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Microsoft Employees Break Record Giving Back to the Community Wed, 22 Feb 2012 10:19:48 GMT

By Bright Side Staff

One of the things we're really proud of here at Microsoft is the emphasis our employees put on giving back to the community around us. We recently released the results of our 2011 Giving Campaign and were thrilled to report a record-breaking $100.5 million from Microsoft employees and the company ... [more]

Overcome the digital divide, and unleash the future Tue, 21 Feb 2012 09:30:00 GMT

By Curt Kolcun, Vice President, Microsoft U.S. Public Sector

In the past three posts in this series, we have explored redefining our nation's access to education and training in the 21st century. We've delved into why the digital divide matters, why it's such a difficult problem to solve, and encouraging progress. Today, we wrap things up by peering into ou ... [more]

New Programs, Data Show Progress in Bridging the Digital Divide Mon, 13 Feb 2012 02:27:00 GMT

By Curt Kolcun, VP Microsoft, US Public Sector

In the past two posts in this series, we've touched on the challenges our nation faces in bridging the "Digital Gap" and why those problems are difficult to solve. Today, we'd like to talk about where we are seeing progress. Fortunately, we have a lot to report. The 2009 economic stimulus package ... [more]

Don't Miss Out on Free Training for Office 365 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:40:40 GMT

By Bright Side Staff

Back in November, we announced a series of Office 365 Tips & Tricks to get end users familiar with the benefits of using Office 365. And later that month, we told you about a great series of webcasts providing helpful information surrounding core topics within Office 365. If you missed them, we wa ... [more]

Real Time Crime Center and Fusion Core Solution Help Keep Ogden, Utah Safe Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:03:21 GMT

By Bright Side Staff

We recently got the chance to check out a great case study and partner video about how the city of Ogden, Utah's Police Department is using the Real Time Crime Center (RTCC) to keep their city safe. Ogden Police Department (PD), which employs 144 sworn officers, 10 community service officers and 2 ... [more]

Tech allows campaigns to reach voters everywhere Mon, 06 Feb 2012 10:26:34 GMT

Kim Nelson, Microsoft US Public Sector executive director of eGovernment

As I reflect on this week's Winter Conference of the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) and last week's Overseas Vote Foundation Summit, the 2012 Presidential Election is already off to a roaring start. The past couple of weeks have been full of exciting developments for public el ... [more]

Building the Case: Providing Access for Economic Growth Thu, 02 Feb 2012 09:15:00 GMT

By Curt Kolcun, Vice President, Microsoft U.S. Public Sector

Last week we discussed the role of technology access and education in economic development and the future of U.S. innovation. This week we'd like to dive deeper into what is holding us back. The digital divide - the huge disparity in economic and social opportunity between digital haves and have ... [more]

Redefining Access to Education and Training Thu, 26 Jan 2012 11:03:00 GMT

By Gail Thomas-Flynn, Microsoft US State & Local Government Vice President

With the U.S. unemployment rate holding steady around 9 percent, job creation and education are top of mind as many fellow citizens are missing out on the economic recovery, and inadequate education is hampering many workers' ability to obtain available jobs. As closely related issues, increasing ... [more]

Microsoft, D.C. Alliance Highlights Value of Public-Private Partnerships Wed, 25 Jan 2012 10:09:50 GMT

By Gail Thomas-Flynn, Microsoft US State & Local Government Vice President

In these times of economic downturn and budget cuts, the importance of public-private partnerships has become more apparent than ever. State and local governments across the country are seeking creative ways to provide the training and resources necessary to reduce unemployment. By enhancing the d ... [more]

Ballots in the Cloud: Improving Absentee Voting for Our Military Personnel Tue, 24 Jan 2012 09:20:58 GMT

By Bright Side staff

Democracy Live is making it easier for American military personnel stationed overseas and other citizens living abroad to vote in this year's U.S. elections. Using LiveBallot, a cloud based service hosted on the Microsoft Windows Azure platform, absentee voters can securely access their ballots fr ... [more]

Office 365 and the Cloud Make HIPAA Easy Fri, 20 Jan 2012 10:37:00 GMT

By Gail Thomas-Flynn, Microsoft US State & Local Government Vice President

The combination of looming healthcare costs and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act's (HIPAA) security and privacy concerns has left many state and local governments wondering how to best operate efficiently and effectively. With more than 3.4 million government customers using ... [more]

Transform Agency Communications While Saving Money Thu, 19 Jan 2012 08:49:00 GMT

By Dean Iacovelli, Director for Collaboration Solutions, Microsoft State and Local Government

The belt-tightening across state and local governments has already started for 2012 and that means IT departments are already scrambling to find ways to squeeze the most from existing IT investments while meeting mandates to move to cloud and mobile computing. Decreased funding and tighter budgets ... [more]

By Bright Side Staff

Beginning this month and continuing through May, Microsoft Local Government will be hosting a series of Virtual Briefings designed to give you a taste of how government technology experts are leveraging the power of technology to meet local government challenges. The hour-long briefings give you a ... [more]

Klamath County Reduces Obstacles with Office 365 Thu, 05 Jan 2012 07:19:33 GMT

By Bright Side Staff

Happy New Year! We'd like to welcome you back for another incredible year of exciting innovations and technologies serving state and local governments across the country. And what better way to kick off 2012 than to showcase an Office 365 success story in a state with some pretty unique scenery. ... [more]

Our Head in the Cloud: Looking Forward to 2012 Thu, 29 Dec 2011 08:44:00 GMT

By Bright Side Staff

Earlier this week, we decided to do some reflection here at Bright Side and look back at our most popular blog posts from 2011. What we found was that many of them had to do with the Cloud. That shouldn't be all to surprising given the popularity the Cloud achieved in 2011, especially among state ... [more]

A Day in the Life Story: Make Short Work of Your Email Tue, 27 Dec 2011 08:42:06 GMT

By Bright Side Staff

Believe it or not, our month-long "Day in the Life" series is coming to an end. We've spend the last four weeks providing tips and helping users be even more productive with their Microsoft tools, and to round out the series, we're heading back to one of the most common issues faced by people on d ... [more]

First Ballots Cast for 2012 Presidential Election Wed, 21 Dec 2011 01:02:55 GMT

By Kim Nelson, Microsoft US Public Sector executive director of eGovernment

Back in September, I wrote an article about a great company, Democracy Live, that makes election materials available electronically to citizens across the country and abroad. The company's cloud-based LiveBallot platform offers a hosted suite of voter information tools that delivers voter specific ... [more]

A Day in the Life Story: Have a Conversation without the Phone Tue, 20 Dec 2011 12:17:05 GMT

By Bright Side Staff

We're more than halfway through our month-long "Day in the Life" series, which is aimed at providing tips and helping users be even more productive with their Microsoft tools. That said, today we're showcasing another idea we think you'll like - getting rid of your office phone. To be fair, you pr ... [more]

"Ask What Technology You Can Buy for Your Country": Kim Nelson Shines on Publicyte Fri, 16 Dec 2011 12:55:10 GMT

By Bright Side Staff

This week, our very own Kim Nelson, executive director for e-government at Microsoft, was published in Publicyte, a popular Microsoft site that looks at American Progress through Technological Innovation. In the timely article entitled, "Ask What Technology You Can Buy for Your Country," Kim poin ... [more]

A Day in the Life Story: Manage Communications from Your Inbox Tue, 13 Dec 2011 11:11:07 GMT

By Bright Side Staff

Last week, we kicked off our month-long series of tips aimed at helping users be even more productive with their Microsoft tools. The "Day in the Life" series, which we continue today, showcases videos that provide deeper insight into how using existing programs like Office 2010 to their full capa ... [more]