by Caleb Fort
Daily Lobo
The goal: to promote Microsoft's note-taking program.
The reward: $10,000.
Two UNM students were selected by Microsoft to promote OneNote 2003. They have been passing out fliers and chalking the sidewalks to get students to download the program.
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UNM is one of about 50 schools across the United States chosen to promote the program. The team whose school downloads the most copies of the program will win the reward.
The program is available to college students as a 180-day free trial. Once the trial expires, students have the option to buy the program for $49, about half of what it would normally cost.
Simone Mehta, one of the students promoting the program, would like to see at least 400 people download the program by the end of the semester, she said.
She and her teammate originally set a goal of 1,000 downloads, she said.
So far, the results have been lukewarm, she said. She said not as many students have been downloading the program.
"Our numbers are kind of dwindling right now," she said. "We haven't been doing so well."
The word "free" makes some students instantly suspicious, which may be why only about 200 UNM students have downloaded the program, Mehta said.
"Most people think it's a scam, because Microsoft doesn't usually give anything away for free," she said. "UNM in general, from my experience is - we're just not very friendly when it comes to getting new stuff."
Mehta said most students are skeptical about the program. However, she uses it herself in class, and several people who have seen her using it have downloaded it for themselves, she said.
Brandon Evans, a spokesman for the program, said several traits were important for student promoters to have.
"Our recruiting process - we really looked for people who were leaders on campus, people who had strong business skills and people who knew how to talk about products," he said.
Nancy Chang, the other UNM student promoting the program, sent her rÇsumÇ in after seeing an advertisement in the Daily Lobo, she said.
Even if she does not win the $10,000 prize, the time she has spent promoting the program will be worth it, she said.
"It taught me how to budget and plan promotions for certain projects," she said. "It was a really good experience."
She said working with Mehta has given her valuable experience working with a partner.
"You have to work with the other person on a personal level," she said. "There's been a lot of individual growth in that area."
The program is mainly marketed to the business world, but is also useful for college students, Evans said.
"It has a lot of applications that make a lot of sense for the academic environment," he said.
The program allows students to take notes either by typing on their laptop or by writing on a tablet PC, he said. It is different from programs like Microsoft Word because the way people can organize and import information into the program is very flexible, he said.
"It's designed as a great way to organize information," he said. "It's almost going to be like the main program you use. Rather than write a Post-it note to yourself, you can keep all your information in one place."
For example, students can record audio of their professor speaking while they are taking notes, and then synchronize the audio with their notes to see if they missed anything, he said.
Any college student can download the trial.
Even skeptical students should at least try the program, Chang said.
"It's free. They can always just see if it's something that works for them," she said. "So basically, they don't lose anything by trying it."
Student Alma Rivera had never heard of the program but would be interested in trying it, she said.
"Word isn't really flexible enough," she said. "But I like taking notes on my computer, because I can copy and paste them when I have to write a paper."
Student Robert Wilson said the program might be of limited use to him.
"I guess if I had a laptop it might be useful," he said. "But I don't know since I have a desktop."
Evans said UNM was good for the promotion.
"I think we really looked at top colleges both in enrollment and regionally," he said. "We wanted to get New Mexico, and UNM was a good choice for that."
