I am often asked by many people and community members, what’s Microsoft MVP? This is a typical question, they know that MVP stands for “Most Valuable Professional”, but they do not really know what actually MVP is. This post tries to give brief explanation about this award, and also some misunderstandings about it.

Please note that all of my explanation about this program are based on my personal experiences, and not represent the official Microsoft definition.

According to official Microsoft website, they describe MVP as follows:
Microsofts Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs) are recognized, credible and accessible individuals with expertise in one or more Microsoft products who actively participate in online and offline communities to share their knowledge and expertise with other Microsoft customers. Customers want an enriched pool of knowledge and real-life experience to tap for advice and feedback. MVPs are helping to satisfy this need by independently enabling customers in both online and offline technical communities. Customer feedback is vital to product development and R&D. The MVPs represent an important part of this feedback loop by providing another link for Microsoft to listen to the customer.

Please give attention to 3 keywords: recognized, credible and accessible.

Recognized: the candidate should be a member of either online or offline communities, that to be known by the member. The term “communities” can be an official Microsoft newsgroup, a local mailing list or web forum, an academic or student study club, or any IT professional gathering clubs.

Credible: a candidate shoud be proficient in one or more Microsoft technologies. This can be spanned from MS word, ASP.NET, or enterprise level tool like Biztalk Server. The candidate proves the credibility by helping others in the community. This can be write articles, tutorials, book, speaking for seminar or user group meeting, or answering question in public forum.

Accessible : this person should be accessible, and can be reached by email or any other common communication medium. An expert that never participate in community activity (online or offline) is not accessible. Volunteering, helping other, write free tutorials or sharing source code is a common typical rule to become an MVP.

Some of my fellow MVPs wrote another view of MVP definition:
Jonathan Goodyear in ASPNETPRO Magazine
Robert McLaws in his Blog

OK, now you know what MVP is.
Then here are some misunderstandings about MVP:

1. MVP is a designation. No, MVP is an award. This is not a designation like the thing that you have after pass certification exam. However, it’s very common somebody puts MVP after their name, but this is not a certification credential nor an academic designation.
2. What exam is needed to become an MVP? Nothing, MVP is not a certification. It’s an award, this is a way Microsoft says thank you to its outstanding community members.
3. MVP is a technical or developer guru. Maybe yes, maybe no. Nobody can be a superman that knows everything about the technical stuffs. MVP usually has a better knowledge than average developers or IT Pro, but you do not necessarry to become a coder guru or network hacker to become an MVP. Willingness to help other and volunteering activities are credited more. That’s why usually an MVP is a very nice person to discuss with, able to give you real world and wise answer in technolgy assessment.
4. MVP is paid by Microsoft. No, neither salary or financial incentive is received by an MVP. Microsoft gives them an MSDN subscription (a collection of most Microsoft software), and yearly voucher (usually $150) that can be redeemed with some merchandizes in Microsoft store. Another benefits are free elearning, private discussion forums to build relationship with worldwide fellow MVPs, and the opportunity to get direct contact with Microsoft Product Group. With these kind of services, usually an MVP is the first person knows about new and future Microsoft products.
5. MVP is a Linux and open source opponents. No, MVP is an independent individual. Because the nature of an MVP is a real world professional, most of them are also familiar (not mention a lot of them also experts) in another products such as Linux, PHP, Java and other open source technologies. I myself is familiar with PHP and MySQL, and still maintain some ecommerce projects based on this platform. Some of my fellow MVPs are Linux geeks, and running real *nix servers in their daily jobs.
6. MVP is a lifetime award. No, MVP is awarded every year, based on past year activities. If an MVP does not meet certain activity limit, than he/she will be retired next year

Another question I often have is, How do I become an MVP?
Please read my next post :).

Posted by mca | 3 Comments »