Microsoft MVPs broadcast word about Word to world
Microsoft MVPs broadcast word about Word to world

Don Stanley was trying to describe the world of a Microsoft MVP in a telephone interview last week when his voice was drowned out by the roar of a large crowd.

"I think Steve Ballmer just walked out of the room,” Stanley said when the cheering died down.

Ballmer is Microsoft's chief executive and had just finished a speech before about 1,400 "MVPs” at the company's annual Global MVP Summit on Microsoft's campus near Seattle.

A senior software analyst for Chesapeake Energy, Stanley was one of the Microsoft MVPs in Ballmer's audience, recognized for his work in supporting Microsoft applications and the people who use them.

"In the last couple of years I have gotten involved in online communities,” Stanley said. "Other people would ask about an issue, and I would either know the answer or I would do research and provide an answer or some guidance to help them get moving.

"I learned a lot from that myself.”

Stanley, 35, earned computer engineering and education degrees from the University of Oklahoma and has worked in a variety of positions writing software applications. Before Chesapeake he worked for a small financial firm in Oklahoma City and for Koch Industries before that.

"I'm part of the computer age; got a computer when I was probably 8 or 9 years old and was writing short programs on that and got hooked from there,” he said.

The four-day "MVP Summit” experience provided a lot of insight into the direction that Microsoft is taking its software, Stanley said.

"They are sharing what they are working on in the future,” Stanley said. "You kind of get a glimpse of what is coming in the next three or four years. So, there has been a lot of excitement here in seeing what the future holds.”

Stanley is part of an elite worldwide community of Microsoft "evangelists” who voluntarily support the company's users and share their expertise, said Toby Richards, general manager of Community Support Services for Microsoft.

"To give you an idea of how significant this award is, note that worldwide there are over 100 million participants in technical communities,” Richards said. "Of those participants, there are fewer than 4,000 active Microsoft MVPs.”

Each year, Microsoft invites all 4,000 of its MVPs to Seattle for the MVP Summit, and about 40 percent of them pay their way to attend, Richards said. Microsoft pays for the hotel accommodations and some of their meals. "Mr. Stanley is here talking to the product teams that he specializes in,” he said. "The nice thing is that it is not a scenario where Microsoft people are giving him a marketing pitch.”

The Microsoft MVPs are selected from 93 countries and 90 different technical areas, Richards said. The MVPs actually influence the Microsoft product development team, providing feedback on bugs and software performance.

"It is really exciting to see a big company like Microsoft put so much value in its major users,” Stanley said.

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