Microsoft Awards MVP Status to Five Zune Community Leaders

[Jason Dunn]

<img hspace="10" border="0" align="left" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/500/zt/auto/1189202797.usr1.jpg" alt="" /><br />Not too long ago, Cesar Menendez from Microsoft's Zune team, contacted five people who run Zune communities and/or Web sites and awarded them Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) status for their contributions to the Zune community over the past year. Haven't heard of the MVP program, or ran across one in newsgroups or Web forums? Here's a little bit about who MVPs are:<br /><br /><em>&quot;Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs) are exceptional technical community leaders from around the world who are awarded for voluntarily sharing their high quality, real world expertise in offline and online technical communities. Microsoft MVPs are a highly select group of experts that represents the technical community's best and brightest, and they share a deep commitment to community and a willingness to help others. MVPs represent a broad spectrum of Microsoft product users. They occupy many different professions including accountants, teachers, artists, engineers and technologists. MVPs reside in over 90 countries, represent 30 different languages, and cover more than 90 Microsoft technologies.&quot;</em><br /><br />You can read more about the MVP program <a target="_blank" href="http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/">at this Microsoft page</a>.<br /><br />The awarded Zune MVPs are, in no particular order:<br /><ul> <li><a target="_blank" href="https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile=197A9206-90AD-451D-BDF0-FB6C0404B38D">Andrea &quot;pinksage&quot; Avellan</a> who runs <a href="http://www.generationzune.net">Generation Zune</a></li> <li><a target="_blank" href="https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile=E0711561-8A4D-431C-9239-DBD420416348">Harvey Chute</a> who runs <a target="_blank" href="http://www.zunerama.com">Zunerama</a></li> <li><a target="_blank" href="https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile=8E2DC4DB-6515-47DC-BBBA-32131F0340DD">Stefan Shipman</a> who runs <a target="_blank" href="http://www.iwantapinkzune.com/">IWAPZdotcom</a><br /> </li> <li>Paul Colligan [no MVP profile] who runs <a target="_blank" href="http://www.zuneluv.com/">Zuneluv</a><br /> </li> <li><a target="_blank" href="https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile=2264A6AE-B044-4A3E-8C87-11E4A2A6DE5C">Jason Dunn</a> who runs this site :-)</li></ul>Huge congratulations to all of the MVPs! You'll notice I'm on that list for my work here with Zune Thoughts, but I'm listed under the Windows Mobile group. Unfortunately, Microsoft doesn't have the ability to cope with &quot;dual competency&quot; MVPs so I can't be an &quot;official&quot; Zune MVP. Oh well - maybe I'll still get the free keychain or whatever. ;-) My hope as a Zune MVP is to get the information and support from the Zune team to make Zune Thoughts even better for all of you, our Zune community.

[David Tucker]

Way cool...congrats :)

I wonder if anyone else has dual MVPs? I'll knock back an extra one tonight to celebrate. :D

[Rocco Augusto]

Jason Dunn (https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile=2264A6AE-B044-4A3E-8C87-11E4A2A6DE5C) who runs this site :-) You have two MVP titles now?!

Stop hogging all the fun, I want to be an MVP too! :D

[Jason Dunn]

I wonder if anyone else has dual MVPs?

There are a few others...MVPs are multi-talented individuals. :D

[Darius Wey]

Grats Jason and the other awardees. Well-deserved. :)

[Adam Krebs]

Congrats! It's good to see MS is recognizing the hard work you guys put in, and hopefully this will benefit the Zune as a whole.

And maybe this means MS will soon add the Zune to its MVP communities page (https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/communities/mvp.aspx) (which is currently sans love for the Zune)...


EDIT: Oh, and the Generation Zune link should point to GenerationZune.Net, not .com (the .com leads to a squatter)

[Jason Dunn]

And maybe this means MS will soon add the Zune to its MVP communities page (https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/communities/mvp.aspx) (which is currently sans love for the Zune)...

Zune is under Digital Media as a general category...that's where the Zune MVPs are. But yeah, it would be nice to have a top-level Zune category!

[Sage]

Congrats Jason, hopefully they'll listen to your feedback. :)

[The Overman]

Congrats, Jason!!! Really well-deserved!
It's good to see that MS pays attention to what is being said on the blogosphere, because we are the customers (at least some of them :))
And great job of you fostering the discussions and making sure they stay productive!

Maybe in the next version they will provide a list of new features and put something like: "feature X (as discussed and requested by Zune Thoughts forum)" :D

Congrats again!

[Heatwave316]

Congrats!!! I hope MS actually listens to all of their MVPs. That's the best way for the Zune to get better.

[Janak Parekh]

Congratulations, Jason! Don't forget to give 'em hell about the WiFi! ;)

--janak

[andbrown]

Hey folks,

Just wanted to clarify a few points here:

1.) The Microsoft MVP Award Program does not actually have an official Zune expertise area today; as Jason noted, we have a Digital Media expertise, which covers a number of Microsoft products and technologies. The new MVPs awarded on our July 1st award date are awarded in Digital Media, but clearly have a Zune focus, as do Jason and Paul (who are both existing MVPs awarded in other areas of expertise). And yes, congrats are certainly due to all five MVPs!

2.) The MVP Award Program is the group within Microsoft that awards our Microsoft MVPs - there's no single individual at Microsoft that makes that decision. Our program partners closely with other groups at Microsoft to ensure we award exceptional technical community leaders, and we are pleased to have Cesar be a part of that process.

3.) As Jason points out, today the MVP Award Program recognizes and awards Microsoft MVPs in a single area of expertise. However, we work to enable participation by MVPs across different Microsoft product/technology areas, so it is not unusual for an MVP awarded in a single expertise to be involved in various opportunities beyond that expertise. So there's no official "dual MVPs" of any kind - just cases where different MVPs are included in different opportunties provided by the MVP Award Program and/or by individual groups within Microsoft. This is actually a good thing, as Jason would probably be something like a quadruple or quintuple MVP by this point, and that kind of thing gets hard to manage on an official basis. :)

I realize that these are probably not critical distinctions for many people, but wanted to make sure there wasn't any confusion...now, back to whatever you were doing... <RELURKS>

Andrew Brown
Business Group Lead, Entertainment & Devices
Microsoft MVP Award Program

(this posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights)

[Jason Dunn]

Maybe in the next version they will provide a list of new features and put something like: "feature X (as discussed and requested by Zune Thoughts forum)"

Haha...wouldn't that be nice. It's possible, who knows... ;)