Got my Microsoft Exchange MVP reward\recognition for the 7th year.

It is an honor to be selected as a Microsoft MVP since there are 20 Exchange MVP in the US and 107 worldwide, as of 1/1/2012.  In order to become an MVP you must be nominated by others in the technical community you work with, Microsoft employees, or other MVPs. Each year a panel of Microsoft employees reviews the contributions of each nominee for quality, quantity, and level of impact on the technical community.

So basically you have to write articles, blog post, or otherwise contribute to the technical community and be recognized for your work.

In order to keep your MVP status each year you must continue to contribute to the community every year.

Here’s what I did in 2011:

·         My blog and other Exchange postings

o   Technical Blog: http://info.izzy.org/Blog  – 11 blogs posts on Exchange in 2011

§  ~61/request a day = ~1,800 hit per month

o   Exchange tweeds: http://twitter.com/JasonSherry – 216 followers, 5 Exchange tweets in the last 90 days

o   Tips & Tricks posted on my server for 2011 – 12 on Exchange, so far; 1 on Outlook

o   TechNet Wiki postings: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/members/Jason-Sherry/activities/default.aspx

·         MVP Community Work

o   Attended 2011 MVP summit and participated in Q&A with Exchange product team

o   Participation on Exchange MVP mailing list

o   Participate on weekly\monthly Exchange 2010 and E15 calls with product and support teams

·         Group\Admin leader on LinkedIn

o   Microsoft Exchange: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=90197  – 7,491 members (as of 10/18/2011, lots of growth from 2010)

o   Exchange Archiving: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=774507 – 201 Members

o   Exchange MVPs: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=90222 – 61 Members

·         Member & Contributor of LinkedIn groups

o   eLegal: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1320117 – 33,835 members

o   Microsoft Exchange Migration: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1046597 – 1,125 Members

o   Microsoft MVP – Professional Group: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=794847 – 1,663 Members

·         Did have much time to post in the forms this year (again)

o   http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Profile/jason%20sherry/activity – Just 2 Exchange related posts

o   Google search for “Exchange” posting in 2011 – Mostly buzz on past articles or scripts I’ve written (Bing doesn’t do date range filters)

·         Maintaining script for the Exchange community:

o   http://info.izzy.org/Wiki/EXCollect.aspx

§  Tracks Exchange activity over time (the data can be used as an input for the Microsoft Storage Calculator)

o   http://info.izzy.org/Wiki/GetServerInfo.aspx (Released in 2011)

§  Gets HW, hotfix, and OS info from a list of servers

o   http://info.izzy.org/Wiki/GetMailboxInfo.aspx (Released in 2011)

§  Get mailbox info (size, item count, etc) and user account info (multiple AD attributes)

Good blog post from Tony Redmond: The Sharing of Exchange MVPs