a $500 million commitment to support the creation of additional affordable housing options. Earlier this month, we announced an additional $250 million commitment to affordable housing in the form of a line of credit to the Washington State Housing Finance Commission, bringing Microsoft’s total commitment to $750 million. This additional capital will create an estimated 3,000 additional units of much-needed affordable housing.

We also announced $55 million in investments and grants towards our original $500 million commitment. This brings our total to $380 million allocated over the past year to support the preservation or creation of over 6,500 affordable housing units in the greater Seattle area.

We were gratified to see the legislature similarly increase the state’s commitment to the Housing Trust Fund substantially, to $175 million for the 2019-21 biennium. But we must also work together to enact public policies that will build on the positive impact of these and other investments. Public and philanthropic funding alone will not solve the problem.

Last year, lawmakers enacted HB 1923, providing incentives for municipalities to adopt policies that encourage increasing local housing stocks. We must do more of this, by pursuing a broad range of actions at all levels of government to enable and encourage development of more housing across the spectrum of affordability, but particularly for middle-income residents. One important tool to support this goal would be an extension of the Multiple Family Tax Exemption, which would maintain and expand the existing stock of affordable middle-market housing options.

What’s next: Microsoft will continue to work collaboratively with others in both the public and private sectors to support the creation of a larger supply of affordable housing.

While our state’s housing affordability crisis is the direct result of local economic trends, the need for Washingtonians to enjoy greater privacy protections for their personal data is a direct result of global economic and technology trends.

We have long advocated for state legislators to enact a data privacy law to protect Washington State consumers. As Carol Ann Browne and I wrote in our recent book, Tools and Weapons, at Microsoft we view personal privacy as a fundamental human right. We acknowledge that Microsoft and other tech firms have a responsibility to own the consequences of the technologies we create. We also recognize that we can’t do it alone. We need government action to provide common guardrails across the industry.

Since the 2019 legislative session, legislative leaders have been working on new data privacy legislation for consideration in the upcoming legislature. We believe that it’s important for Washington to enact strong data privacy protections, not only for the benefit of all state residents, but also to demonstrate our state’s leadership on what we believe will be one of the defining issues of our generation.

For our part, because of our commitment to privacy, Microsoft is taking an important step on the self-regulation front. We will voluntarily extend the core rights given to California residents by the California Consumer Privacy Act to our customers nationwide.

What’s next: We will continue to work with interest groups including consumer advocacy groups, to encourage legislators to bring robust privacy protections for consumers within state law.

A related issue is the need to begin addressing the responsible use of facial recognition technology. This technology has many positive potential applications and allowing its continued use will allow others to emerge. However, we need to preserve those benefits while simultaneously imposing rigorous regulations to restrict bias, discrimination and uses that could impinge on our democratic freedoms.

What’s next: This is another critically important issue on which Washington state could serve as a model for the rest of the nation by enacting a thoughtful regulatory framework. To that end, we will continue to work with legislative leaders and all interested stakeholders in pursuing facial recognition legislation, either within the context of a broader privacy bill or as a separate measure.

Another challenge facing the digital economy is that not every community has the ability to take full advantage of the opportunities that the digital economy provides. Too many rural communities in our state and across the country don’t have access to the latest broadband communications.

The legislature took a major step in addressing this problem in our state by creating a new State Broadband Office and appropriating $21.5 million to offer grants and loans to spur deployment of broadband in underserved areas. We applaud both their commitment to this effort and their announced intention to invest another $80 million in the coming years.

What’s next: At Microsoft, we share lawmakers’ commitment to increasing access to broadband. Through our AirBand initiative, we will continue to work with local partners on targeted investments to bring the power of artificial intelligence and cloud computing to more Washington businesses, farms and families. And we will continue to work with the new State Broadband Office to identify other ways in which we can help.

But, while broadband communications can facilitate new relationships, sometimes face-to-face interactions are needed to build on those relationships. And that’s where the Cascadia Innovation Corridor comes in.

We continue to believe Seattle, Portland and Vancouver can accomplish more by collaborating than they can by working independently. Such collaboration will strengthen our position as North America’s gateway to Asia and further establish the region as a global center of innovation and trade.

As discussed at a recent major high-speed rail conference held on our Redmond campus, high-speed rail would unlock stronger partnerships between businesses, educational and research institutions, non-profits and governments in these three markets. But that’s just the beginning. Shrinking the time it takes to travel between these hubs will help accommodate the tremendous growth that has occurred throughout the Cascadia corridor, reduce freeway and arterial congestion, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As additional communities are efficiently linked to major employment centers, employees would enjoy increased access to more affordable housing choices and employers could draw from a broader pool of potential employees.

Initial feasibility studies confirm the economic viability of the proposed high-speed rail system. But there are financing and governance questions that need to be addressed in order for the project to move forward. And that’s why it’s so important to continue the momentum that is building for this system.

What’s next: We will collaborate with the other funding partners in the current development work to identify funding, financing and governance strategies that will allow this project to become a reality. With these strategies identified, legislative champions will have the framework necessary to enact legislation in 2021 that authorizes Washington to help create a multi-jurisdictional authority to begin tackling these challenges.

These are, of course, just a few of the issues lawmakers will be tackling in the coming weeks. But they are issues of great importance to our business, our employees, our community and our future. We look forward to engaging constructively and transparently on these issues and others.

As always, we are eager to get to work finding solutions to the challenges ahead and welcome your feedback and ideas.

Posted on January 21, 2020 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Cyber threats are on the rise; here’s how companies can ensure their safeguards are primed and ready

With high levels of political unrest in various parts of the world, it’s no surprise we’re also in a period of increased cyber threats. In the past, a company’s name, political affiliations, or religious affiliations might push the risk needle higher. However, in the current environment any company could be a potential target for a cyberattack. Companies of all shapes, sizes, and varying security maturity are asking what they could and should be doing to ensure their safeguards are primed and ready. To help answer these questions, I created a list of actions companies can take and controls they can validate in light of the current level of threats—and during any period of heightened risk—through the Microsoft lens:

Implement Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)—It simply cannot be said enough—companies need MFA. The security posture at many companies is hanging by the thread of passwords that are weak, shared across social media, or already for sale. MFA is now the standard authentication baseline and is critical to basic cyber hygiene. If real estate is “location, location, location,” then cybersecurity is “MFA, MFA, MFA.” To learn more, read How to implement Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA).
Update patching—Check your current patch status across all environments. Make every attempt to patch all vulnerabilities and focus on those with medium or higher risk if you must prioritize. Patching is critically important as the window between discovery and exploit of vulnerabilities has shortened dramatically. Patching is perhaps your most important defense and one that, for the most part, you control. (Most attacks utilize known vulnerabilities.)
Manage your security posture—Check your Secure Score and Compliance Score for Office 365, Microsoft 365, and Azure. Also, take steps to resolve all open recommendations. These scores will help you to quickly assess and manage your configurations. See “Resources and information for detection and mitigation strategies” below for additional information. (Manage your scores over time and use them as a monitoring tool for unexpected consequences from changes in your environment.)
Evaluate threat detection and incident response—Increase your threat monitoring and anomaly detection activities. Evaluate your incident response from an attacker’s perspective. For example, attackers often target credentials. Is your team prepared for this type of attack? Are you able to engage left of impact? Consider conducting a tabletop exercise to evaluate how your organization might be targeted specifically.
Resolve testing issues—Review recent penetration test findings and validate that all issues were closed.
Validate distributed denial of service (DDoS) protection—Does your organization have the protection you need or stable access to your applications during a DDoS attack? These attacks have continued to grow in frequency, size, sophistication, and impact. They often are utilized as a “cyber smoke screen” to mask infiltration attacks. Your DDoS protection should be always on, automated for network layer mitigation, and capable of near real-time alerting and telemetry.
Test your resilience—Validate your backup strategies and plans, ensuring offline copies are available. Review your most recent test results and conduct additional testing if needed. If you’re attacked, your offline backups may be your strongest or only lifeline. (Our incident response teams often find companies are surprised to discover their backup copies were accessible online and were either encrypted or destroyed by the attacker.)
Prepare for incident response assistance—Validate you have completed any necessary due diligence and have appropriate plans to secure third-party assistance with responding to an incident/attack. (Do you have a contract ready to be signed? Do you know who to call? Is it clear who will decide help is necessary?)
Train your workforce—Provide a new/specific round of training and awareness information for your employees. Make sure they’re vigilant to not click unusual links in emails and messages or go to unusual or risky URLs/websites, and that they have strong passwords. Emphasize protecting your company contributes to the protection of the financial economy and is a matter of national security.
Evaluate physical security—Step up validation of physical IDs at entry points. Ensure physical reviews of your external perimeter at key offices and datacenters are being carried out and are alert to unusual indicators of access attempts or physical attacks. (The “see something/say something” rule is critically important.)
Coordinate with law enforcement—Verify you have the necessary contact information for your local law enforcement, as well as for your local FBI office/agent (federal law enforcement). (Knowing who to call and how to reach them is a huge help in a crisis.)

The hope, of course, is there will not be any action against any company. Taking the actions noted above is good advice for any threat climate—but particularly in times of increased risk. Consider creating a checklist template you can edit as you learn new ways to lower your risk and tighten your security. Be sure to share your checklist with industry organizations such as FS-ISAC. Finally, if you have any questions, be sure to reach out to your account team at Microsoft.

Resources and information for detection and mitigation strategies

In addition, bookmark the Security blog to keep up with our expert coverage on security matters. Also, follow us at @MSFTSecurity for the latest news and updates on cybersecurity.

About the author

Lisa Lee is a former U.S. banking regulator who helped financial institutions of all sizes prepare their defenses against cyberattacks and reduce their threat landscape. In her current role with Microsoft, she advises Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) and other senior executives at large financial services companies on cybersecurity, compliance, and identity. She utilizes her unique background to share insights about preparing for the current cyber threat landscape.

Posted on January 21, 2020 by sick skills — Leave a comment

CVP Shelley Bransten’s takeaways from the National Retail Federation’s big show

It’s always exciting to go to an event like NRF! But there was something in the air that made NRF 2020 bigger and better than ever before. There were over 38,000 attendees who experienced three days of inspiring discussions and get a perspective on improving customer engagement.

This year we highlighted how retailers can gain a competitive edge with intelligent retail—by delighting customers, empowering first-line workers, optimizing operations and anticipating future market shifts and disruptions.

I had many interesting moments and conversations at the event, there’s so much innovation and momentum for positive change in the industry that it’s hard not to feel excited for the future. In the opening keynote, Satya Nadella spoke about tech intensity and how it will define the future of retail. Those retailers who can use data to get an omnichannel view of their customer can gain share, customers, and loyalty.

I was thrilled to be with Satya on stage to discuss IKEA and how they are using Microsoft Teams to drive cultural transformation. Moving from paper and outdated systems to Microsoft Teams have empowered employees to easily manage shift changes, tasks and help balance their work and their life.

I’ve rounded up a few interesting takeaways from the event in case you missed these moments.

Sustainability takes center stage

For me, one of the most memorable things about NRF 2020 was the opportunity I had to lead a Big Ideas session around the increasing importance of sustainability in retail and how technology can help the industry drive a more environmentally-focused agenda. Together with Arti Zeighami, Head of AI and Analytics at H&M, we presented a bold vision for the future of the industry that puts sustainability front and center by using AI and other tech-forward solutions as a catalyst. It was enlightening, fun, and —hopefully—inspiring for all who attended. For those of you who want to learn more and stay connected on our initiative, I would like to invite you to join our Retail and Consumer Goods sustainability forum which is a community for networking, sharing best practices, and collaborating with others who are as committed as you are to driving sustainable change in our industry.

A roadmap for the future: how we enable intelligent retail

NRF also brought Microsoft’s specific vision for the future of our industry to the fore. Here are a few highlights of how we are creating innovative and dynamic tech solutions to help solve real-world problems our industry faces:

Know your customers: The new consumer responds to a 1-to-1 approach. With Dynamics 365 Commerce, Fraud Protection, and Dynamics 365 Connected Store retailers can bridge the gap with connected solutions, AI, and real-time observational data to deliver insightful, safe, and efficient shopping experiences.
Empower your employees: It is now mission-critical to enable all of your employees with the right technology and tools. Connected solutions like Walkie Talkie in Microsoft Teams gives us a unique opportunity to help companies of all sizes and industries can help their employees do their best work, without sacrificing the security of their customer’s data.
Deliver an intelligent supply chain: So much of customer satisfaction rests in ensuring that you have the right products in the right place at the right time. To help tackle this problem, brands like Mars, Inc. are using partners like Footmarks, which designed its beacon-and gateway- based display tracking solution with Azure IoT Central to deliver secure, simple and scalable insights into what happens once displays begin transit.
Reimagine retail: Revenue from digital commerce is growing five times faster than in-store sources. With our Microsoft PromoteIQ commerce marketing program, retailers can now dramatically increase revenue from their digital vendor marketing programs, while remaining fully in control of monetization and engaging brand partners.

It’s a pivotal time to be working in retail and NRF 2020 proved it. If you did attend or weren’t able to this year, I’d encourage you to try to make it for the 2021 event, where we are sure to gain a whole new set of insights and inspirations for a bold path forward.

I also encourage you to read this white paper where you can gain new insights into what consumers expect in today’s digital world.

To learn more about intelligent retail, visit Microsoft’s retail site.

Posted on January 21, 2020 by sick skills — Leave a comment

How one of the UK’s most famous voices is helping build a more accessible workplace

written by

Athima Chansanchai

How one of the UK’s most famous voices is helping build a more accessible workplace

Corie Brown, a continuity announcer for Channel 4 in the U.K., is known for her tenacious voice and feisty personality – but her big voice didn’t help at all when she was trying to get Jenny Lay-Flurrie’s attention at Future Decoded, an October 2019 Microsoft event in London where the two would share a stage for an interview.

“I will never forget her running down the backstage corridor, yelling after me, until someone reminded her I was deaf,” said Lay-Flurrie, Microsoft’s chief accessibility officer. “You’ve got a deaf girl interviewing a legally blind woman, which is funny on its own. But Corie and I were chatting afterwards, and I told her one of my problems is voicemail. People call me all the time and leave me voicemails, even though my voicemail actually says thank you for calling, but please don’t bother leaving a message. Send me an email, shoot me a text. A couple days later, after I’d returned to the U.S., she’s professionally recorded new voicemail messages for me. ‘This is Jenny’s phone, Jenny’s deaf, she’s not going to answer. Thank you.’ We cried laughing.

“I don’t get voicemails anymore.”

That episode is just one example of how Brown empowers others who have disabilities. Because of an early exposure to technology and her talent for radio, she’s been able to achieve professional goals that include being chosen from an applicant pool of thousands for her first job at the BBC. But she’s used her voice beyond that to advocate for others as founder and co-chair of 4Purple, Channel 4’s disability staff network.

2:06

Video: Meet Corie Brown

Brown, who’s been at Channel 4 for almost two decades, was one of those who spearheaded the network’s efforts to better reflect its audience on and off air.

“People want to see themselves. The diversity of thought makes you stronger, more profitable; and so the more different voices you have internally, the more likely you are creating content people externally can identify with,” Brown said.

Like other off-camera talent she can walk around with relative anonymity, until she talks at length with someone. Then maybe they recognize her voice, which on Channel 4 fills that junction from the end of one program to the start of the next one.

But even then, they’re not likely to suspect the role Brown has played in opening doors for people with disabilities.

“In the build-up to our coverage of the Paralympics in 2012, we were in a situation where lots of people had to up their game, from a disability perspective. It was a time of seismic change,” Brown said. She began to be more vocal about breaking down barriers in the workplace. “You have conversations with friends in the pub, but this was the first time I’d really talked to someone at work about what life was like for me, with limited eyesight. It was unexpectedly time to stick my head above the parapet. Before, I didn’t want to be perceived as different or judged to be less capable. In the build-up to the Paras it felt like everything was shifting.”

Paul Sapsford manages the announcer team at Channel 4. He said Brown has “made disability in the workplace a positive topic for discussion and has really helped move up the diversity agenda.”

Sapsford has been at Channel 4 since 2007 and while he says Channel 4 has always had a positive outlook on disabilities and diversity, the Paralympics really ramped up the internal conversations.

“It was an extraordinarily powerful event for us externally and internally. It made everyone in the organization think deeply about our coverage and what that meant to us,” says Sapsford, who made it a point to increase diversity on his team. “We hired more disabled employees and made them feel welcome. Everyone’s needs are different, so you have to get it right.”

Sapsford had met Brown before she came to Channel 4, when she worked for the BBC and he was a network director and then an editor.

He said his first impression of Brown was that she was “bright, committed and full of enthusiasm,” and that since then she’s “increased confidence, which has come from experience and from challenging perceptions of disability in the workplace. She found a campaigning voice and uses it effectively. Corie’s attitude is an important part of taking this company forward.

Diversity of thought makes you stronger [and] more profitable.

The U.K. embraced the 2012 Paralympic games, thanks in large part to Channel 4’s marketing campaign, which dubbed the athletes as “superhumans” and the traditional, more famous Olympics as a “warm-up” to these competitions. Eighty-three percent of those people surveyed after the Paralympic games in 2012 agreed that Channel 4’s coverage had improved the perception of people with a disability.

“They were phenomenal ads that changed stereotypes and perceptions,” said Lay-Flurrie, who is British and remembered how the ads were a breath of fresh air for the disabled community. “We felt included in everything they did. You never get that.”

“The atmosphere in the channel was electric,” Brown said. “We were riding on a high, but I and a few others started to think that the public perception was different than how we were as an organization, internally. ‘Hang on, are we really as good as we are on-air?’ Somehow we have to become more confident about disability.”

The channel formed an internal diversity task force that tackled inclusion issues in general and in 2016 Channel 4 engaged a disability workplace specialist, who affected many positive changes during his tenure.

“Behind the scenes and on-air, we put forward our best efforts,” Sapsford says. “You can’t have all that focus on Paralympians without it affecting every department at Channel 4. We had a platform to build on now. We took that experience to mean that anything is possible.”

This was a stark contrast to when Brown started working for Channel 4 in 2001, when nobody was talking about workplace adjustments – screen readers and magnifiers, speech-to-text, text-to-speech, assistive software, etc. – for people with disabilities. In the U.K., there are government funds to subsidize these adjustments, to discourage employers from seeing cost as a reason to not employ someone. Brown didn’t know about this Access to Work benefit until 2009.

“The only reason I heard about it was because they were offering mini health checks, and the nurse mentioned it to me. When I told her I didn’t know about it, she nearly fell off her chair,” she said. “It was the start of an awakening.”

Everyone’s needs are different, so you have to get it right.

Brown started taking advantage of that benefit. Previously, she’d brought to work her own assistive equipment – she uses a screen reader, which reads text aloud, and screen magnification. In her job she often works in live transmission. In broadcast television everything is timed to the second. Every event has an end point, every graphic has a fixed duration. To keep in sync, she gets a verbal countdown from her directors – this removes the challenge of needing to read a script and watch the screen at the same time.

Brown also asks for presentations ahead of meetings and introductions of participants at their outset – accommodations that make meetings more inclusive and productive. She feels that being able to ask for what you need isn’t a sign of weakness – “it’s actually really empowering for everyone.”

Channel 4 uses Microsoft Office 365 and Windows 10 – both of which Brown calls out as rich in accessibility features. She uses Microsoft Word for scripts. Whilst her colleagues print out their scripts, Brown reads on-air using a tablet running an autocue app with a large high-contrast font, reflecting a comfort level with technology that stretches back to her childhood.

Brown has spent all her life adapting to a “sighted” world. With their own lived experience of blindness, her parents decided early on she would get opportunities they didn’t – starting with mainstream schooling, versus going to a specialized school.

“It’s the only thing I’ve ever known,” Brown said. “Some kids have very particular needs, but you’re going to go out and live in a big wide world. The sooner you’re mixing, the better. And of course, the shared learning experience is empowering for fully sighted peers too. It’s really important everybody is given the same opportunities.”

This was back in the 1980s, so they worked with the first incarnation of a scanner that read books out loud. She took typing lessons at school on “proper old banging typewriters” and was one of the children who tested a “turtle” – a precursor to the mouse. Later, she’d write on a word processor.

Her father, a computer programmer, used all kinds of gadgetry, so technology was very much a part of their daily lives.

Besides the tools she uses at work, she likes using the Microsoft’s Seeing AI app in her daily life.

“I really like the instant text handwriting recognition feature to capture handwritten cards – especially at Christmas!” she said. The Microsoft Soundscape app is one of her favorite navigation tools, as it features 3D audio and is especially useful when coming out of the Tube (London’s subway system) at a confusing junction.

While she’s been comfortable with technology pretty much her whole life, she now hopes to make it easier for others to use and ask for it.

Sapsford said Brown is making a difference at Channel 4 through her visibility in the organization, by speaking out on the challenges faced by existing and new employees, and by demanding attention from executives and heads of departments.

The only barriers are our thinking.

Famed for taking risks and challenging perceptions, one of Channel 4’s most enduring legacies from the Paralympic coverage in 2012 is “The Last Leg.” Hosted by “three guys with four legs” it’s now one of the network’s flagship shows. It began as a post-Paralympics round-up, but over the years has evolved into a satirical, “no-holds barred” topical news program. And Channel 4 has continued its coverage of the Paralympics.

Channel 4 thinks others could learn from its experience – and success.

“I think it’s about having the right attitude and the willingness to want to make changes,” Sapsford says. “The only barriers are our thinking. If you break down those barriers, there are no hindrances. We should make it work and we do make it work. We all have the same goal: we want to be the most inclusive, most diverse broadcaster in the U.K. I think here, genuinely for a long time, we’ve had the attitude of, we’re making a difference. We will continue to drive to do better.”

Originally published on 1/20/2020 / Photos by Brian Smale / © Microsoft except where noted.

Posted on January 19, 2020 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Lloyds Banking Group and Microsoft form partnership to accelerate bank’s digital transformation strategy

Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) has announced a strategic partnership with Microsoft focused on accelerating LBG’s digital transformation. As part of the LBG’s commitment to invest £3 billion in technology, the new service will provide a modern digital workplace for all Lloyds Banking Group employees.

The new partnership includes the development of Microsoft Managed Desktop, offering productivity tools within Office 365, the robust security capability of Windows 10 and an advanced device solution to support evergreen currency management.

LBG has worked with Microsoft since 2017 to build, test and evaluate the scale, security and agility requirements for Microsoft Managed Desktop. The rollout across the entire business makes it the world’s largest financial services firm to deploy this technology. This is supplemented by LBG’s use of Microsoft Azure to increase business agility, scalability on demand and provide a more enhanced customer offering.

“We are delighted to support this new agreement with Microsoft, which will not only deliver great support for our colleagues, ensuring that we continue to transform our ways of working, but also help improve operational resilience across the Group,” said Jen Tippin, Group People and Productivity Director at Lloyds Banking Group.

John Chambers, Group Chief Information Officer at Lloyds Banking Group, said: “As part of our digital transformation we’re creating a modern digital workplace and I am really excited about the impact of this new technology. A core principle of Microsoft Managed Desktop is the idea that an evolved approach can give colleagues fantastic experiences on workplace devices that stay current and secure with Microsoft 365. We are confident that prioritising a modern and enjoyable workspace will significantly improve our colleague experience.”

“Becoming a truly digital organisation requires both technical and cultural transformation, which is why we believe close collaboration with our customers to understand their unique challenges and determine the best possible solution is critical,” said Cindy Rose, CEO of Microsoft UK. “Using the Microsoft cloud, employees can have the confidence that they have the best tools at hand to deliver an exceptional customer experience and we look forward to continuing our work to ensure Lloyds Banking Group maintains its position as a truly world-class digital bank.”

Posted on January 19, 2020 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Satya Nadella shares his thoughts on achieving more for the world

The beginning of a new year and a new decade is a time to reflect, set intentions and move forward with bold ambition.

Leaders everywhere are in the midst of a global conversation about the future of democracy and capitalism — a future interconnected and enmeshed within the context of digital transformation. What does it mean to be a global company contributing to each nation’s local interests? How can our products and tools help solve the most important challenges through the use of digital technologies?

For us, it’s an opportunity to reflect on our company’s purpose and mission: to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.

Our mission is enduring. It drives who we are and everything we do, emphasizing our passion to empower both the people and the lasting institutions they build.

As we consider the opportunities and the pressing challenges facing the world today — as we work to empower the 7 billion people on the planet — we must recommit to this sense of purpose and mission and redefine what “achieving more” means for the world. Oxford professor Colin Mayer’s definition of the purpose of a corporation is helpful. Mayer writes that the purpose of business is, “producing profitable solutions to problems of people and planet.”

Looking forward, we believe empowerment to achieve more has four interconnected components:

Power broad economic growth through tech intensity
Ensure that this economic growth is inclusive
Build trust in technology and its use
Commit to a sustainable future

1. Power broad economic growth through tech intensity

In the next decade, broad economic growth will happen if digital technology and software can be applied to empower every person and every organization in every industry, every community and every country.

We live in a world of ubiquitous computing. Consider that there will be 50 billion connected devices by 2030, more than double the number today, and that by 2025, the size of the global datasphere will reach 175 zettabytes, up from 40 zettabytes today. As a platform company, we’re building each layer of the tech stack for this new era. We are building the world’s computer to span the intelligent cloud and the edge; we are creating rich AI supercomputing; and we are making computing more ambient with multi-sense, multi-device experiences.

As people’s lives — including the places we go and the things we interact with — become digitized, they create new opportunities and new breakthroughs: from precision medicine to precision agriculture, from personalized e-commerce to personalized education, from connected manufacturing floors to connected homes. AI is the most transformative technology of our time. And we are focused not only on pushing the frontiers of this technology and building the next generation of data and AI workloads, but also creating new immersive experiences that transcend any single device and help us regain a sense of balance and control in our lives. We think deeply about how to ensure people can determine what is public and what is private and are able to use our technology in order to regain a balance between consuming content and creating it. This increasingly digitized and connected world will create new economic value from the data we generate — more accurate predictions, more personalized services and deeper insights. And it will ensure the digital economy’s growing hunger for data can offer everyone an opportunity to contribute productively and benefit economically.

At Microsoft, we call this dynamic tech intensity: adopting best-in-class digital tools and platforms for the purpose of building new, proprietary products and services. Companies, communities and countries can build their own technology products and services only if they have a skilled workforce to do so. Our own LinkedIn data shows that 60 percent of job openings for developers are outside the tech sector. By mapping every member, company, job and skill, LinkedIn is helping connect workers to economic opportunity in new ways. This broad-based availability of digital skills, jobs and the resulting economy that we look forward to in the coming decade will stand in stark contrast to the economic concentration seen in only a few regions like the West Coast of the United States and the East Coast of China. Every country can achieve independence in this increasingly interdependent world.

2. Ensure that this economic growth is inclusive

Broad economic growth fails if it is not inclusive. Every country, industry and citizen can prosper by leveraging their comparative advantage and by embracing tech intensity. Platform companies like ours have at their core a business model designed to drive comparative advantage and inclusive growth.

Within every region we operate, I seek out and celebrate the local jobs created by our ecosystem. This local digital ecosystem, in turn, makes it possible for their own region’s small businesses to become more productive, multinationals to become more competitive, the public sector to become more efficient, and health and educational systems to produce greater outcomes.

Inclusive growth requires that we equip everyone with the skills and technology required for the jobs of tomorrow, and to drive renewed productivity growth.

For example, there are more than 800 million people today who need to learn new skills for their jobs. Two-thirds of students today will apply for jobs that do not yet exist. Not only does this skills gap impact prospects for individuals, it has a systemic effect on the ability of companies, industries and communities to realize the full potential of this digital transformation. That is why Microsoft is investing in next-generation education and skills training — creating pathways to 21st century jobs.

Also consider that more than 500 million apps will be created in the next four years to drive transformation and productivity for every organization. To accelerate this, we have to create a new category of developers. We call them citizen developers — equipping domain experts in every sector with tools that are low-code or no-code to create solutions that solve their unique business needs.

Furthermore, there are 2 billion firstline workers in the world. They compose the majority of the global workforce in industries such as hospitality, manufacturing, retail and healthcare. Yet, 77 percent say they don’t have the technology needed to be productive. By equipping them with powerful technologies, such as mixed reality and a platform for collaboration, we are helping these workers acquire new skills and drive productivity for their organizations.

However, we must also enable everyone to participate and thrive in this growing economy.

There are more than 1 billion people around the world living with a disability, and as we celebrate the contributions of people with disabilities in the workplace, we must also build tools and products that reflect the diverse experiences of our customers and employees. It’s why we are prioritizing accessibility in our products and services, building diverse teams and seeking input from the accessibility community in the development process.

Access to high-speed internet is fundamental in an increasingly digital and connected world, and something many living in urban areas take for granted. We are working to bridge this divide, with Microsoft’s Airband Initiative, a five-year commitment to bring broadband access to 3 million people in unserved rural communities in the United States by July 2022.

Finally, we also must ensure that we support the success of our own communities, including the many people who work with Microsoft as vendors. We know that the health, well-being and diversity of our own employees contributes to Microsoft’s success, which is why we offer industry-leading benefits. We also know that we rely on the contributions from people working at our suppliers who are also critical to our success. That’s why we require our U.S. suppliers to provide a minimum of 12 weeks paid parental leave as well as paid vacation and sick leave for their employees. And in 2019 we announced a commitment to fund community-based affordable housing in the Puget Sound.

3. Build trust in technology and its use

At its core, every platform company must earn and sustain the trust of its customers and partners. Without trust, none of this progress is possible. There are three pillars to our approach: privacy, cybersecurity and responsible AI. Across each, our commitment goes beyond words to real actions, providing tools and frameworks for our customers and working collaboratively with the public sector to drive policy change.

The first pillar is privacy. We believe privacy is a fundamental human right. Our approach to privacy and data protection is grounded in our belief that customers own their own data and ensuring any product or service we provide is built with privacy by design from the ground up. Our privacy principles include a commitment to transparency in our privacy practices, offer meaningful privacy choices, and responsibly manage the data we store and process. It’s why we were early supporters of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and why we were the first company to expand GDPR’s core rights to all our customers around the world. To date, more than 26 million people have used these tools and it’s why we will continue to advocate for new privacy laws to ensure customers enjoy the transparency and control they deserve.

The second pillar is cybersecurity — a central challenge in the digital age. Cybercrime affecting businesses, governments and individuals costs more than $1 trillion a year, up from $600 billion in 2018. We analyze more than 6.5 trillion signals each day, and process 630 billion authentications and scan 470 billion emails for malware and phishing each month. This massive signal generates insight that fuels security innovation across our platforms. However, technology is not enough to combat these increasing threats. It also requires partnerships for a heterogenous world — both with governments and industries. We called on the world to borrow a page from history in the form of a Digital Geneva Convention, with a goal of updating international law to protect people from cyberattacks. But as a technology industry, we must work together to create a safer internet. More than 100 global technology and security companies have signed the Cybersecurity Tech Accord, committing to advance online security and resiliency around the world.

Third, we build AI responsibly, taking a principled approach and asking difficult questions, like not what computers can do, but what computers should do? Fairness, reliability and safety, privacy and security, inclusiveness, transparency and accountability are the ethical principles that guide our work and are translated into the software development tools for our developer community.

4. Commit to a sustainable future

The scientific consensus is clear. The world today is confronted with an urgent carbon crisis. If we don’t curb emissions, and if temperatures continue to climb, science tells us that the results will be devastating.

To address the damaging effects of climate change, each of us must take action — including businesses. No one company can solve this macro challenge alone, but as a global technology company, we have a particular responsibility to do our part.

We are using technology and data to solve global environmental problems and accelerate progress toward a more sustainable future, focusing on the challenges of water, waste ecosystems and carbon in the atmosphere.

It starts with addressing the carbon footprint of our own technology and company. Since 2012, we’ve been carbon neutral across our own operations, imposing an internal carbon tax to drive behavior change. Datacenters that power the cloud are large consumers of electricity. We’ve also significantly expanded our use of renewable energy.

But we know we need to do more and move faster. This week we announced a commitment that by 2030, Microsoft will be carbon negative across our direct emissions and our supply chain. And we will go beyond that: By 2050, we will remove from the environment all of the carbon we’ve emitted directly or by electrical consumption since our company’s founding in 1975.

Solving this problem will also require new technology, and last week we also announced a new $1 billion Climate Innovation Fund to accelerate the development of carbon reduction and removal technologies.

We know that our most important contribution will come not from our own actions, but from empowering our customers around the world. Digital technology will play a critical role in tackling these issues, and we will work to develop and deploy technology that helps our customers reduce their own carbon footprint.

***

As corporations, our purpose and actions must be aligned to help solve the world’s problems, not create new ones. If the previous decade taught us anything, it is that technology built without the considerations outlined above can do far more harm than good.

This is the decade for urgent action. It is time to take bold steps forward to address our most pressing challenges. We know no one company can solve these socioeconomic challenges alone, but together we can make the 2020s the period when we drive broad, inclusive economic growth through technology, built on a foundation of trust and commitment to sustainability. We look forward to collaborating with our customers and partners on this journey. Because each of us must commit to do more, in order for us all to achieve more.

Posted on January 17, 2020 by sick skills — Leave a comment

How Azure AI is creating a more accessible world

At Microsoft, we are inspired by how artificial intelligence is transforming organizations of all sizes, empowering them to reimagine what’s possible. AI has immense potential to unlock solutions to some of society’s most pressing challenges.

One challenge is that according to the World Health Association, globally, only 1 in 10 people with a disability have access to assistive technologies and products. We believe that AI solutions can have a profound impact on this community. To meet this need, we aim to democratize AI to make it easier for every developer to build accessibility into their apps and services, across language, speech, and vision.

In view of the upcoming Bett Show in London, we’re shining a light on how Immersive Reader enhances reading comprehension for people regardless of their age or ability, and we’re excited to share how Azure AI is broadly enabling developers to build accessible applications that empower everyone.

Empowering readers of all abilities

Immersive Reader is an Azure Cognitive Service that helps users of any age and reading ability with features like reading aloud, translating languages, and focusing attention through highlighting and other design elements. Millions of educators and students already use Immersive Reader to overcome reading and language barriers.

The Young Women’s Leadership School of Astoria, New York, brings together an incredible diversity of students with different backgrounds and learning styles. The teachers at The Young Women’s Leadership School support many types of learners, including students who struggle with text comprehension due to learning differences, or language learners who may not understand the primary language of the classroom. The school wanted to empower all students, regardless of their background or learning styles, to grow their confidence and love for reading and writing.

Watch the story here.

Teachers at The Young Women’s Leadership School turned to Immersive Reader and an Azure AI partner, Buncee, as they looked for ways to create a more inclusive and engaging classroom. Buncee enables students and teachers to create and share interactive multimedia projects. With the integration of Immersive Reader, students who are dyslexic can benefit from features that help focus attention in their Buncee presentations, while those who are just learning the English language can have content translated to them in their native language.

Like Buncee, companies including Canvas, Wakelet, ThingLink, and Nearpod are also making content more accessible with Immersive Reader integration. To see the entire list of partners, visit our Immersive Reader Partners page. Discover how you can start embedding Immersive Reader into your apps today. To learn more about how Immersive Reader and other accessibility tools are fostering inclusive classrooms, visit our EDU blog.

Breaking communication barriers

Azure AI is also making conversations, lectures, and meetings more accessible to people who are deaf or hard of hearing. By enabling conversations to be transcribed and translated in real-time, individuals can follow and fully engage with presentations.

The Balavidyalaya School in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India teaches speech and language skills to young children who are deaf or hard of hearing. The school recently held an international conference with hundreds of alumni, students, faculty, and parents. With live captioning and translation powered by Azure AI, attendees were able to follow conversations in their native languages, while the presentations were given in English.

Learn how you can easily integrate multi-language support into your own apps with Speech Translation, and see the technology in action with Translator, with support for more than 60 languages, today.

Engaging learners in new ways

We recently announced the Custom Neural Voice capability of Text to Speech, which enables customers to build a unique voice, starting from just a few minutes of training audio.

The Beijing Hongdandan Visually Impaired Service Center leads the way in applying this technology to empower users in incredible ways. Hongdandan produces educational audiobooks featuring the voice of Lina, China’s first blind broadcaster, using Custom Neural Voice. While creating audiobooks can be a time-consuming process, Custom Neural Voice allows Lina to produce high-quality audiobooks at scale, enabling Hongdandan to support over 105 schools for the blind in China like never before.

“We were amazed by how quickly Azure AI could reproduce Lina’s voice in such a natural-sounding way with her speech data, enabling us to create educational audiobooks much more quickly. We were also highly impressed by Microsoft’s commitment to protecting Lina’s voice and identity.”—Xin Zeng, Executive Director at Hongdandan

Learn how you can give your apps a new voice with Text to Speech.

Making the world visible for everyone

According to the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness, more than 250 million people are blind or have low vision across the globe. Last month, in celebration of the United Nations International Day of Persons with Disabilities, Seeing AI, a free iOS app that describes nearby people, text, and objects, expanded support to five new languages. The additional language support for Spanish, Japanese, German, French, and Dutch makes it possible for millions of blind or low vision individuals to read documents, engage with people around them, hear descriptions of their surroundings in their native language, and much more. All of this is made possible with Azure AI.

Try Seeing AI today or extend vision capabilities to your own apps using Computer Vision and Custom Vision.

Get involved

We are humbled and inspired by what individuals and organizations are accomplishing today with Azure AI technologies. We can’t wait to see how you will continue to build on these technologies to unlock new possibilities and design more accessible experiences. Get started today with a free trial.

Check out our AI for Accessibility program to learn more about how companies are harnessing the power of AI to amplify capabilities for the millions of people around the world with a disability.