3. Developer Rock Stars

What does Microsoft get out of DreamSpark? Do you hope to see more Windows developers who might otherwise have looked at developing for other platforms? Is there an obvious benefit to Microsoft?

With our culture, getting this program going in Microsoft was never a challenge. Everyone said, “it’s the right thing to do, we should do it.” Maybe we should have done it years ago. Clearly there is an advantage to Microsoft if lots of people understand the Microsoft platform, and we’re maximizing the things they can do if they understand the platform. There is a benefit to us and we’re not hiding that. But we’re trying to make sure people see the broader benefits as well.

One is this entirely new generation of technology breakthroughs that will be created by students. Once the professional level tools are available to students we expect amazing things. The other is the head start on a career. According to IDC, 42% of the entire IT industry relies on our platform, so that skill set is an expectation - and DreamSpark might mean that there are more people available with that skill set. I’d love for the result to be that we inspire more people to take technology as a career, in whatever modern form that takes.

Are you going to keep track of what the DreamSpark students come up with? Will you have a gallery to show their projects off?

We have a program that comes out of the Imagine Cup Innovation Accelerator competition for students and every now and then we do “Where are they now?” Every year we get one or two companies that succeed and on those odds we’re beating the VCs. In two or three or four years I’d love to share what their success stories are; whether DreamSpark made a difference. One of the great things a major corporation like us can give is a chance to share with the world what they do, to let them be seen as rock stars of the developer world.

Look at the big breakthroughs. How old was Bill Gates when he started Microsoft? Look at Michael Dell, Steve Jobs. Where are the big breakthroughs coming from? Young people? Very young people are not constrained by the conference call or the Blackberry. They live in the world of possibilities. They dream and they have ideas and we are giving them to tools to make that real. Having a chance to capture those stories is one of the great benefits of doing this.