OnQ : MVP

On Community

eriq — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 16:03:00 GMT

Last week, I had the honor and privilege of attending Microsoft's sometimes-annual MVP Summit. This year, there were over 1700 Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs) in attendance, which is only a portion of the thousands of individuals who have been recognized by Microsoft for their support and activity in the community. This event is hardly a love-fest, though, because in general, MVPs are not apologists for Microsoft. Benjamin Romano summed up the relationship well in his article covering Stave Ballmer's Keynote speech to the MVP crowd, referring to the MVP community as "friendly but also highly knowledgeable and unabashedly critical." In many of the hallway discussions I had with MVPs from other product groups, there was one theme that was echoed almost unilaterally - MVP interation with the product groups this year was wide open with feedback flowing fully in both directions. For some groups, this was the first time this type of interaction had occurred. Some MVPs finally had an opportunity to interact directly with the people (yes, people) responsible for planning, coding, and marketing the various Microsft products, and give those people their thoughts on product direction, functionality, problems, successes, etc. (I must admit, that as an MVP within the WESS product line, I've almost come to take this level of interaction with the SBS product team for granted, but even our group this year had, I believe, our most open interaction with the product team to date. And that's not something that i ever want to take for granted, because it could very easily be removed.

I have received the MVP award three times now, and I continue to be honored by the recognition. I have an opportunity to interact with some truly amazing people, and I continually wonder why I've been chosen to be a part of this group. These people have a passion forthe Small Business Server product and, if possible, an even stronger passion for working with other IT Pros and end-users who ply their craft while using the product. The wealth of knowledge, experience, and insight that this group collectively possesses is awe-inspiring, and Microsoft is fortunate to have collected this group together and sought their opinions and expertise to help improve the product and their relationships with the community. Not that they get it right all of the time, but that's not the point of this post.

The point of this post is that community exists with or without the presence of Microsoft. Whether I continue to be awarded MVP status or not, I will continue my activites in the community. I'm working harder to get more involved with my local SBS User Group, and after issues with my day job settle down a bit and I get further along with a certain book project, I'm looking forward to getting more involved in the newsgroups and the forums over at smallbizserver.net again. Right now my reality encompasses keeping my customers happy and keeping my publisher off my back for a little longer, not to mention keeping my home life in order, too. Working 70-80 hour weeks since the first of the year has put a strain on a lot of things, both in my personal and professional life. But while it would be easy to walk away from the community altogether, I simply cannot. Community has been an inspiration and resource for me for the last 20+ years, and I plan to continue working with and giving back to the community that has given me so much over time. If Microsoft chooses to continue to recognize that part of my life by awardin me with MVP status, great, but I'm not out to make a minimum number of newsgroup or forum posts, blog posts, user group meetings, conference appearances, etc., I see people who do, and that disappoints me, because I think theyre doing it for the wrong reasons. I'm not active in the community just to get an MVP award. I'm active in the community because I believe I have something to offer back, and that is what motivates me.

I will admit, though, that attending the Summit, despite the stress of travel, etc., was actually a bit of a break for me, and one that I needed to get myself re-energized to tackle the next 3-6 months. I have a book to finish, and when SBS 2008 gets released, I'll have a number of community members to help get adapted to the new product. That's going to take a lot of energy, and honestly I was reminded of the reason for it during my week at Summit last week.

For those who are interested, I've blogged about my week's activities on my personal blog, under the Summit2K8 category.

On Renewal

eriq — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 12:45:00 GMT

Yesterday morning about 11am, I received an e-mail from Microsoft letting me know that I'd been awarded MVP status for 2008. This is my third year in a row to receive this designation from Microsoft, an it's a designation I'm not only very proud to have received, but humbled as well. There are so many folks who contrinbute in a positive way to the Small Business Server community, that to be one of fewer than 60 people worldwide to receive this designation is a huge honor.

Thank you, Microsoft, for this award. It means a great deal to me.

On Community Leadership

eriq — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 11:56:00 GMT

We have a special worldwide community in SBS and it's related space. From the newsgroups to web forums to multiple web sites to countless bloggers, there are many folks out there who are trying to make working with SBS as efficient and enjoyable as possible. Some of these folks take it to another level entirely. They run user groups. They speak at user group meetings on their own travel dime. They spend hours and hours and hours helping people in need without collecting a nickel in payment. They write books, white papers, and hundreds and hundreds of blog posts.

There is a program that recognizes many of these overachievers - the MVP program. Those who are awarded MVP status by Microsoft have shown a commitment to the community that has been deemed worthy of recognition by a team of folks behind the scenes. Ask any MVP and they'll tell you what an honor it is to be considered for, much less awarded, MVP status. And in the SBS community, I'd say you'd be hard pressed to find an MVP who doesn't take the award very, very seriously.

But there are those who are very active in the community who will never receive an MVP designation because they are Microsoft employees. One such person is Kevin Beares, whose position as the SBS, Centro, and Windows Home Server Community Lead doesn't describe ahlf of what he does. It's been almost a year and a half since Kevin officially came into the fold of the SBS community, long before the real world knew that Centro and Windows Home Server were in the works. He spent quite a bit of time behind the scenes, but finally launched his own blog in May of last year. That launch coincided with the SBS Community Survey he was running to try and quantify the size and spread of the community in raw numbers (a thing that bean counters across the world really like). But that was just a sign of things to come.

Kevin has not just been active in the community, as his job title would imply. He has actively been promoting the community, both inside and outside of Microsoft. Last year, the SBS MVPs said that we wanted an event to build relationships with the SBS CSS group in Las Colinas, and Kevin helped put that together. When we congregated again around SMB Nation last September, Kevin helped put together another event to introduce the extended SBS MVP family to Centro (the "big brother" to SBS) as well as the next version of SBS. He has been very active in getting extended community involvement in the Windows Home Server product Beta program. And when the extended SBS MVP community said that we wanted to have extra time at the MVP summit to work with the product teams for SBS, Centro, and Windows Home Server, he not only got the events coordinated, but did so with great success.

In short, Kevin has really put in significant effort to build the community within the community. If you consider yourself part of the SBS extended community, MVP or not, you can thank Kevin for the efforts he has put in to significantly strengthen the community and all of its membership. It's mostly been a thankless job, because much of what he does goes on behind the scenes and out of the public eye. But nevertheless, he has been there championing a community he strongly believes in, an for that, I'd like to say a big "Thank You" to Kevin. And I'd like to ask that you do the same. If you've benefitted from something Kevin has done for you, drop him a note and let him know how much you appreciate it. In a job like his, he is often the recipient of flames and hate mail, and it's amazing when someone can filter out the negativity and keep working for the greater good. To that end, and nice, positive note every once in a while can really make the difference. And I, for one, would hate to see Kevin burn out or think that his efforts have not made a difference and lose some of the drive he has brought into this community. So, please, take a moment and drop him a note of thanks if thanks are indeed in order. I know he would welcome the feedback.

On Introductions

eriq — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 03:39:00 GMT

Sandi, meet Eriq. Eriq, meet Sandi. Should have been that simple, but it wasn't. Let me pull back the curtains a bit:

Australian MVP Sandi Hardmeier has been a guest on the eOnCall show a number of times. With her March 1 episode, she shortly became the more frequent guest on the show. Given the show recording times and the show prep, Sandi and I have interacted quite a bit in the few months I've been privy to know her. So, imagine how excited I was to finally get to meet her in person, since she's coming to the Summit as well.

Sunday afternoon, following a smooth checkin procedure at the Hyatt, a group of us SBSers got together and headed down the street for lunch. While we were waiting on the food to be delivered, I stepped out into the street to call home and check in. Suddenly, Wayne Small is shouting at someone while standing next to me. "Sandi!" he shouted loud enough that my wife recognized his voice over the cell phone. I immediately knew who he was yelling at, and I said "Cool, I finally get to meet Sandi Hardmeier."

Sandi had just passed down the street, and Wayne had just happened to see her pass, hence his hurried exit from the restaurant, and shouted greeting. So Sandi and her travelling companion turned around and came into the restaurant for a few minutes. That was the time when I went up to her and introduced myself, saying, "Hi, I'm Eriq Neale." She shook my hand and said "Yes, I know who you are" and thus the introductions were complete. After meeting the rest of the folks at the table, she and her companion left, and I got back to the important task of putting food in my stomach.

Later that afternoon, I popped into Wayne's room, and there was Sandi, as well as a number of other folks. We chatted for a while, and I departed.

This morning as I got up and was getting ready to head in, Sandi pinged me in IM, asking if I was going to be at the afternoon session. I said that I was, and she told me that she was, too, and couldn't wait to meet me.

Ummmm, this is the same Sandi Hardmeier I met yesterday, right?

Playing the dummy, I suggested that perhaps we had met already yesterday, and that's when she put two and two together, and suddenly started talking about jet lag or some such nonsense.

So, at the afternoon session, I made a point of going up to Sandi and introducing myself. And I'll make a point of introducing myself to her the first time I see her each day the rest of the week, just in case she forgets again.

On Transition

eriq — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 04:32:00 GMT

Today many of us migrated from the Silver Cloud in Redmond to our respective hotels in Seattle proper. I landed at the Grand Hyatt, and I must say it's a fabulous room, not that I plan on spending much time here.

Before we came over, most of us got to sit in on a session with Jeff Middleton where he shared more information about his upcoming conference with us, especially those of us who are going to be contributing to the conference in one way or another. You'll be able to see more information about the conference at the site shortly, as Jeff continues to provide updates to the content on a regular basis, and if you haven't looked at the site in a while, you should.

Now it's time to start thinking about the Summit proper, and, of course, wonder if there will be any other fallout from the DST changes that happened early this morning. My Mac Powerbook picked up the changes, no problem. My PDA didn't, but I haven't loaded the updates yet. My watch, on the other hand, is presenting a bit of a problem. It syncs nightly with the atomic clock in Colorado, which sends out DST updates at the appropriate times, so I never have to adjust my watch. Well, it didn't sync with the clock last night, so it didn't get the update. I'll hope that it updates in the next day or two, or I'll just have to rely on my PDA to keep my time straight.

On Demos

eriq — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 12:15:00 GMT

This is the power of community, no doubt. And I had to go and miss it.

Saturday night's activities consisted of a number of product/technology demos by MVPs for MVPs at our little pre-summit gathering in Redmond. After another full day of technical presentations that I still can't talk about, we gathered for dinner at a lovely asian restaurant near the hotel (the food was excellent, and the company was superb). Following the dinner, several folks had previously agreed to present a 10-15 minute presentation on a topic of general interest to the room. Dana Epp discussed his product AuthAnvil, Wayne presented Colligo Contributor, Susan Bradley discussed Exchange Defender, Anne Stanton talked about CRM and Groove, and some others as well (like I said, I wasn't there, so I may have missed out on a few things).

Wouldn't it be wonderful if there were a conference for the community that was made up of a bunch of these sessions back to back (with breaks every now and again, of course) to just show the tools each of us are using on a regular basis and how others might be able to use them? Yeah, that would be cool...

On Pool

eriq — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 05:06:00 GMT

What better way to spend Friday night in Bellevue, WA, than having a private pool party at the Parlor Billiard Hall in Lincoln Square? Well, I can't think of it. Outside of the Mexican food (inside joke), the evening was quite entertaining. We were treated to a billiards demonstration by a rather talented gentleman who showed off a number of tricks, including challenging a number of the MVPs to a game.

Dean Calvert, Australian SBS MVP, was one such victim. He got in exactly one shot. Well, two, but the first didn't count. Here's what I mean (17MB QuickTime file, so be prepared before clicking the link).

He performed a number of tricks, including this one, (12MB QuickTime download) that were quite entertaining to watch.

But more importantly for me, it was another opportunity to bond with my MVP peers, many of whom I've met for the first time this trip. I'm looking forward to what tomorrow brings, both in technical information and relationship building.

On NDA

eriq — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 05:58:00 GMT

So this is going to be a bit weird of a week for blogging. I'm getting to attend my first MVP Summit in Redmond/Seattle, and I really have no idea what to expect. Other than a LOT of MVPs. And when there are that many MVPs together, who knows what can happen.

But I do have to be somewhat careful about what to blog, as there will be information I'll be on the receiving end of that is under NDA (non-disclosure agreement) that I cannot talk about less I lose my MVP status, among other things. So, while there will be some very cool things I'll get to experience, there will also be some things I just won't be able to dicuss, now matter how much I might want to share the info with others.

Tonight I checked into the Silver Cloud in Redmond, just a few bloks from the mothership Microsoft campus. I'm still recuperating from my flight (long story, very boring, if you need to know, you've already been told). Tomorrow is a full day at the MS campus, followed by a dinner activity and, I'm sure, much alcohol consumption. But who's drinking what and how much remains under, you guessed it, NDA. Sorry.