REDMOND, Wash. — June 23, 2008 — The Microsoft Office Live Workspace team presented David Austin with his $100,000 grand prize today, as part of the Office Live Workspace sweepstakes that kicked off when the service launched on March 3, 2008. Participants entered for a chance to win by signing up for their own Workspace, and earned up to two bonus entries for uploading their first document to their Office Live Workspace account and the first time they shared a document or Workspace with others. The winner could choose to use the grand prize to fund a favorite charity, an education or build a business.
David Austin uses Microsoft Office Live Workspace to keep his important classroom documents in one highly secure place. Seattle, June 23, 2008
Austin, a Seattle-based graduate student in the Library and Information Science program at the University of Washington (UW), was introduced to Office Live Workspace during one of his courses at UW, where he was studying various collaborative solutions such as Office Live Workspace.
The access to documents from virtually anywhere that Office Live Workspace provided was an attractive feature for Austin.
“I was drawn to the portability and access to my documents, even when I didn’t have my laptop with me, so I signed up for it as soon as I heard about it,” Austin said. “I currently use Office Live Workspace to keep my work schedule and school papers — both Word and Excel files — in one safe place. I plan to use this service even more in my grad program next year as I work on projects that will require me to share and collaborate on Microsoft Office documents with others.”
University of Washington Professor and His Students Collaborate Using Workspace
In another classroom at the University of Washington, Michael Eisenberg, professor of informatics, invited approximately 35 students in his INFO 300 class to use Office Live Workspace for a series of collaborative group projects and labs. The students worked together on assignments and presentations within their Workspaces and could share them with each other or Eisenberg via their individual or group Workspaces for feedback. The students and Eisenberg also collaborated on classwide documents such as a compilation of definitions and explanations of key emerging technologies.
“Office Live Workspace allows for highly secure access of documents and collaboration among my students, and between my students and me,” Eisenberg said. “The collaborative properties of Workspace are beneficial in that my students are working more efficiently — there’s no flooding of e-mail inboxes with multiple drafts of a common document, and when working on a project together they’re able to see other classmates’ changes to documents in real time.”
Eisenberg said this Live service also offers him some peace of mind: “My curriculum materials are in one very secure place — my Workspace,” Eisenberg said. “I’m confident that my syllabus won’t disappear or my draft of an exam isn’t on a USB drive somewhere. My students have shared similar feedback. To me, Office Live Workspace brings to life the key benefits of online cloud computing — anywhere access, collaboration and information security.”
How Will He Spend the Grand Prize?
David Austin, a graduate student at the University of Washington, is the Microsoft Office Live Workspace sweepstakes grand prize winner. David plans to use the $100,000 to fund his graduate education. Seattle, June 23, 2008
Austin was selected randomly from a pool of hundreds of thousands of entries. Once the shock wears off, he plans to use the $100,000 toward funding his graduate education, and may put money toward a down payment on a house in the future.
In total, an assortment of more than 30,000 daily and weekly prizes were given away as part of the sweepstakes, including Xbox 360 Elite video game systems, Samsung Blackjack II Smartphone devices, 30GB Zune digital media players, Expedia hotel and package coupons, and Microsoft Office Professional 2007.
Office Live Workspace is available at http://www.workspace.officelive.com. People can contribute to the Office Live Workspace forum and provide feedback at http://www.officeliveworkspacecommunity.com.
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