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Microsoft challenges South African students

Johannesburg, 17 May 2002

Microsoft South Africa offers secondary and tertiary students the opportunity to explore their creativity and produce innovative Web services, using the Microsoft .NET Platform.

Microsoft SA calls all students and challenges them to develop a revolutionary Web service to win incredible prizes to the value of R50 000, including first prize of a Dell PC and a Microsoft Xbox. Entries must be based on XML and open Internet protocols using Microsoft`s .NET Framework.

"The options for students to develop creative, pioneering Web service applications for the .NET Platform are endless. We are really excited about providing students with the opportunity to use this cutting-edge technology and believe that it confirms our commitment to the innovative youth market as well as the importance of the .NET platform in terms of its business value to this market in the future," says Leanne Scott-Williams, .NET education manager at Microsoft South Africa.

"As the business world sees an increasing adoption of Web services, we feel that offering students a chance to utilise this technology and explore the benefits and features in a competition of this nature will stand the students in good stead for when they enter the job market," Scott-Williams added.

Web services are one of the most significant developments regarding the Internet, providing businesses with a new way to employ the Net as a development platform, and enable them to seamlessly interoperate across disparate systems and platforms. XML Web services provide improved efficiency in software usage, whereby it not only allows for improved productivity for a business today, but also delivers value to a business` IT infrastructure tomorrow.

Students wishing to take up this exciting challenge should visit www.daredev.com where they will be able to find out more information about the competition, download the .NET Framework and submit their entries. Proposals must be submitted by 31 July 2002.

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MSDN Academic Alliance

Through the MSDN Academic Alliance membership programme, which provides an inexpensive resource to license academic labs and faculties, students have access to the leading-edge of technology. For an annual subscription fee of $799, departments teaching courses in computer science, engineering and information systems receive access to the complete suite of Microsoft developer tools, servers and operating systems. Software in this program may be used for instructional and research purposes and may be loaded on any number of qualifying lab, faculty and student-owned computers. In addition, the MSDN AA provides a community Web site that offers a curriculum database, downloadable projects, bulletin board forums, chat sessions, Webcasts, news about technology trends and issues, and many other features. More information on the MSDN Academic Alliance can be found at http://www.msdnaa.net/.

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Editorial contacts

Leanne Scott-Williams
Microsoft SA
(011) 257 0293
leans@microsoft.com