At the ninth annual Microsoft Research Faculty Summit, Tony Hey, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft’s External Research Division, discussed a variety of digital tools for scholars.
Here's an excerpt from the press release:
Add-ins. The Article Authoring Add-in for Word 2007 enables metadata to be captured at the authoring stage to preserve document structure and semantic information throughout the publishing process, which is essential for enabling search, discovery and analysis in subsequent stages of the life cycle. The Creative Commons Add-in for Office 2007 allows authors to embed Creative Commons licenses directly into an Office document (Word, Excel or PowerPoint) by linking to the Creative Commons site via a Web service.
The Microsoft e-Journal Service. This offering provides a hosted, full-service solution that facilitates easy self-publishing of online-only journals to facilitate the availability of conference proceedings and small and medium-sized journals.
Research Output Repository Platform. This platform helps capture and leverage semantic relationships among academic objects—such as papers, lectures, presentations and video—to greatly facilitate access to these items in exciting new ways.
The Research Information Centre. In close partnership with the British Library, this collaborative workspace will be hosted via Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and will allow researchers to collaborate throughout the entire research project workflow, from seeking research funding to searching and collecting information, as well as managing data, papers and other research objects throughout the research process.
Here's a list that indicates availability.
- Article Authoring Add-in version 1.0 for Microsoft Office Word 2007 (download)
- Creative Commons Add-in version 1.0 for Microsoft Office (download)
- Microsoft Math Add-in for Microsoft Office Word 2007 (download)
- Microsoft eJournal Service (alpha preview)
- Research Output Repository Platform ("Currently in a limited alpha release, an open beta version will be available later in 2008.")
- Research Information Centre ("This service is currently in beta testing. Microsoft intends to share the code widely by the end of the year.")