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Get free Office 2010 and loan of a PC for your Microsoft Office Story

A chance to get a laptop for 6 months plus a copy of Office 2010 to keep.

Microsoft has an interesting program starting up headed “Wanted: Your Microsoft Office Story”.

They are making up a group of people (from a broad cross-section of users) and giving each person the loan of a laptop for six months with Office 2010 plus support and training for the Office suite.

In exchange you use the laptop daily for personal and work tasks, use the web-based training and talk to MS staff about your experience with Office 2010. You agree to ‘share your experience’ through video, media interview, case studies and quotes.

At the end you get a copy of Office 2010 Professional to keep.

It’s hard to tell but this seems to be mostly a marketing exercise though hopefully there’s a research component of gathering more information about how people use Office 2010 in the real world, the training they need and problems they have.

This is a US based program only and as Microsoft says “If you are not comfortable in front of a camera or don’t want to be featured in case studies or video testimonials, this program may not be for you.”.

To apply go to http://connect.microsoft.com/officecustomerstories and fill out the application form.

Most of the questions are standard but there are a few interesting ones:



  • Why are you interested in joining the Microsoft Office 2010 Real Life Stories program?

  • Why should we choose you for this program?

  • How often do you update your blog?

  • Do you do something unique with your productivity software?

  • What you would like to do with Microsoft Office that you aren’t currently doing?

  • An optional question about ethnicity (American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, White)

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