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潜龙在渊 微软今年在中国进行一连串投资
作者： CNET科技资讯网 翻译：李海
CNETNews.com.cn 2005-09-30 09:40 AM
CNET科技资讯网 9月30日国际报道 随着中国市场开始成熟，在经历了多年以来表面上沉睡之后，微软，在过去几个月已经进行了一连串小规模，但却至关重要的交易。 软件巨人开始动作之前，它的同类公司，从外包业专家，比如印度的Infosys科技，Tata咨询公司，到Sun这样的开发公司，均在中国设立了分支机构。 官方数据显示，从1999年至2003年，中国软件市场的年均增长率达到39%，所有外国公司都试图在这一高速发展的市场占有一席之地。 中国的具有相对熟练且廉价的劳动力的优势，为此，外国公司正在中国寻求业务的多样化，软件设计公司数量快速增长也使得中国公司能够成为外国公司的合作伙伴或者收购目标。 McKinsey咨询公司的一名软件专家Chris Ip说：“外国公司已经度过了插旗阶段。它们中的绝大多数均已来到中国，有些已经存在很多年了。” 他说：“因此，这些公司希望借中国的发展速度更进一步，他们开始见到自己的一些中国计划结出果实。” 微软是投资中国的先行者。2002年，微软承诺在中国投资62亿元人民币，这是当时最大的外国投资。 但是，自那以后，微软在投资领域鲜有动作，这一阶段，微软受到日渐向上中国本土软件公司的挑战，象金蝶国际和用友软件等等。 2005年，这一切都发生了变化，微软今年对中国的合作伙伴进行了一连串的投资。 本周一，微软宣布，它将联合世界银行下属的“国际金融”公司向中软国际有限公司投资3500万美元。 五月，微软宣布为它的中国MSN互联网服务机构设立两家风险公司，这一举动将使得MSN服务将为中国市场提供全套的门户服务项目。 六月，微软公布了和印度软件外包公司Tata咨询，及几家中国公司进行合作的计划，几方将组建一家IT外包公司，投资方们希望，这家公司可以成为复制印度外包公司成功的典范。 七月，微软同意向在香港上市的浪潮国际投资2500万美元。 当然，微软也遭遇到了挫折，比如中国政府正在推动廉价的Linux类软件的发展，本月，微软旧将李开复被法庭判决可以为Google中国工作，李开复曾经负责建立了微软北京研发中心。 在两天的法庭听证会中，李开复表示，他离开微软，是因为自己对微软的中国政策感到失望。 其它跨国公司，比如BearingPoint和Sun也已经宣布了雄心勃勃的中国发展计划。Sun计划将中国公司的工程师数量在两年之内增加两倍，达到一千人。而BearingPoint则希望自己在中国的工程师数量达到一万。 (编辑：孙莹) Software behemoth invests in its eastern namesake… By Reuters Published: Wednesday 28 September 2005 Microsoft has stirred to life in China with a string of small but pivotal deals in past months after years of seeming slumber as the Asian country’s market began to mature. The deals by the world’s top software company come as its peers – from outsourcing specialists such as India’s Infosys Technologies and Tata Consultancy to developers such as Sun Microsystems – launched their own Chinese initiatives. All are trying to stake out a spot in a software market that grew at an average annual rate of 39 per cent from 1999 to 2003, when it was worth $19.7bn, according to official data. Foreign multinationals are looking also to diversify operations to take advantage of China’s relatively skilled and lower-cost workforce, and its growing pool of software design shops that can serve as partners or acquisition targets. Chris Ip, a software specialist at consultancy McKinsey, said: "International companies are past the flag-planting stage. Most of them now have a presence in China, some for many years. "So they want to move to the next level of growth in China, and start seeing some of their China initiatives bear fruit." It seemed early on that Microsoft would have a head start. In 2002, the company pledged to invest 6.2 billion yuan ($766m) in the country – one of the largest foreign investments in the domestic software sector at the time. But it had made few announcements on its efforts in the two years since, while fending off challenges from up-and-coming home-grown Chinese rivals such as Kingdee International and UF Soft. That all changed in 2005, in what became a string of investments in local partners aimed at advancing or cementing its software and internet businesses. In the latest, Microsoft said on Monday that it and International Finance, the World Bank’s private sector arm, would together invest $35m in software maker Chinasoft International. In May, Microsoft announced the creation of two ventures for its MSN internet service in China, saying the development would allow it to offer services running "the full gamut of a true internet portal" in the market – including services targeted at China’s 370 million mobile phone users. In June, the company unveiled plans to team with Indian software outsourcing leader Tata Consultancy and several Chinese partners to form an IT outsourcing firm, which the investors hoped would serve as a model for Chinese firms hoping to replicate India’s outsourcing success. And in July, Microsoft agreed to invest $25m in Hong Kong-listed Lang Chao International, a unit of a larger Chinese software maker. Microsoft’s frustrations in China – where Beijing is pushing cheaper Linux-based software as an alternative – came to light this month in testimony by Kai-Fu Lee, a former executive who set up Microsoft’s research centre in Beijing. The company sued to prevent Lee from working for rival Google on the grounds that he possessed confidential information garnered during his time at Microsoft. In a two-day hearing on the matter in US courts, Lee said he left Microsoft after becoming frustrated with the company’s approach to China. Microsoft’s recent advances in the market also come as Infosys and Tata step up their own activity, the former through a build-up of new software development centres in China, and the latter through a recent joint venture. Other multinationals such as BearingPoint and Sun have also announced ambitious build-up plans for the market. For instance, Sun is aiming to more than double its software engineer headcount to 1,000 within two years. BearingPoint is looking to eventually employ as many as 10,000 engineers in the country.Is Microsoft hoping to be China’s hidden dragon?
自由免费 维基教科书模式将取代传统教材？
作者： CNET科技资讯网 翻译：李海
CNETNews.com.cn 2005-09-29 09:0 AM
CNET科技资讯网 9月29日国际报道 假如你发现自己需要一本旧生物学教科书，而你又没法从大学里面复印到，你有几种选择。 你可以去一家大学书店，淘一本旧书；你可以花几美元在亚马逊网上书店买一本新的；或者，你可以去找高年级同学，问他们要复印本。 但是，如果要让Jimmy Wales和他“维基媒体基金会”的同事来给你建建议，你可以有另外的路子可走，这就是“维基教科书项目”。维基教科书项目旨在提供完整的，从幼儿园至大学的课本课程，这些教科书均是免费，且能够按照开源发展的模式自由的进行流通。 和维基教科书如出一辙，开源百科全书可以让任何人创建或者编辑一篇文章，目前，光是英文词条，维基百科全书的数量既已达到74.7万条，与之相比，维基教科书项目尚处起步阶段。 由于维基教材采用数字模式，课本内容的长度根据需要可长可短，而且很容易进行创作，阅读以及编辑， Wales等人相信，这种教科书能够给世界教科书印刷行业造成一种重大的挑战。 Wales说：“维基教科书的宗旨体现在自由使用之中，世界上的任何人都可以使用，它不限语言的种类，它能够进行复印，重新流通，修改，无论是什么目的，均能自由享用。” 他说：“出版行业将意识到，市场上就出现一种根本性的变革。” 维基教科书项目将教材编写的钥匙教给了全世界的作者与编辑，最终，这个项目将囊括成千上万的课本，以及题目范围广阔的词条。每位维基教科书的读者都可以创建自己的课本，或者修改现存的文章。 Wales将维基课本的作者称做“自愿者”，他们可能是各行各业的专业人士，可能是大学生，研究生或者教授。 目前，维基课本项目中已经包括了11426个题目，它们涉及的范围相当广，从生物学到新西兰的经济等等。由于课本是数字化，开源性质的，任何教师都能够让学生选择其中的一本，然后学生可以下载这本书的PDF文件进行打印。 但Wales承认，维基课本项目距离成熟还需要几年的发展时间。 他说：“它仍然是一个才起步的项目。只有到这样一天，当你可以自学，或者其它人可以用这些教材教你的时候，这个项目的任务才算完成。” 维基教材并不是唯一一种致力于搜集数字书籍的努力。从去年开始，Google已经在建造自己的图书馆及打印项目。但是，Google的图书馆项目搜集的多是有版权的图书，而维基课本的内容全部向公众自由开放。 马萨诸塞大学生物学系的一名助教Steven Brewer说：“现在的学术世界存在一些问题。传统的课本出版周期太慢了，新内容要经过很长时间的审查才能够最后出现在课本当中。随着维基课本的兴起，我们将看到大量互联网上的东西开始出现在课本之中。” Brewer希望，维基课本可以为学生开辟一条新的学习途径，因为这种模式能够即时的修改内容信息，这使得研究变得相当的便捷。 他说：“学生可以参与到课本内容的构建中来。” 他认为，老师可以叫学生检查词条内容的准确性，然后将自己的发现补充进入维基课本当中，这能够让维基教科书项目成为一种教学工具。 曾经在旧金山一所中学任教的老师Charlie Hibbard也认为，维基课本能够实现现有课本无法实现的教学功能。 Hibbard说：“我喜欢这样的主意，即将维基课本用来让孩子们进行知识检查，补充。” Brewer相信，维基课本模式最终将改变出版公司现有的商业模式，现在，学生们为了购买教材，得花一大笔钱，而教材上的内容要花上好几年时间才可能得以更新。 Hibbard认为，随着维基课本项目的兴起，教材出版公司的选择余地很小。 他说：“他们得做一些事情才行。他们需要赶得上每日愈新的维基课本的更新步伐。” 当然，维基教科书也存在几个缺点。首先是它的开放性质，任何注册用户都能够编辑现有的内容。这就意味着，任何内容都有可能被人乱改一气。 Wales也承认，某些知识类别的学习需要多媒体才行，它超越了基本的维基软件工具的涵盖范畴。 Wales说：“我正在学习德语。你没有办法仅从课本上学习德语，因此，我还得从语音CD以及游戏那里来学这种语言。” 但他表示，维基课本未来将进行扩展，语音图书将被囊括其中。 虽然维基课本目前还只是一小部分，但Wales认为，有朝一日，它将替代传统的教科书模式。 他说：“维基课本正在不断的发展。当它的容量变得越来越大，使用它的人越来越多，对它感兴趣的人群也会越来越广。因此，它还在发展当中。”(编辑：孙莹) Wikibooks takes on textbook industry If you found yourself needing an old biology textbook and couldn’t locate your battered copy from college, you’d have a few options. You could go to a university bookstore and snag a used copy; you could drop a few dollars on a new one at Amazon.com; or you could track down some old college chums and ask for their copies. But if Jimmy Wales and his colleagues at the Wikimedia Foundation have anything to say about it, you could have another way to go–the Wikibooks project. It’s their attempt to create a comprehensive, kindergarten-to-college curriculum of textbooks that are free and freely distributable, based on an open-source development model. Created in the same mold as the Wikipedia project–the open-source encyclopedia that lets anyone create or edit an article and that now has nearly 747,000 entries in English alone–Wikibooks is still in its earliest stages. Yet because of Wikibooks’ digital model, in which material written for the project can be as short or as long as needed, and be easily manipulated, read and edited, Wales and others believe it can pose a major challenge to the publishing industry’s hold on the world of textbooks. "The purpose is really contained in the word ‘freely licensed,’ which is to make available to anyone in the world, in any language, a curriculum that they can copy, redistribute and modify, for whatever purpose they may have, for free," Wales said. The publishing industry is "going to have to recognize that there’s a fundamental shift in the marketplace," he added. "Some of them will prosper. Some of them will figure out the new regime and find out ways to add value. Others will stick their heads in the sand and get slaughtered." The hope is that by turning the Wikibooks keys over to a worldwide community of writers and editors, the project will eventually contain tens of thousands of books and smaller entries on a wide range of topics. In each case, the idea is that any Wikibooks reader could create his or her own book or make edits to an existing title. Wales explained that the Wikibooks authors–whom he calls "volunteers"–are professionals from many fields, college and graduate students and professors. "All sorts of geeky people, basically," he said. Today, Wikibooks contains 11,426 submissions. The topics covered range from biology to economics in New Zealand. Because the books are digital and open source, any teacher can decide to assign one and simply point students to PDFs they can print. But Wales is the first to acknowledge that the project is several years away from maturity. "It’s still a young project," he said. "I would consider it to be mission accomplished when we could point and say, ‘Well, you could teach yourself, or someone could teach you using these materials, (anything) from the kindergarten to the university level.’" Naturally, Wikibooks isn’t the only effort to amass a vast collection of digital books. Google has been building its library and print projects since last year. But where Google’s project is a digital database of often copyrighted works, Wikibooks’ material is all work that has been made free to the public. Some in education think a project like Wikibooks gives academics new outlets for their research and puts a great deal of pressure on traditional textbook publishers to adapt to new technologies. "There are a couple of huge tensions that exist in the academic world," said Steven Brewer, an assistant professor of biology at the University of Massachusetts. "One is that the traditional model of publication as scholarship is slow. It takes a long time for material to get through the peer review process…As the idea of Wikibooks becomes more popular, we’re going to see a bunch of things that are already published on the Internet start to become collected there." Brewer also hopes Wikibooks opens up a new kind of learning opportunity for students because it leverages the power of digital information that is instantly modified and easily researched. "There are a number of things people can do…that don’t require Wikibooks to be finished yet," Brewer said. "The big one is to get students involved in producing materials (and) also vetting materials (and) also adding elaboration to materials." He envisions teachers–at any level–asking students to examine existing Wikibooks entries for accuracy and relevancy and then appending their findings to those entries. That would allow the project to become a teaching tool and a work in progress all at once. "Increasingly, we’re going to see classes where students do that kind of work," Brewer said, "and I think that at that point we’re going to see Wikibooks really take off." Charlie Hibbard, a former high school teacher from San Francisco, agreed that Wikibooks can become a multilayered tool in a way existing textbooks never will. "I like the idea of using it as a tool for kids to check and then post their own alterations," Hibbard said. "It might be a really good way to give kids a couple of lessons, not only about the particular content, but also about what’s the nature of public information." Brewer also buys Wales’ argument that the Wikibooks model could eventually move publishing companies away from existing business models that depend on students buying expensive books containing more information than they will use in any given course and which take several years to produce. "The idea of just going to a book that is always going to be a year or two out of date is…silly," Brewer said. "There are going to be faster ways of getting the newest ideas." Representatives at two leading publishing houses did not respond to requests for comment. Hibbard said he thinks textbook publishers will have little choice but to adapt as efforts like Wikibooks gain traction. "They’d have to do something," Hibbard said. "They’d have to respond to the up-to-date (nature) of the Wikibooks version." Certainly, Wikibooks has several shortcomings. One is its open nature, in which any registered user can edit existing entries. That means that any entry can be defaced or, more benignly, modified by someone who doesn’t know what they’re talking about. Wales also acknowledges that some kinds of learning require multimedia beyond your basic wiki software tools. "I’m learning German," Wales said. "You couldn’t learn German just from a textbook…So I’m learning from audio CDs and games." But he added that, over time, Wikibooks could be extended to include audio books. In any case, while Wikibooks is small today, Wales argues it could one day be a relevant alternative to the traditional textbook model. "It’s growing exponentially," he said. "The bigger it gets and the more people stumble across it, the more people are interested in volunteering. So it grows in that way."Published: September 28, 2005, 4:00 AM PDT
By Daniel Terdiman
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
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