Microsoft Office 2007: Microsoft Research launches new tools for knowledge sharing

News to me...

Microsoft External Research collaborates with the world's foremost researchers in academia, across industries and governments, to advance research and fuel innovation. Working closely with researchers is an essential part of the Microsoft External Research engagement model; the research team serves as a critical link between academia and Microsoft product groups that develop and use new technologies from across the corporation.

They have a bunch of projects, but of most interest to readers of this blog is the Creative Commons Add-in for Office 2007. According to Creative Commons:

Using the Creative Commons Add-in, you can choose from among the licenses available on the CC site to express your intentions regarding the use of your work. The embedded license links directly to its online representation at the CC site, while a machine-readable representation is stored in the Office Open XML document.

There is also an Article Authoring Add-in for Word 2007 which:

enables authors to structure and annotate their documents according to formats that publishers and digital archives require. The articles can then be converted easily to formats that facilitate their digital storage and preservation.

For now, there is a standardized National Library of Medicine format available, but "users will also be able to shape the software to suit other formats because the code for the tool is openly accessible and freely adaptable."

HERE is the Microsoft site to get the Add-ins. (HT: Stephen's Web)