Intel and Microsoft Showcase European Projects

Posted by: Jennifer L. Schenker on July 30

Europeans are used to seeing the names of U.S. tech companies Microsoft and Intel in connection with antitrust investigations in Brussels. Now both companies are hoping to improve their image on the Continent through public service projects.

Intel chairman Craig Barrett was in Lisbon July 30 to kick off a Portuguese government program to deliver a half million computers based on the Intel-powered “classmate PC” to school children. Intel, which will provide technology advice and support to the Portuguese government project, also is planning to create a competence center in Portugal to expand the use of mobile PCs and Internet access and use that knowledge to replicate pilot projects in other countries.

Microsoft announced July 30 that it is teaming up with the European Environment Agency to launch an “Eye on Earth” online environmental observatory to measure the quality of European soil, air, and ozone. The first service available, called Water Watch, will allow people to compare the cleanliness of water at beaches across Europe. (The project will start with 11 countries but more will be added later.)

The cleanliness of water that people swim in can be a major public health issue, with untreated sewage and chemicals presenting a variety of risks, ranging from respiratory infections to stomach complaints to serious diseases such as dysentery, hepatitis, and encephalitis. Until now people in Europe had no easy way of understanding the nature of the water they swam in, nor the ability to report on and help change the condition of the beaches they visited.

Eye on Earth will use Microsoft's Virtual Earth mapping technology to give viewers a bird's eye view of beaches on their itinerary. Microsoft's server technology will provide the geo-spatial capabilities needed to understand the cleanliness of the water. Water Watch is now accessible from www.eyeonearth.eu or www.eea.europea.eu. Microsoft also plans to make Eye on Earth available to over 100 million users of MSN through specially localized channels in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Britain.

Sure, Microsoft is doing this in part because things haven't been going swimmingly well for them in Brussels. But Eye on Earth and Intel's support of the Portuguese school program will bring some real benefit to Europeans, so let's give both companies credit where it's due.