Inspiration at the Imagine Cup Finals in Cairo - Microsoft On The Issues (by Ray Ozzie)

See the full post for more details and this page for an event transcript

Today I had the privilege of kicking off the worldwide finals of the seventh annual Imagine Cup in Cairo, Egypt.  The event is an inspiring culmination to a six-month, global technology competition that has included more than 300,000 students from over 100 countries and regions.

The Imagine Cup grows each year and is one of the most powerful demonstrations of our belief that students must have the educational foundation and access to technology required to pursue their dreams and contribute to improving the human condition.  Initiatives like the Imagine Cup give students the opportunities and confidence to experiment and explore what’s possible.

Excerpt from the full transcript:

If there was ever a defining moment in my career, that was really it. PLATO in letting us do what we did together had transcended the limits of time and location, enabling us to be together, even though we needed to work apart.

It made me realize that technology could take us beyond the limitations of our bodies, kind of acting like a bridge, like a superconductor between our minds.

And ultimately this experience became the inspiration for my own dreams as I left college, as I decided what to work on in my spare time and so on, and this is why I created Notes, this is why I created Groove, this is why I continue to be extremely optimistic about the possibilities in an Internet era of distributed work, and computer supported cooperative work across the industry, and of course at Microsoft.

Inspiration at the Imagine Cup Finals in Cairo - Microsoft On The Issues