Microsoft SharePoint MVP 2010

I’m happy to say that I’ve received a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Award for SharePoint.

What is that you ask? According to Microsoft:

“This award is given to exceptional technical community leaders who actively share their high quality, real world expertise with others. We appreciate your outstanding contributions in SharePoint Services technical communities during the past year.”

In practical terms, this means helping with community-focused resources such as contributing to the SharePoint newsgroups, speaking at conferences, writing about SharePoint and contributing to CodePlex (an open source site used by the SharePoint community).

Getting into the MVP program has been a long story for me. Back in 2001, NCompass Resolution became Microsoft Content Management Server (MCMS) and I had started what became the MCMS FAQ. The FAQ was a searchable CHM containing hundreds of questions and answers. I created it partly for the consulting team, but it was mainly targeted at the community at large. When NCompass Resolution became MCMS, I wondered if I could be an MVP. However (and I’m not complaining), I was hired by Microsoft and employees aren’t eligible for the MVP program.

In 2004, the MCMS team was folded into the SharePoint team, and I started getting involved with the SharePoint community. But I took a break to do some writing, so it really wasn’t until 2008 that I was deeply involved with SharePoint community activity.

Thank you to everyone who helped along the way. My employer, Metalogix Software, has been tremendously supportive and I wouldn’t have received this award without their help.