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In the age groups that range from
18 to 60...



actually, 63 in my case and I
believe there are others who are older ;-)



18 is a "new" rule... there have been mvp's who were
awarded in their

early teens... the age limit was probably imposed due to alcohol
and

other concerns during the annual "summits" which are
designed around the

assumption that the attendees will be adults.




these people run user groups,
train peers and also author best

sellers.




The most important arenas for most
mvp's are the online newsgroups...

nntp servers such as;

news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.pocketpc
(my arena)



... which allow mvps to connect with an amazing number of users
and

respond quickly and easily to large numbers of posted problems, in
most

cases within minutes of problem queries, but almost always within
a day.



Great article... are you on your way to being an mvp? ;-)

Feedback:  

Nice article on MVPs.




I wanted to take the opportunity to
pass on what might be the biggest reason for the program. MVPs are
in the community, they are peers not only to other professionals
but also to the end users who use their products in everyday life.
Because they are deep in the communities they have an award for,
they also hear about the stuggles, problems and confusions their
customers are having.

Having direct
access to the product teams helps them to share with microsoft
where features might be lacking, bugs that not everyone is having
and real world use of their products that may go overlook or never
fixed. We have access to directly send in problems, we have MS
employees who track the issue to make sure it doesn't go unnoticed
and provide feedback.



Its a win-win-win situation with end users, Microsoft and MVPs.
There are people who are hearing the problems and getting the
feedback to the correct people to resolve them.

Feedback:  

Hi Aparna,

Greetings from SF Bay Area! As a
former Contributing Editor/Columnist for PC Quest (and probably
have something published in Dataquest as well.. :), I've always
had my radars go up at any mention of CIOL. :)

So I was quite (pleasantly)
surprised to see CIOL mentioned in the subject line in a whole
thread of posts on MVP secure newsgroups.

I read your article, thanks to
someone who's also a MVP and most likely residing in India.

Here's my $0.02 worth on the MVP
program:

• Clarification: It's not
  for developers only - there are a whole lot of products,
  technologies and platforms for which MVP awards are handed
  out. I'm sure you came across the list of awardees and the
  products/technologies listing on the MVP site.
• Efforts: These don't
  come easy for the awardees - there is a high level of
  commitment and work involved, and there are no guarantees one
  would get an award, though I'm not completely aware what the
  standards are in India for being awarded, I doubt these would
  be much different than those in the US or rest of the world
  for that matter
  
  Does Microsoft benefit? Yes, of course! It has plenty of
  benefits for Microsoft in many ways, and that's the reason
  they invest in such a program, but potential MVPs do have
  their motivations and benefits, some of which are outlined
  below.
• Professional recognition
  & other benefits: Awardees benefit from increased
  visibility and recognition in the community - this is
  professional recognition. There are also increased
  opportunities in the form of working closely with Microsoft,
  getting early access to products, training, free attendance to
  MVP summit in Redmond every 18 months with plenty of Microsoft
  folks in attendance and close interaction with product teams,
  and other benefits that motivate most MVPs to continue with
  their efforts for as long as they do.
• Career benefits because
  of the professional recognition from being a MVP. You get
  better job opportunities, you are more valued for your
  employer, more so if they're engaged in anything to do with
  Microsoft products and technologies, e.g.
  consulting/professional services, independent software vendor
  (ISV), et al. Many MVPs go on to write for technical journals
  such as those published by your company (some have been doing
  it before they became MVPs), write books, speak at technical
  events/conferences, participate in offline and online user
  groups, et al.
• Are MVPs technical
  experts?: Yes, that's part of the reason why one does get
  awarded. You can't really become a MVP without having good to
  great technical capabilities, imo, and post-award you continue
  to get more opportunities to increase your technical
  excellence - if that's something you're keen on doing as most
  tech folks are - in terms of interaction with other MVPs, most
  of whom are technically quite savvy and knowledgeable folks,
  and also with the respective product teams within Microsoft
  
  

Overall, I think the MVP program
is quite beneficial for both Microsoft and the awardees (if they
want it to be). Some MVPs may get recognized for their efforts
which they start/continue irrespective of the MVP award, some (..
the rare few) don't care much for the award (though I haven't
found any of these yet... ), but by and large most MVPs are
motivated by some of the above factors and are proud to be part of
a select community of recognized experts and community leaders
specializing in Microsoft products & technologies.

Hope you find this feedback
useful!