Microsoft Commits $5 Million To 'Landmark' United Nations Technology Partnership (venturebeat.com) 21
Microsoft and the United Nations (UN) have announced a five-year "landmark" partnership to develop technology to "better predict, analyze and respond to critical human rights situations," according to a statement issued today. From a report: Additionally, Microsoft will support work being carried out by the UN Human Rights Office by contributing $5 million to a grant in what the UN called an "unprecedented level of support" from a private organization. An example of the kind of technology the duo have been working on is an information dashboard called Rights View that gives UN employees access to real-time aggregated data on rights violations by country. This, it's hoped, will "facilitate analysis, ensure early warning of emerging critical issues, and provide data to guide responses," according to Microsoft.
5 million is unprecedented? (Score:1)
Really.
I thought it was a typo, but it's not (Score:2)
That's "million". That's with an "m" not a "b". With all this talk of it being a "landmark" partnership and whatnot, I figured it was supposed to be a "b", but the article says "million" as well.
So, $5M, which is about enough to pay the salaries of, say, 100 people working for one year, or 20 people working for five years? Don't get me wrong, that's great and all, and the cause is good, but it seems as if whoever wrote this press release is laying the hyperbole on thick.
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The $5 million will be paid in copies of Windows XP which will be distributed to underdeveloped Microsoft markets and will serve as vectors for the next malware attack, forcing them to "upgrade" to the next version of Microsoft malware host software.
Oh please. (Score:2)
I'm sure they'll be spending $20M to advertise how great they are for doing this.
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Good. (Score:2)
Good. If you ever actually study human rights, you'll discover it's terrible in a way you can hardly conceptualize. Doing what we can to reduce problems like state-sanctioned torture, the modern-day slave trade, the kidnapping and elimination of those who speak out against tyrants, the use of rape as a weapon of war, the genocides we see today, and many other very basic problems should be a core priority of the United Nations. It is an effort that people and businesses and political parties of all stripes s
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It's conceptually a good idea, but if Microsoft were a person it would be a career criminal. I'd suspect that the software would be subject to all kinds of nasty biases.
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You can choose to shout "SJWs" or "hate of anything microsoft related" or everything else we expect to see on slashdot threads like this. But this is a good thing.
Unarguably so, and I'm glad they're doing something good with some of their money. I'm generally anti-MS but we need to be fair. And we can still be anti-MS: if a truly evil murderous dictator gave money to build an orphanage, that's a good thing, but it doesn't make up for everything else. But I'd rather they did the one good thing than nothing at all.
Garbage in, garbage out (Score:2)
I understand the biggest problem with human right violations is not to display them on screen, but to investigate them. If investigation is weak, the beautiful IT system will work in "garbage in, garbage out" mode
Blech (Score:2)
This office is led by Prince Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein of Jordan.
Wikipedia link for human rights in Jordan [wikipedia.org].
Not as bad as some other UN human rights organizations, but it still doesn't sound very good.