Special thanks to The Chronicle: Wired Campus Blog for pointing me to this article.
IBM Taps into Universities
IBM will offer universities free access to its emerging technologies research and labs.
— reported by Red Herring
IBM said Thursday it will give universities free access to new technologies like games and applications that are being developed in its labs, as the computing giant looks to get younger users hooked on its products and to build expertise for its software platforms.
Universities will get access to more than 25 technologies, which include games and simulations, middleware tools that enable grid computing, and open standard technologies such as Java and Eclipse. All of the technologies come from IBM alphaWorks, a web-based lab that works on emerging technologies.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University’s Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences will be the first universities to participate in the program.
[snip]
In return for offering free access, IBM hopes to get feedback from faculty and students on how to improve these technologies before they are included in future IBM products.
[snip]
IBM has said that the technologies that it offers to universities are just for educational purposes. But if students or faculty build an application using their technology, they would have to pay license fees to IBM. The developer, however, would own the intellectual property rights to the application.
Read the story for more info; there’s a lot in there. Since I’m not at a university, this really doesn’t mean anything to me. But I thought others might be able to share the info with those of you who can benefit from this “generosity.”
Leave a Reply