Microsoft Innovation Centers (MICs) are local government organizations, universities, industry organization, software or hardware vendors who partnered with Microsoft with a common goal to foster the growth of local software economies. These are state of art technology facilities which are open to students, developers, IT professionals, entrepreneurs, startups and academic researchers. While each Center tunes its programs to local needs, they all provide similar content and services designed to accelerate technology advances and stimulate local software economies through skills and professional training, industry partnerships and innovation. Currently there are 115 Microsoft Innovation Centers worldwide—Microsoft Innovation Center 19:17, 10 September 2010 (UTC) most of which are open to t