We’re looking forward to collaborating, sharing ideas, and showing them around Kendall Square. We can’t wait to get them involved in some great events – both here at NERD and around Boston and Cambridge.

The SharePoint Workspace team is moving from Beverly, which has been their home since before Microsoft’s acquisition of Groove Networks in 2005. This team delivered SharePoint Workspace 2010, which enables collaboration within and among workgroups and ships in Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Plus. You can learn more by visiting the SharePoint Workspace team blog.  The team that supports SharePoint Workspace is also joining us.
 
Please join me in welcoming the SharePoint Workspace team to NERD!

Welcoming our colleagues with a good old fashioned pancake breakfast.

Welcome to Innovation Month in New England!! In case you’re wondering what this month is all about, it’s a grassroots effort designed to  bring our community together to celebrate New England and our greater Boston Tech Hub as an amazing place for innovation. Today, we’re officially a week into Innovation Month in New England, and wow – what a great start to this effort! This past week alone we had Angel Boot Camp, TechStars pitch night, MITX awards, Mass Innovation Nights, and capped it off with Start-up Weekend Boston.

The next two weeks are shaping up to be just as exciting with another 40 events taking place (check out Greenhorn Connect for the latest info) Our goal with this post is not to recap past events, (although I’ll encourage you to click the links to read some excellent recaps) but rather to inspire others to contribute to the success of the Tech Hub by highlighting a few individuals that have stood-up, taken action and brought some really impactful programs to life.

Let’s start with TechStars.  Just as we were arriving in Boston, Y-Combinator was heading out.  It seemed to be all that people talked about, and many equated it to the death of the start-up ecosystem.  Bill Warner (Founder of Avid Technology and Wildfire Communications), stood up and cornered Brad Feld over calamari in a Boulder hotel and convinced him that TechStars needed to be in Boston.  18 months later, TechStars has graduated 19 start-ups in Boston under the watchful gaze of Shawn Broderick and 30 mentors!    

Support for the under 30 entrepreneur and innovator set was tackled by Cort Johnson and Jake Cacciapaglia when they started DART Boston.  DART’s pokin’ holes event has become the go-to event for anyone under 30 to meet other entrepreneurs, and to learn about what is happening in the ecosystem.  By adding events such as “Family Dinner” (just a casual get together with some celebrities)  and “Capitalize” (geared at getting start-ups feedback on their pitch), Cort and Jake are working hard to ensure that the under 30 group is well represented. 

On a similar path, Jason Evanish thought that getting started in Boston as a young first-time entrepreneur was a challenge, so like Bill, Cort and Jake – he set out to create a solution – Greenhorn Connect.  In addition to providing the one stop shop for all resources that first time entrepreneurs need (see complete event listing ), Jason is present at nearly every local tech event, advocating for our young entrepreneurs.

Angel Boot Camp which owes its success to Jon Pierce is another great example. Jon organized a small committee of volunteers to obtain speakers, and execute on a day geared toward building tighter connections between entrepreneurs, active angels, and former entrepreneurs who have the ability to serve as role models.  

The above examples are about individuals who saw a need, and took action to ensure our ecosystem continues to thrive.  These individuals are of course not the only ones doing their part, there are countless others who are stepping up and making an impact. We applaud all of you!

What can you do?  It’s easy – be a participant and get involved in the community, introduce yourself at events, or give up a night a month to help mentor young entrepreneurs.  If you find yourself complaining or you see something that can help the community thrive, step up and make it happen. We all need to do our part to ensure the Tech Hub continues to thrive.  Individuals make the difference, and the more people that are willing to pitch in and help, the further we’ll all collectively be able to go.

At NERD, we’re excited to support the innovation ecosystem in New England, and have tried to contribute in meaningful ways.  Tell us what else we can do to ensure that the Boston Tech Hub is the most innovative in the world.

View of One Cambridge Center from front of building.

Microsoft expands its NERD campus in Kendall Square.

When we opened the Microsoft New England Research & Development Center in September of 2007, we knew this would be the first of many steps in our journey to build a world class R&D center right here in Massachusetts. And what a journey it has been! NERD is now a bustling vertical campus with 10 R&D teams focused on some of Microsoft’s most strategic products and investments. During the past year we have welcomed more than 25,000 members of the community to our campus to learn, network, and collaborate.

Today, we are thrilled to announce the expansion of NERD in two important ways:

We are leasing and renovating 113,000 sq. ft. of office space at One Cambridge Center from our longstanding partner Boston Properties. One Cambridge Center is located in the heart of booming Kendall Square and a short walk from our One Memorial Drive building. The initial expansion phase at One Cambridge Center is expected to be completed this summer and will accommodate our Microsoft Advertising team and our employees from Navic, who have been working from our Waltham Jones Road location.

At the end of June, our Microsoft SharePoint Workspace team (formerly Groove) will move from our Beverly office to join us at One Memorial Drive. These moves will bring together the majority of our more than 500 Massachusetts based R&D employees at NERD in Cambridge.

Our expansion reflects the value Microsoft places in Massachusetts as a high-tech talent center and the company’s commitment to growing our presence and investment in the state. These are exciting times for our industry and for Microsoft employees here in Massachusetts. If you aren’t familiar with NERD, we hope you’ll join us at an upcoming community event hosted at NERD and of course we encourage you to check out our latest job listings.

Perspectives on NERD Expansion

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick

”Massachusetts has been known the world over as the hub of innovation. Our entrepreneurs have advanced our economic prosperity, our doctors have made historic breakthroughs, and our academics have set the global standard in education. Today we are blazing a trail in information technology as well from robotics to video games. That’s the future we want to build in Massachusetts and with the expansion of the NERD Center Microsoft is leading the way.”

Ray Ozzie – Chief Software Architect – Microsoft Corporation

“As the executive sponsor of Microsoft’s New England Research & Development Center in Cambridge, Mass., I am delighted to announce our plans to expand our company’s presence here in Kendall Square. I am pleased by how it builds toward our goal of creating a campus in Cambridge that can attract some of the best tech talent that this region has to offer. I am also pleased by what it means in terms of our ability to further contribute to the region’s vibrant tech community.”

City of Cambridge Mayor David P. Maher

”Microsoft’s commitment to the city of Cambridge is an example of how municipalities and the private sector can partner to benefit both the residents of the city and a dynamic company. The city of Cambridge is proud that Microsoft has chosen to expand their presence in Kendall Square.”

Rupert Bader – Director of People Insight – Microsoft Corporation

“When we evaluate where the qualified engineering talent is around the world – the biggest market isn’t India or China it’s the East Coast of the United States. Massachusetts has established itself as one of the world’s leading centers for innovation.”

Tech entrepreneurs are driven by the maxim “better, faster, cheaper.” But what about entrepreneurship education?

Over two weekends this April, the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA) conducted VentureLab. The goal is to produce an experience that accelerates university student entrepreneurial endeavors and better positions these ventures to compete for business plan competitions, funding and customers: better, faster, cheaper entrepreneurship education.

Sponsored by Microsoft and held at the Cambridge NERD facility, VentureLab was run by James Barlow. NCIIA “imported” James last fall from Scotland where he ran the Scottish Institute for Enterprise. At the first April 9 weekend session, James handed out $500 to each team to provide a little boost to accelerate their ventures. The challenge was to see how much they could accomplish in two weeks leading up the second weekend starting April 23. At a time when there is a national call for greater innovation and entrepreneurship, it’s important to recognize that training and motivation are as important as money and that major progress need not always be expensive or drawn-out. Students can be equipped very quickly to advance their ventures. The ability to learn to do a lot with little is a defining point for many entrepreneurs. Over the last few years, we’ve seen a proliferation of low-cost approaches to invention and entrepreneurship. Programs as diverse as MakerFaire and TechStars suggest that ventures, particularly those created with “ramen noodle” budgets can produce tremendous innovation.

Is $500 enough to accomplish a lot? On Friday, April 23 at Microsoft NERD the twenty teams showcased their accomplishments with IGNITE style 5 minutes talks. The definitive answer: in many cases, dramatic progress was made by the push engendered by the deadline, and fueled by the money. Examples are as diverse as Solar Ivy, LifeServe and Relay. All the teams continued to work every waking hour through the weekend. Now NCIIA’s challenge is to take them forward and get them further support through our own mentoring program, our E-team grants program (open application for student innovators: May 7), MassChallenge and VentureWell.

The VentureLab program is part of a larger series of offerings from the National Collegiate Inventors & Innovators Alliance. This April event was sponsored by Microsoft NERD and is part of a larger set of offerings on which we’ve received support from Microsoft. The program came out of a mutual interest to provide support and acceleration to a range of student technology ventures in the Boston/Cambridge area and throughout Massachusetts and New England. The effort is in alignment with MassChallenge and initiatives such as the Massachusetts Technology Transfer Center, focused on the Massachusetts innovation economy and university technology entrepreneurship.

NCIIA is a national non-profit, based in Massachusetts, that works with top universities across the US to support faculty and student entrepreneurs in creating technology innovations and ventures that address global challenges and basic human needs.

Joseph Steig directs VentureWell, a spin-out of NCIIA that works with university researchers to produce transformative commercial innovations that improve the human condition and environmental sustainability. He also serves as CFO of Long River Ventures.

I’m so excited to announce the launch of a new beta Facebook app from FUSE Labs called  “Docs”, also  available at our docs.com website.  Built on Microsoft Office 2010, the Docs app enables Facebook® users for the first time to create and share Microsoft Office documents directly with their Facebook friends, using the Office tools they already know.

It’s been quite a sprint for the FUSE team to deliver this beta – from concept to its initial implementation in less than four months.  The FUSE Labs mission is to explore a range of “Future Social Experiences”.  In this exploration it’s our belief that we may increase the value of Office ‘docs’ by giving everyone the ability to seamlessly take their friends and connections with them from Facebook to docs.com.

The fact that we’ve been able to adapt the Office 2010 “Web Apps” technology to work directly with Facebook truly speaks to the flexibility and power not just of the Facebook platform, but also of the Office system’s rich “contextual collaboration” capabilities.  And we’d never have been able to achieve our critical ‘simplicity’ goals had it not been for our ability to use a new test feature from Facebook that allows us to build an instantly personalized and seamless document authorization & sharing experience directly from our site.

This exploration exposes yet another facet of Ray Ozzie’s broad and long-held vision of social productivity.  Although quite simple (and fun!), docs.com integrated with the Facebook experience bring together the best of ‘software’ with the best of ‘services’.  Documents can be created directly within the app, or can be uploaded from your PC.  After starting work on a document alone, you might then choose a few others with whom to share it.  Or you might instead share it with all your friends, or you might share it with the world.  Documents can be viewed and edited directly within a web browser – or, with a single click, you can edit them more richly and powerfully through the Microsoft Office software on your PC or Mac.

One of our FUSE Labs principles is that ‘it’s not what you say – rather, it’s what you do, what you learn, and how you adapt’.  So, we hope you’ll register at docs.com, have some fun with our app, and help us explore!  See you there!

- Lili Cheng

*Facebook is a registered trademark of Facebook Inc.

Why does Microsoft care?  Why would we get involved in the MassChallenge?  It’s simple, actually – it’s a core part of our DNA and since the opening of NERD we have had an ongoing dialogue with the local community about the biggest areas of need and where Microsoft can add the most value. The constant thread in these conversations has centered around the local innovation economy and lack of sustained progress. We have responded to this need by opening NERD as a rallying point for technologists and investing in people and programs like the MassChallenge that the community feels are important. We’ve taken a ‘rising tide will lift all boats’ approach and we feel that it’s vital to everyone’s collective success to have a thriving innovation ecosystem in their back-yard.

Fast forward a year later- John, David and Akhil have been able to boot-strap the MassChallenge despite the tough economic times and today have officially launched one of the largest global start-up competitions. Today, we are excited to announce that Microsoft has doubled down on its investment in MassChallenge through a new 2 year partnership where we will create the Microsoft-MassChallenge Seed Award, provide technical mentoring and access to software through our BizSpark program for all MassChallenge entrants .  Through this expanded partnership, the Microsoft New England Research and Development Center will become the largest private sponsor of the MassChallenge.

We’re excited and honored to be able to contribute to this fantastic Massachusetts initiative and look forward to seeing each of these promising start-ups reach their full potential.

To view photo’s from today’s MassChallenge launch event, click here.

One of our key goals at NERD is focused on helping the greater Boston technology and innovation ecosystem thrive, and with all of your guidance we feel that we’ve been able to add value and ensure that the ‘rising tide will lift all ships’.  When Dave Barrett approached us about Microsoft becoming a formal sponsor of DPL, our missions around supporting the entrepreneurial ecosystem were so close that it was a no brainer. 

Our partnership with Dogpatch labs marks a significant effort to foster innovation by supporting early-stage developers with access to a network of people, resources and tools. A fundamental component of this partnership includes providing Dogpatch facilitated access to Microsoft product personnel, programs & services, including Microsoft BizSpark program reach across the virtual community clustered around the three Labs locations (Silicon Valley, New York and Cambridge). The partnership will also feature Microsoft and Dogpatch collaboration around workshops, meet-ups and other activities which extend entrepreneur access and visibility into Microsoft product organizations and with our executives

We are thrilled to be the first-ever corporate partner to the lab, and can’t wait to roll-up our sleeves and continue to deepen our partnership to ensure that the greater Boston entrepreneurial ecosystem can continue to realize its full potential.

To learn more about Dogpatch labs, click here.

• 13,000 vouchers for on-line courses in Microsoft Office 2003 or 2007 software (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook)
• 5,000 IT Professional courses
• 3,000 Microsoft Office 2003 Certifications Exams
• 5,000 Microsoft Office 2007 Certifications Exams

Know someone that needs help bootstrapping their skills? Send them to: http://www.mass.gov/ElevateAmerica.
Check out photos from the Elevate America launch event in Boston.

People who don’t know that Microsoft is hiring in Boston always ask what types of positions are available at this location.  NERD is a research and development center.  The bulk of our current and future roles are in core technology, therefore recruiting Software Developers, Software Testers, Program Managers and UX Designers are always a top priority for us.  There are smaller, non-technical teams based here so if you are not a techie (I’m not!), there is still hope for you, too!  If you are passionate about technology and serious about working for Microsoft, you should set up a job search agent on the Microsoft Careers Site.  This is the most effective way to keep your finger on the pulse of growth at NERD because you will receive a message each time a new position opens at this location.  Even if you are not an active job seeker today, I encourage you to be opportunistic about your career and sign up for job alerts…you never know when your ideal job is going to open up and when it does, you want to be the first to know about it!          

Job seekers are always surprised to learn about the diversity of the positions Microsoft has available in the region.  Currently, there are job openings in 4 different teams located at NERD!  While each of these groups is very different from one another, they all offer the ability to work with cutting edge technologies, solve big problems and work alongside really bright and motivated individuals.  Check out the exciting products being developed and find out more about the people behind this work here.  We are really excited about the diverse career options available at NERD and look forward to offering even more as this dynamic campus continues to develop in Cambridge.  (This is all the more reason to set up that job agent and keep informed about jobs as they become available!)      

Since Boston is a hotspot for incredibly smart and driven students, I also get a lot of questions regarding college internship opportunities.  The Redmond based Microsoft college internship program is highly competitive and highly regarded at a national level. One of the best ways you can get noticed as an intern candidate is to attend the events on your college campus that Microsoft sponsors and talk to the “Campus Recruiters” directly.  Also, start early in the school year and don’t wait until March to start sending your resume and making inquiries!  Intern spots fill quickly and because Boston is such a competitive academic environment, it is all the more reason to begin applying in the first semester of the school year.  You can learn more about the intern program and apply here.       

That’s all for now, but for all the inside scoop about the hiring process at Microsoft, interview tips from Recruiters and real stories from candidates, please visit the Microsoft JobsBlog.  Until next time, be sure to create a job alert and check this site often for news and updates about jobs at NERD!    

Happy hunting!

-Kate

Recently, I spent two wonderful mornings helping out at the Boston Museum of Science with National Engineers Week.  Working with a group of volunteers from companies such as IBM, Google, and of course Microsoft, as well as other organizations we helped museum staff run a program called Design Challenges.  Design challenges are simple activities where kids of all ages and adults are encouraged to build model bobsleds and boats that are then raced against the clock.  The fastest, and slowest times are recorded and posted on the screen for everyone at the museum to see.  We didn’t just measure speed we also measured how much “treasure” each model boat could carry.  Having the opportunity to work with other great volunteers, staff member s as well as the “engineers of tomorrow” was incredibly rewarding.

The Museum of Science has many volunteer opportunities and if you would like more information about how to get involved please let me know and I’d be happy to share what I know!