The Microsoft Most Valuable Professional award is given by Microsoft to "technology experts who passionately share their knowledge with the community." They are awarded to people who "actively share their... technical expertise with the different technology communities related directly, or indirectly to Microsoft". The MVP recognition lasts for a year and is awarded for a person's Microsoft related activity, contributions and influence over the previous year. The MVP program grew out of the software developer community. Some of the earliest MVPs were those most active in online peer support communities, such as Usenet and CompuServe. It has since grown to include other types of products, and other avenues of contribution. Steve Ballmer spoke to a group of Microsoft MVPs about Windows XP and Windows Vista. A posting from Tamar Granor on the Universal Thread web site gives this account of the origin of the MVP program.
Earning the Microsoft MVP Award
The rules and guidelines to getting awarded as a Microsoft MVP are not strictly defined. The reason for this is that every Microsoft MVP contributes to the community in different ways. However, the largest key indicator Microsoft looks for when considering someone for the Microsoft MVP Award is how much impact their activities over the last 12 months have on the community.
Cancellation and reinstatement
On October 22, 1999, a Microsoft executive sent out a message announcing the cancellation of the MVP program. This may have been in response to a recent suit against AOL by its newsgroup leaders, who felt that they deserved to be paid for the time they put in online. After an outpouring of online support to the MVP program, including many emails sent directly to Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, Microsoft announced three days later that the cancellation had been rescinded. This then led to discussions across the company about which division would own the expenses for this program. The program stayed in support, but additional investments were made - one of the original CompuServe engineers was brought in for a new position as Director of Community, reinvigorating the MVP program with a dedicated project coordinator, site resources and support engineers. The program became far more successful through these efforts, expanding its global footprint and receiving coverage with more than 100 independent press articles, eventually landing as one of Microsoft's Board of Director's 7 Big Bets for 2007.
Locating an MVP
With the introduction of a site dedicated to MVPs, it is now easier to locate an MVP from a specific country and from a specific area of expertise. The need to contact an MVP can be user specific. The most common purpose is for students enrolled in Microsoft Student Partnership programs. The 2011 update to the program now allows MSP students to contact MVPs directly for training purposes. This is subject to the availability and acceptance of the MVP whom the MSP student contacts. Among other purposes, the MVP might be contacted to get assistance with local and assembled devices running Microsoft products. Anyone can use the Advanced Search on the Microsoft MVP website to locate MVP awardees by location and/or by expertise. Microsoft Community was a website that engaged in connecting users with experts of different types – including Microsoft MVPs. Users can send a personal message or contact an MVP on a forum as per the availability of the MVP. The concept of Microsoft Community was to provide unofficial support to its users and is something like Windows Live QnA. The forum site deals with almost all products and hence users can expect MVPs from almost all areas of expertise there. Windows Community is a Microsoft featured community that deals primarily with assistance and information on Microsoft Windows Operating System and related applications plus news. People can find an MVP from different areas and expertise on the Authors page of the Windows Community. The site, however, lacks a list of MVP awardees that can make it easier for people to locate area and location specific Microsoft experts. Separate from Microsoft's MVP program, a few current and previous MVPs maintained the MVPS.org web site and mail hosting service. This site was for the use of any individual granted MVP status by Microsoft, and provided a platform for continuing their MVP work through technical sites in a variety of Microsoft applications and technologies. MVPS.org was in no way associated with, funded by or governed by Microsoft. The listing of MVP web sites, the hosting of those sites, and MVPS.org email addresses were provided to MVPs strictly upon request by MVPs to the MVPs.org admins after their profile has been published by the Microsoft MVP program. The names on MVPS.org represents only a small subsection of MVP awardees since 1995, and is not intended to be a definitive listing of current and past award recipients. Same is true for a non-Microsoft MVP blogs site which is a collection of MVP blogs but not from bloggers Microsoft had granted an official "blogger" status on Microsoft own blog site.
