I have no idea why anyone thinks this is new, it's been done forever, because it's effective. The article tries to make it seem like only altruistic donations

I have no idea why anyone thinks this is new, it's been done forever, because it's effective. The article tries to make it seem like only altruistic donations existed in the past, but that's very wrong. Back when I was in college 20 years ago, Microsoft had a program to do this. Part of it was doing things like : 1. Hiring students as liaisons to represent and advocate for MS stuff at the school. 2. Giving away free copies of software away to CS departments and students in exchange. 3. Try to help get these things on the curriculum/etc (often in conjunction with #2) 4. Find opportunities for MS to donate computer labs and other meaningful things in exchange for people being taught visual studio/etc. (How far they would go depended on where in the top-N programs it was, etc) This is the genesis of a number of the Microsoft-named computer labs in US universities.