The AMP Summit

The AMP Summit came to a close on May 25th and marked a serious step forward in our evangelism efforts to the music industry. We received a large amount of both positive and constructive feedback to help us learn what went well, and what we can do to improve down the road.

Read what other folks are saying ...

1. It Rains in Seattle: Microsoft AMP Summit 2007 by Rain Recording
2. Inside Out: The Cakewalk interview with Noel Borthwick & Carl Jacobsen by Channel9
3. M-Audio: One Stop Shop For Musicians by Tina Wood, on10
4. Steve Rowe’s Summit Blog
5. Behringer Interview by on10 (posting soon)

Specific partner comments:
Eldad Kuperman, Waves Digital Technologies, Ltd:
“I would like to take this opportunity and thank you and all those that helped organizing the successful summit. Also many thanks for the special treat I've got from you! I came in with many unanswered questions and returned with all the answers. It was a pleasure for me to know you and the Vista software engineers”

Benjamin Greer, SRS Labs:
“I wanted to thank you for the great time that I had at the Microsoft AMP Summit. It was a useful event from many different perspectives, and is helping me to think of how we could work with Microsoft in planning future co-marketing activities.”

Claus Riethmueller, Ego Systems Incorporated
“I think the event was great and all in all a very valuable experience for me and also other attendees as far as I could see. It cleared up a few things, provided valuable contacts to Microsoft and other companies, yet it also showed the difficulties that we encounter when dealing with such a huge organization as Microsoft.”

Stephen Turner, Audio Science:
“Let me thank you for putting on the AMP Summit. It was great to be able to interact first hand with the audio team at Microsoft. I got a lot of questions answered and made a lot of good contacts.”

Microsoft-Houghton Mifflin Learning Technologies Alliance

ATLANTA — June 25, 2007 — Today at the 2007 National Educational Computing Conference, Houghton Mifflin Learning Technology (HMLT), a division of Houghton Mifflin Company, and Microsoft Corp. announced a worldwide strategic alliance designed to make it easier for pre-K–12 and higher-education students, parents, teachers and administrators to access HMLT’s award-winning educational resources. As part of the agreement, HMLT will develop its next-generation flagship Learning Village® instructional Web portal on the Microsoft® .NET Framework 3.0 and utilize Microsoft Office SharePoint® Server 2007 and the Microsoft Learning Gateway. Combining the strengths of both companies, the alliance opens up opportunities for educators to integrate all of their content, applications and resources from one central source, using technology to manage and monitor their Web-content needs districtwide.

Learning Village delivers curricula and content in a unified, personalized and education-relevant Web environment for hundreds of thousands of K–12 teachers, students, administrators and parents, providing a central point for accessing curriculum, lesson plans, communication, collaboration, best practices, teaching and professional development. The infrastructure of the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 and SharePoint technologies will help HMLT connect educators and students to the best digital content and resources available while helping to reduce support costs and enhancing HMLT’s ability to deploy future solutions as software and services.

With Learning Village on the Microsoft Learning Gateway portal, students will need to log on only once to access their homework assignments. Once they’ve completed their work, they can then drop it into a “virtual backpack” for their teacher to grade. Parents are provided with the opportunity to actively participate in their children’s education, all through the same system.
Several key districts — including Broward County Public Schools, School District of Palm Beach County, Duval County Public Schools and Miami-Dade County Public Schools (MDCPS) — have been instrumental in collaborating on the development and enhancement of Learning Village. In 2006 MDCPS, the fourth largest school district in the United States with more than 1 million users, consolidated its communication and collaboration system to the Microsoft SharePoint-based portal solution after considering several technology options.

The goal was to improve user experience alongside its other mission-critical teaching and learning applications. The change allowed the district’s teachers to access Learning Village digital learning resources anytime and anywhere without additional logons, multiple passwords or the need to click through numerous channels to find to what they needed.

About Houghton Mifflin Learning Technology
Houghton Mifflin Learning Technology develops and delivers highly engaging, interactive pre-K–12 solutions that inspire excellence and innovation, and raise student achievement. With a rich portfolio of curriculum-based technology products and services in all subject areas, this newly created division of Houghton Mifflin Company provides a powerful, research-proven approach for integrating core and supplemental instruction, intervention, assessment and reporting, professional development, and school-to-home connections. Houghton Mifflin Learning Technology’s flagship brands include Destination Math®, Destination Reading®, Learning Village®, the Edmark® House Series, as well as well-known titles such as The Print Shop®, Reader Rabbit®, and Kid Pix®. Houghton Mifflin Learning Technology also offers the popular SkillsTutor®, Earobics®, and Larson Learning® solutions. For more information, call 888-242-6747.

About Houghton Mifflin
Boston-based Houghton Mifflin Company is one of the leading educational publishers in the United States, with more than $1.4 billion in sales. The Company publishes a comprehensive set of educational solutions, ranging from research-based textbook programs to instructional technology to standards-based assessments for elementary and secondary schools and colleges. The Company also publishes an extensive line of reference works and award-winning fiction and nonfiction for adults and young readers. In 2006, Houghton Mifflin merged with Riverdeep, bringing together one of the most respected print publishers with the leader in interactive courseware. With origins dating back to 1832, Houghton Mifflin combines its tradition of excellence with a commitment to innovation. To learn more about Houghton Mifflin, visit http://www.hmco.com/.

Check the Artists

More from REMIX NYC ... what a cool artists

Serato

Serato, one of the leaders in DJ software for Windows, provided DJ Boo using their new Scratch Live 1.7 update for Windows Vista. DJ Boo demonstrated how well the PC can be utilized in live performing situations, where low latency and super-fast responsiveness are critical user requirements.

Moldover

We were very excited to have New York-based live psychedelic performer Moldover appear in our room and demonstrate his live performance skills as well as talk about his invention, the Octamasher. He describes the Octamasher as both an interactive audio installation and an accessible, multi-user musical instrument. “Participants run around the table, they poke at the different instruments, they learn how it all works, and they teach it to different people,” says Moldover. “It’s a really neat way for people to come together, interact, and make music.” No matter what you want to call it, the Octamasher has been catching eyes and ears at parties and concerts across the country.

3kStatic

Heavily inspired by the post-punk angst of early electronic/industrial music pioneers, 3kStatic fuses Dadaist cut-up techniques with elements of house, trip hop, and IDM to create an often harsh, inflammatory, and ardently activist social view that has seen its releases reviewed by political journals as well as the music press. The band's most recent album Where's Our Piece of the Groovy World? quickly became the most successful 3kStatic digital release in Summer/Fall 2006, having hit #1 (iTunes Spain Dance Chart) and also charting Top 5 (Dance) in Italy, Belgium, and Switzerland. A long-time staple on the soundtrack of MTV's "The Real World" and "Road Rules", 3kStatic will release 'Other Ideals: The Best of 3kStatic 1999-2007) on March 27, 2007 on the dPulse/INgrooves labels.

NYC here we Came

In our continuing strategic partnership with

Prism Business Media and driving the Perception Change Initiative, Microsoft was proud to be the Title Presenting Sponsor for the Remix New York show from May 18-20 at the SAE Institute of Technology in Herald Square, New York City. This was a phenomenal opportunity to showcase our partner solutions for content creation on the Windows platform, as well as a chance to gain brand identity with key industry producers & engineers that help drive market-wide influence and perception. These are the types of opportunities to help change the perception you need to buy a Mac to be creative.