Wednesday, November 10, 2010

New Microsoft Community Contributor Award

I’m happy to say that (minutes ago) Microsoft announced a new award called the Microsoft Community Contributor Award that will recognize individuals who make value contributions to the online Microsoft community.

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“The Microsoft Community Contributor Award seeks to recognize notable contributions to Microsoft online community forums such as TechNet, MSDN® and Answers. The value of these resources is greatly enhanced by participants who voluntarily contribute their time and energy to improve the online community experience for others. Each day around the world, Microsoft Community Contributor Award recipients contribute to Microsoft online technical communities in a range of ways, including providing helpful answers, translating online resources into local languages and serving as moderators.”

This is a very different award than the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) which recognizes people who have focused on specific technologies and are contributing to the community via conferences, blog posts, webinars, etc. Although MVPs also may contribute to forums, there are plenty of people out there doing good work in the forum who aren’t necessarily able to do things like attend conferences around the world.

“Through the Microsoft® Community Contributor Award, we express our thanks to individuals who freely volunteer their time and energy to help improve the Microsoft online technical community experience for others.”

I think this is a great idea as there are a group of hardcore contributors out there that keep forums such as TechNet and MSDN relevant. Without their voluntary efforts, the forums would have a difficult time keeping up with the vast volume and broad range of questions that are submitted.

For more information, refer to the Microsoft Community Contributor Award FAQ.

Monday, November 08, 2010

Critical Information SharePoint Server October Cumulative Update

From the Microsoft SharePoint Team Blog:

"Microsoft has discovered a critical issue in the recently released October Cumulative Updates for SharePoint Server 2010 and Project Server 2010, and we have removed the files from download availability.  If you have already downloaded the CU, do not install it.  If you have installed the CU, please contact Microsoft Support for assistance.  We will be posting additional information about the issue here as soon as we have it, and will make the Cumulative Update available for download again as soon as the issue has been fully resolved."

Tuesday, November 02, 2010

Microsoft Tech Days in Halifax!

Microsoft TechDays is in Halifax November 2-3 at the World Trade Centre.

This is a great local event and I’m happy to see that Microsoft decided to come back to Halifax after the sold out show last year.

From the Tech Days session page: “If you're a technical professional in Canada, review from the six tracks offered through the two day Tech•Days experience in each venue. Select from over 50 sessions to build your schedule.”

Last night, I went to the speaker dinner and met a bunch of the people who have flown in to present on various topics.

I highly recommend this event. Check it out!

 

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