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MVPs need love like everything does : nepotism and Keeping Up Appearances still rule in MVP land February 01, 2005 [General] | By Edward J. R. If Microsoft is the Matrix, then MVPs are agents of the Matrix: 
Once a year Microsoft invites several MVPs (Most Valued Professionals = activists who seemingly without paycheck help users of Microsoft products) to its headquarters to Redmond in Washington, USA to attend MVP summit. Latest changes - additions and droppings - among MVPs has been just carried out in January 2005 and date for MVP summit has been selected: it will take place between September 28, 2005 and October 1, 2005 in Redmond (USA) and Microsoft will cover costs of traveling to USA and lodging there for most of Microsoft MVPs. During this MVP summit, CEO Steve Ballmer, Kevin Johnson (Group Vice President Sales, Marketing und Services) and Jim Allchin (Group Vice President of Platforms) will be holding keynote speeches, where Microsoft MVPs will be patronized about mission of Microsoft and their role in Microsoft's efforts to conquer the world. With regard to latest year, the number of Microsoft MVPs increased - 173 new people have been awarded MVP title - and now it exceeds 2600 globally. One interesting novelty regarding Microsoft MVPs is that now some of them provided photos and self-indulgent descriptions (mostly bloated and false) so people can have vague idea why they have got MVP title at all. To see example how it looks like see official list of Microsoft MVPs from Mobile Devices here. Interestingly some people provided their bloated contributions from 2 and 3 years ago, while officially only achievements from the latest year (not years) count when selecting who should get or keep an MVP title - in other words: it's Keeping Up Appearances big time. List of Windows Mobile MVPs that is much more realistic and idependent is here. A complete list of Microsoft MVPs (and not just those who provided their photos and self-indulgent descriptions) is here. Interestingly Microsoft still prefers nepotism over real enthusiasm! Many MVPs simply don't deserve their title and got it just because they know somebody at Microsoft, who arranged them the title, despite tiny contributions. Many other MVPs are working professionally (as their day job) in area of Windows Mobile, and giving them MVPs is like awarding Queen of England for representing UK although she already is being paid for it because it is her day job anyways. Apart from covering traveling costs to USA and lodging there, Microsoft sometimes provides also free gifts to various (not all) MVPs. Microsoft MVP programme that is supposed to reward enthusiasts who provide help to end users of Microsoft products, partially works and in fact many people deserve it. However level of corruptness in this program is very high and sometimes this leads to funny situations, like the one of Chris Pirillo who got MVP for Windows Media and even his latest webcasting/podcasting is being sponsored by Windows Media team, but in fact in his webcasts/podcasts he is promoting Microsoft's competition like Apple and Google... So what's new in MVP land? Not much new! Still keeping up appearances (providing outdated and bloated contributions) and nepotism Rule the Roost. The only changes are: total number of MVPs steadily increases (however quality of people doesn't) and some MVPs added their photos and descriptions (however mostly bloated and artificially increasing tiny contributions or simply outdated and older than one year) to official Microsoft's MVP website. Is this what Microsoft considers to be community building? Yes! And as we have proven lately nepotism still matters more to Microsoft than meritocracy, that Microsoft often confuses with mediocrity, particularly as far as Windows Mobile MVPs are concerned...  Post your comment (free registration is required to post, but if you register you can edit your posts later) [ 5 Comments ]
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