33 Indians in Microsoft MVP list

BANGALORE: Microsoft Corporation India felicitated 33 Indians with its Global Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Award for the year 2003.

Microsoft established the MVP Award a decade ago to recognize individuals for their outstanding contributions in a wide range of community activities. From newsgroup to top user group, web sites and message boards worldwide, MVP status is awarded to the most active online community "gurus" for their technical expertise, voluntary willingness to share their experience and commitment to helping others realize their potential within Microsoft technical communities.

This year, the MVP program has doubled in size, with nearly 1300 MVPs from more than 55 countries representing more than 70 Microsoft technologies.

Microsoft Corp., corporate vice president of Product Support Services and executive sponsor of the MVP Programme, Lori Moore, said, "Although the program has always been globally focused, the tremendous increase in efforts and support for technical communities outside of the United States especially in countries like India, Japan, China, Germany, France and Latin America reflects the increasing needs of some of our best customers."

Till now, Microsoft’s largest online community is the Microsoft public newsgroups with over 11 percent growth in membership and nearly 1.5 million active community members annually participating at Microsoft.com or news://msnews.microsoft.com.

Not only are Microsoft MVP’s active experts on one or more Microsoft products from Office to Visual Studio .NET, they also represent a diverse group of backgrounds and professions from artists to technical trainer and from author to student, police officer, homemaker, firemen, doctor and more.

They range in age from 18 to 80 while spanning the globe from India to Brazil to China. Not only are they online and active but many host websites, author best selling books and train others; while always finding the time to voluntarily give something back to the community. It is this amazing "spirit of community" and willingness to share combined with technical expertise and a sense of professionalism that truly reflects the Microsoft MVP Award.

"MVPs make a significant contribution to our customer and overall community satisfaction, and we sincerely appreciate their efforts," said, Microsoft Corporation India, Director - .NET and Developer Evangelism, Dilip Mistry.