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| IBM Gives Feds $45M in Translation Tech - honours employee's soldier son |
| 2007-04-02 |
| To honor an employee's son who was badly wounded in Iraq, IBM Corp. plans to give the U.S. military $45 million worth of Arabic-English translation technology that the Pentagon had been testing for possible purchase. The offer - made from the highest reaches of the company directly to President Bush - is so unusual that Defense Department and IBM lawyers have been scouring federal laws to make sure the government can accept the donation. The story begins one night in late February, when Army Sgt. Mark Ecker Jr., 21, on his second tour in Iraq, was on patrol in Ramadi. Preparing to raid a house, Ecker's unit lined up along a side of the building. But an explosive device had been hidden in the wall, and when it went off, it wounded several soldiers. Ecker eventually lost both legs below the knee. Ecker's father, an IBM mainframe sales specialist in East Longmeadow, Mass., shared the story of his son's ordeal with co-workers, and word spread through the company. Eventually it reached Chairman and CEO Samuel Palmisano. IBM would not make Palmisano available for comment. But according to other IBM executives, Palmisano had heard from several IBM employees who have returned from active duty in Iraq that a shortage of Arabic translators has severely hampered U.S. forces' efforts to communicate. With that and Ecker's experience in mind, Palmisano called and wrote Bush, offering to make IBM's Multilingual Automatic Speech Translator software, known as MASTOR, "immediately available for use by our forces in Iraq." Palmisano offered 10,000 copies of the MASTOR software and 1,000 devices equipped with it, plus training and technical support. "Hopefully this will be helpful to our efforts," he wrote. Separately, Anne Altman, who oversees IBM's federal sales in Washington, reached out to Adm. Edmund Giambastiani, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to reiterate the offer and get guidance on how to make it happen. Giambastiani told IBM he appreciated the donation, although according to his spokesman, Lt. Col. Gary Tallman, "the offer is under evaluation right now" and "does not constitute acceptance" by the Department of Defense. "Part of the evaluation is to determine a proper legal way for acceptance," he wrote in an e-mail. Indeed, it is very rare for a large defense contractor like IBM, which does roughly $3 billion worth of federal business every year, to give the government a freebie. It is also worth noting that MASTOR has been undergoing testing by the Pentagon's Joint Forces Command, in addition to a rival two-way translation technology known as IraqComm from nonprofit SRI International. Both systems take English or Arabic that is spoken into a computer microphone, translate it into the other language and utter it through the machine's speakers. Joint Forces Command told The Associated Press last October that tests on IraqComm and MASTOR so far had been in quiet offices rather than noisy war-zone settings, and that it might be 2009 before the technology is widely used on patrols or other tense situations. IBM's Altman said she hoped IBM's gift would accelerate the timeframe, and said other vendors should consider "similar donations." An SRI spokeswoman declined to comment. But Altman added that she did not expect IBM's offer to end up cutting out SRI or any other potential providers. "The government never gets themselves in a position where there's only one provider of a capability," she said. "There's no question that over time, they'll be looking to procure others." John Pike, a military analyst with GlobalSecurity.org, said he had never heard of such a donation and questioned whether it might have the effect, unintended or not, of making MASTOR a favored choice for future projects because of the "large installed base and large user community." However, he added: "I would have a hard time being overly critical of anything that would accelerate the war effort. It would seem to me that this will give troops more capabilities sooner. That's a hard argument to top. Lord knows they need all the help they can get right now." No matter how the donation plays out, it has already delighted the Eckers. Ecker Jr., who has been recuperating in Walter Reed Medical Center since Feb. 28, also got a visit from Bush on Friday as the president toured the hospital. "A translator wouldn't have helped in my situation - we were sneaking around the middle of the night, and it was just one of those things," Ecker Jr. said. But overall, he added, "communicating with the locals is difficult. This technology that IBM is going to offer is really going to help." |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #9 I'm a shareholder too. Bravo Zulu IBM! |
| Posted by: Mac 2007-04-02 23:46 |
| #8 Speaking here as an IBM stockholder (and retiree), normally I get upset when I hear about IBM giving anything away. In this case, all I can do is applaud. |
| Posted by: Rambler 2007-04-02 21:23 |
| #7 The CRAF Agreement encompasses three or more levels CRAF-1, CRAF-2, CRAF-3, etc. Each level with its own requirements and subsidy for carriage. The agreement has been in existence since WW-II. The biggest expense to the commercial carriers is opportunity cost, the ability to utilize the aircraft for normal purposes. That said, airline management and employees (particularly pilots) get a morale boost in carrying military. |
| Posted by: Captain America 2007-04-02 20:47 |
| #6 a nice gesture, regardless of whether it benefits the company in the long run or not. Were it Di- Fi's husband's company, the NYT, et al would be parading it as "See? we support our troops!" |
| Posted by: Frank G 2007-04-02 20:00 |
| #5 Way back when, IBM gave universities a 'deal' (or free) 360 system mainframe computers. Their competitors eventually prevailed against them in court on the grounds that it was an anti-competitive practice, that it got students all 'used to' IBM systems and products so they would demand the same when they got out into the commercial world. Seemed to me the better response by DEC or whoever would have been to give their stuff to universities too, and let the best platform win. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2007-04-02 19:20 |
| #4 CA: do the airlines really contribute, or are they obligated to as part of the CRAF? If they are CRAF, they get a subsidy as part of the agreement. I can only remember one time in all the years I flew as active duty getting any sort of a 'bennie:' TWA held a plane at the gate at SEA-TAC so I could get it (Emergency leave) when my Dad was dying and I was going to Kalamazoo. Turned out he didn't then, but I remember the kindness that flight crew gave me; I always flew them until they went under. |
| Posted by: USN, Ret. 2007-04-02 17:48 |
| #3 Still baffles me why corporations don't have this as a common practice. I find this not to be a PR gesture, but a sincere effort to help. The major airlines (where my background lies) "contribute" by law aircraft for troop lift. Companies do accommodate reserves on active duty. But, otherwise, the US corporations could be doing so much more. |
| Posted by: Captain America 2007-04-02 17:27 |
| #2 What's the line on when the Donks start screaming about (fill in the blank) on this? On a serious note: Is there any other thing in the works that IBM could profit from that this could be legitimately seen as currying favor????? |
| Posted by: USN, Ret. 2007-04-02 17:22 |
| #1 I just left IBM after 9 years (took a bigger job elsewhere). I'm still very much connected to the company. Probably alwasy will be. IBM is a great company. They (it's still hard not saying "we") went through some very tough years that caused a lot of soul searching. And there are core values that really do drive how people think and act. IBM'ers truly do believe that IBM is a company that can make the world a better place. |
| Posted by: PlanetDan 2007-04-02 17:08 |