Council Spotlight: The Impact of the TechNet Guru Awards
XAML guy is a member of the TechNet Wiki Community Council, and he owned the area of integrating the MSDN and TechNet forums better with TechNet Wiki.
And so the TechNet Guru Awards were born!
They cause some pain. We've had many debates on the forums about whether or not answers on the forums should be converted to TechNet Wiki articles. And we've written those reasons in detail before. Here are those blog articles:
- Wiki Life: Why create a TechNet Wiki article when you can just link to a forum thread?
- Top Five reasons to use MSDN/TechNet Forums & TechNet Wiki together
- Community Win: Social Synergy across TechNet Forums, TechNet Wiki, TechNet Gallery, TechNet Wiki again, and now TechNet Blogs
And while we do that, we've had to be careful not to make the Wiki too much about a competition. And we've had to make sure we don't award articles that shouldn't be awarded (like if a solution was wrong or dangerous).
But overall these last five months have had an amazing affect on the Wiki. Let's take a look at that!
May Guru Awards: TechNet Guru Contributions - May 2013
- 23 New Articles
- 8 Visual C# Articles!
June Guru Awards: TechNet Guru Contributions - June 2013
- 63 New Articles!
- 20 SharePoint Articles!
- 9 T-SQL Articles
July Guru Awards: TechNet Guru Contributions - July 2013
- 59 New Articles!
- 12 SharePoint Articles!
- 9 Windows Store Apps Articles
August Guru Awards: TechNet Guru Contributions - August 2013
- 79 New Articles!
- 25 BizTalk Articles!
- 12 Visual C# Articles!
- 11 T-SQL Articles!
- 9 SSRS/SSIS Articles
- 8 SharePoint Articles
September Guru Awards: TechNet Guru Contributions for September 2013
- 56 New Articles!
- 8 T-SQL Articles
- 8 BizTalk Articles
- 14 New Medal Winners! Congrats and Welcome to:
- Suleiman Shakhtour
- M.R.Ashwinprabhu
- Timo So
- Olaf Helper
- MnisharMSDN
- ShankarGS
- Stefan Hoffmann
- John Anthony Oliver
- PaulDAndrea
- Mcosmin
- Thomas Claudius Huber
- Jordan RTG
- Peter_Stapf
- Jacques Swanepoel!
October Guru Awards: TechNet Guru Contributions for October 2013
- 24 New Articles so far!
- 6 Visual C# Articles so far
Overall, here is what the impact has been (from May to September):
- 280 New Articles!
- 55 SharePoint Articles!
- 45 BizTalk Articles!
- 36 T-SQL Articles!
- 33 Visual C# Articles
- 22 SSRS/SSIS Articles!
- 18 VB Articles
- 16 Windows Store App Articles
- 14 WPF Articles
- 13 Win Phone Articles
- 12 Small Basic Articles!
- 9 FIM Articles
- 9 SSAS Articles
- 7 SQL DBE Articles
- 64 Award Winners!
- More new article authors and editors than any other program or initiative! We've grown a new generation of contributors!
- Because the focus was initially on MSDN development forums, the message is clearer than ever that TechNet Wiki is for Developers too!
10/25/13 UPDATE:
New Categories Added: As Richard mentioned in the comments, we add new categories as we go! Here are the categories we've added (and then we consolidate some categories when we need to)...
- May 2013 - Visual C#, SharePoint 2010, Transact-SQL, Visual Basic, Windows Phone Apps
- June 2013 - BizTalk, Small Basic, SSAS, SSIS, SSRS/Power View, Windows Store Apps, WPF
- July 2013 - FIM, SharePoint 2013 (added to SharePoint 2010), Power Pivot (added to SSAS), SQL DBE
- October 2013 - Windows Server, Power BI (added to SQL BI & Power Pivot)
So special thanks to XAML Guy and to all the TechNet Guru contributors who make this possible!
- Ninja Ed
Comments
Anonymous
October 18, 2013
Thanks for the mention Ed. It is incredible how much amazing work we have had so far. It's great to learn some new names too, and start to find out more about some of our regulars. Congratulations to all the winners so far. Consequentially, we are building up a pool of proven people we can dip into for future projects, fame and [hopefully for you] fortune! It has been a great start, and we are especially very grateful to the "early adopters" who helped get this feature off the ground in the first few months. It is also great to hear the stories from winners who have found their new found fame has opened doors and helped their career, so let us know if that applies to you. "Community" is of course the main driver behind this, but if it helps you in your career, then we're very happy about that too. Keep up the good work! Over time, the label of "True Guru" will only apply to those who feature regularly! Regards, Pete LakerAnonymous
October 18, 2013
Really good job Peter & Ed for the guru contest. Its a great initiative well done !Anonymous
October 18, 2013
Thaks Pete, for all your hard work! I added more numbers, per technology, and then I also added links to blog posts about forums VS Wiki.Anonymous
October 18, 2013
Thanks, Yagmoth!Anonymous
October 18, 2013
I am amazed each month by the submissions. We keep adding categories, so the growth should continue. This has gotten a lot more people involved in the Wiki.Anonymous
October 19, 2013
It's really a great initiative ! Already 24 articles for october, what a success :)Anonymous
October 19, 2013
Guys, the competition is great, and thanks for all your hard work organising and administering it! I know the wiki isn't about competition and personal recognition, but I think the competition helps drive article quality and participation. It's also fun ;-)Anonymous
October 19, 2013
As authors & articles count increases , its going to be really tough for the judges :^) . I agree with Matthew Yarlett , so far soo good !!!Anonymous
October 20, 2013
SharePoint is leading with 55 Articles! This can be called a "Victory" :)Anonymous
October 20, 2013
Congratulations on this great initiative!Anonymous
October 21, 2013
Gokan, yes a victory for SharePoint! BizTalk, T-SQL, and VC# are other big contributor technologies!Anonymous
October 21, 2013
Impressive!Anonymous
October 22, 2013
Kudos to Pete - the community thanks you for all your hard work! Also,a big thank you to all community members who post fantastic articles everyday! The wiki is yours to discover and your articles help others all over the world.Anonymous
October 23, 2013
Kudos to Peter aka XAML Guy for this idea .A standing Ovation from my side.Really I was not aware it was Pete Idea. I am big fan of Wiki ,for its being center for knowledge. Rest assured Ed this will turn out to be huge success( i think its kind of now) its just matter of time.I would really like to see more articles in DBE section.Anonymous
October 23, 2013
Above comments are mine just somehow entered my Profile link ,but i cannot update it :(Anonymous
October 24, 2013
Already 8 entries in the Windows Server category. All by Mr. X. I'd like to see others involved.Anonymous
October 25, 2013
"Also, a big thank you to all community members who post fantastic articles everyday! The wiki is yours to discover and your articles help others all over the world." - Well said/written. Thank you, Craig!Anonymous
October 25, 2013
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October 25, 2013
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October 25, 2013
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October 25, 2013
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October 26, 2013
Ed, Thanks for the opportunity have mailed you reg Interview, Worth a shot Ed lets see combining it with General category gives us more article.Anonymous
October 27, 2013
Hello Ed, I also won Guru (gold) award for September month,new medal winner section, but my name is missing in September Guru award section.Am i correct ?Anonymous
October 29, 2013
The comment has been removedAnonymous
December 09, 2013
I have been hanging around the forums in ernest for about a year now and had only used the Technet Wiki occassionally when a search result pointed me there. It was the Guru initiative (posted in June to the SSRS, PowerView forum) that encouraged me to author my first article. This program helped me to realize that perhaps I have something of value to contribute. Keep it up and more will contribute.Anonymous
February 07, 2014
Thanks, Tim! You've had some great articles to contribute!Anonymous
April 25, 2014
congratulationsAnonymous
January 22, 2015
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