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Microsoft in Peru, Living Room
Two pieces of Microsoft news today. tfofurn writes "According to this AP quickie and this Reuters story, both on Yahoo, Microsoft is donating 'about $550,000 in money, software and consulting services to the Peruvian government for educational and "e-government" initiatives' to Peru. The AP story mentions the conflict of this with Edgar Villanueva's proposal to have the government use only open source software. Villanueva (/. interview), you may recall, wrote a famous letter to MS Peru a few months ago." And many people have submitted stories about Windows XP Media Center, coming this winter to a living room near you.
Associated Press
Microsoft Makes Donation to Peru
Microsoft Makes $550,000 Contribution to Peru in Money, Software and Consulting Services
REDMOND, Wash. (AP) -- Microsoft Corp. is providing about $550,000 in money, software and consulting services to the Peruvian government for educational and "e-government" initiatives.
In a news conference Monday, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo announced the contribution, Microsoft's first in Peru.
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Toledo, elected last year, made technology and education a key focus, and initiated conversations with Microsoft, said Sandro Marcone Flores, executive director of the Huascaran project in Peru.
Marcone Flores downplayed whether the contributions could conflict with a proposal under debate in the Peruvian government. That proposal, by Congressman Edgar Villanueva, would obligate all public institutions to convert exclusively to open-source software, in which the underlying code is available to anyone wanting to revise or customize it.
The money will go toward training teachers as part of Toledo's Huascaran Project to improve the educational system with better instructors and technology. Microsoft's contributions will also be used to teach programming skills to potential software developers and help build a central government Web site that can deploy Internet-based services.
Peru's Toledo visits Microsoft, signs education pact
By Reed Stevenson
REDMOND, Wash., July 15 (Reuters) - Peru's President Alejandro Toledo was at Microsoft Corp. (NasdaqNM:MSFT - News) headquarters on Monday, where he signed a deal to put the Internet into the Andean nation's schools and modernize its government.
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The technology cooperation agreement with the world's biggest software maker, which will involve software, cash and consulting services, is welcome news for the embattled leader of the South American nation, whose ratings have tumbled amid voter frustration at unfulfilled promises of more jobs and wealth.
Microsoft spokesman Ricardo Adame said that this was the software giant's biggest contribution to Peru to date and the first meeting between Gates and Toledo since he took office nearly a year ago.
"They talked about education issues, President Toledo's commitment to bring Peru into an age of modernization and use technology to make government more efficient and transparent," Adame said.
Toledo will return to face an increasingly hostile political climate, where he will seek to revive his government after purging his cabinet last week, as well as voters angry over broken campaign promises of more jobs and wealth.
Plan Huascaran -- an educational improvement plan named for the highest peak in Peru -- was another key campaign plank for Toledo when he took office.
Microsoft pledged support for the plan, which so far has provided about 100 schools with Internet service and teaching tools. The government, with Microsoft's help, aims to increase that number to 5,000 schools by the end of Toledo's term in 2006 and provide high-tech skills training to 6,000 teachers.
The drive hopes to step up education in a country with high illiteracy rates, where more than a quarter of women in rural mountain areas, for example, cannot read.
Adame declined to disclose the amount of aid Microsoft would provide, but noted that the Redmond, Washington-based company had given more than $10 million in in-kind contributions in its latest fiscal year to help modernize Peru's education system.
Gates and Toledo also exchanged gifts. Gates gave Toledo glass artwork from a local artist and Toledo presented him with Peruvian silver artwork.