Microsoft launches tech policy Web site

Microsoft today announced that it has launched a new Web site to engage the public in discussion about major technology policy issues including privacy, security, cloud computing and intellectual property rights.

Microsoft Corp. is launching a new Web site today to spur discussion on key technology policy debates about privacy, security, competition, cloud computing, intellectual property rights and other topics, the company announced.

The site includes opinion articles, a calendar of events and a blog. The topics up for discussion also include patents, licensing, software and services, antitrust, economic growth and the knowledge economy, the company said.

Microsoft’s new Technology-Academics-Policy (TAP) Web site, located at TechPolicy.com, features more than 80 scholars from institutions around the country, including the University of California-Berkeley, the University of Chicago, the University of Colorado, George Washington University, Harvard University, Northwestern University, the University of Pennsylvania and Stanford University.

“TAP will bring to the forefront the best and brightest minds whose ideas will greatly influence the public debate on the most pressing technology issues of the day,” Kathryn Neal, academic relations director at Microsoft, said in a news release.

Microsoft has been active in a number of policy debates in Washington in recent years, and founder Bill Gates appeared before Congress in 2008 to urge a lifting of the cap on U.S. visas for foreign IT workers. A federal appeals court recently upheld a ban on sales of Microsoft Word due to a patent infringement.