Monday, December 06, 2010

It is that Microsoft MVP renewal time of the year

I have several colleagues who are either up for a re-award for their Microsoft MVP award or others who are being considered for the award. I have to admit after all the years of being an award recipient myself I still find the process fascinating and a bit shrouded in mystery. Microsoft does the awards on a quarterly basis now to spread out the workload of reviewing people but the end of the year seems a good time to reflect on things especially since the award is given for the community work done in the "previous year."

My own experience has been really positive in terms of the nomination and re-award process and I think the Microsoft MVP leads (Shout out to Jake Grey who is my lead) do a remarkable job given the number of individuals they are doing checks on. Knowing the variation in participation and the breadth of technical topics the MVP community covers it is remarkable they can review though everyone.

I recently read a posting here by Eric Ligman and another posting here by Alessandro Teglia both on the MVP program, what it takes to become an MVP and a bit about the program also. The fact that the site list numbers like approximately 4,000 MVP's out of 100 million online community members seems to put my status in a staggeringly small category. It also means that a very small group of individuals (at least in Microsoft's opinion) influence a huge group of online and offline people.

It seems that some other companies have decided to model their community recognition after the Microsoft MVP program. For instance the VMware vExpert program seems almost a direct lift - I guess that is a great compliment to the work Microsoft has done and a validation that community really is important in a companies marketing and support relationships.

For those of you who are Microsoft MVP's I hope to see you at the Summit in Redmond. For those waiting to hear if you were re-awarded I have my fingers crossed for you and for those who are waiting to find out if they get to join the exclusive club, best of luck!
- Ed

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