On Microsoft's Increased Sponsorship of FIRST // Was: Microsoft Regional

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by M. Krass

I think that discussion about conflicts of interest as they pertain to FIRST sponsors could be engaging and interesting, but I don't quite see why it is that Microsoft's involvement is the catalyst that might spark such a conversation. I don't perceive their position among FIRST's other sponsors as being particularly unique and, in fact, I'd argue that there are extant sponsorship agreements that more closely resemble the doomsday "conflict of interest" scenario Pavan seems to be considering in his posts.

The unique situation here is the coming together of four things.

1) Microsoft has announced a robotics programming system with far-reaching goals.
2) FIRST has announced a new FRC control system for the 2009 season (simultaneously giving no details and asking for user input using questions that make it seem that the decision has already been made).
3) FIRST is being alternately mysterious and dismissive about the role of VEX in its upcoming programs.
4) Microsoft is sponsoring a regional.

These things might not be related, but it's human nature to seek patterns in noisy data.