Microsoft closes The Garage, a key part of its hacker culture.
Microsoft closes The Garage, a key part of its hacker culture.
Microsoft is closing down The Garage, a set of popular maker spaces where employees worked on experimental projects and collaborated on surprising new apps and hardware during the company’s annual hackathon events.
“We’re winding down The Garage program as a centralized function,” says Microsoft in an internal FAQ to employees, seen by Notepad . “We will continue to explore new ways to help employees build skills, collaborate across boundaries, and bring a hacker mindset to their work.” GeekWire first reported on The Garage’s closure.
The main Garage space was located at Microsoft’s Redmond, Washington, campus and served as the central hub for around 15 Garage locations across the US, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. Microsoft employees could use it to experiment with prototypes, build hardware, and even turn hobbies into full Microsoft products.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella regularly attended Garage hackathons, giving employees a chance to showcase their projects and attract the attention of senior executives. Many apps and services have emerged from The Garage over its 17-year history, including the AI-powered Seeing AI app that describes objects and text to people who are blind or have low vision. It was born out of a 2015 hackathon event and shipped 10 years ago.
Microsoft employee Tuong Do used The Garage to develop Mouse Without Borders in his spare time, working on it during evenings and weekends. The app is still available today and lets you control up to four PCs with a single mouse and keyboard. Microsoft employees have also used The Garage to develop new learning tools and accessibility features for Word, Microsoft Edge, and PowerPoint. I would point you to the Microsoft Garage hall of fame for a list of all the top projects, but Microsoft has removed the website — erasing the rich history of its employee-led workshop.
One of the most famous success stories of The Garage was Microsoft’s Xbox Adaptive Controller . The accessibility-focused Xbox controller was a collective effort by employees across Xbox and Surface, but it originated at a hackathon event where employees were experimenting with building a gaming device that used Kinect motion-sensing technology to track movements and translate them to an Xbox controller.
An executive saw the nearly 40-person team trying to build the project, turned it into a real thing, and eventually more than 80 employees were involved with bringing the Xbox Adaptive Controller to life. While the device was nearly cut due to budget constraints, it eventually launched and went on to become the star of Microsoft’s 2019 Super Bowl commercial .
Microsoft is now planning to wind down its Garage locations, and some spaces will be closed as soon as tomorrow, Friday, October 23rd. The closure of The Garage will also mean changes to Microsoft’s annual employee hackathon event, which could potentially disappear. “As we look to the future, the hackathon team is reimagining the program to meet the needs of today’s employees, customers, and technology landscape. We’ll have more to share at a later date,” says Microsoft’s internal FAQ.
Internally, the company is trying to sell employees on the idea that “the spirit of experimentation that once lived primarily in dedicated programs is now reflected in how teams work every day.” Employees I’ve spoken to see the closure as the latest in Microsoft’s continued cutbacks.
Earlier this year Microsoft closed its employee library and cut back on subscriptions in favor of an “AI-powered learning experience.” The library used to house thousands of books, journals, and reports that employees could use to learn, research, and explore ideas — much like The Garage.
“We’re grateful to the employees, volunteers, and partners who helped build The Garage and look forward to continuing its legacy in new forms,” says Microsoft’s FAQ. It’s hard to imagine anything replicating the unique mix of expert advisers, dedicated maker spaces, hands-on workshops, and internship programs that The Garage offered employees looking to develop new skills.
I’m always keen to hear from readers, so please drop a comment here, or you can reach me at [email protected] if you want to discuss anything else. If you’ve heard about any of Microsoft’s secret projects, you can reach me via email at [email protected] or speak to me confidentially on the Signal messaging app, where I’m tomwarren.01 . I’m also tomwarren on Telegram, if you’d prefer to chat there.
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