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Interview with Margriet Bruggeman: SharePoint Author, SharePoint TechNet Forum admin, former SharePoint MVP, Maxer creator, and SharePoint 2012 guru

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Welcome to our Monday interview with a Wiki Ninja! Today we're interviewing Margriet Bruggeman.

Margriet's Profile

 

Who are you, where are you, and what do you do? What are your specialty technologies?

I’m Margriet Bruggeman, live in The Netherlands, and I’m the owner of my own little consulting company Lois & Clark IT Services (https://www.loisandclark.eu/Pages/default.aspx ). I can be hired as a consultant/developer/architect/trainer working with all kinds of .NET technology. My specialty? If I was in a dramatic mood I’d say I live and breathe SharePoint, and have been doing this since the beta version of the first release of this product. At my web site, you can find a list of all my publications as far as books and articles go, and they’re solely related to SharePoint. I’ve been working with other Microsoft technology for a long time as well, and have enjoyed working with stuff like SQL Server, BizTalk, WCF, WPF, Silverlight, C#, ASP.NET, Entity Framework, AppFabric and much more. No worries, here’s where the marketing campaign ends… I think…

 

What are your big projects right now?

The last two projects I’ve just completed were for a Triple A status bank and a major airline company. Both projects resulted in happy customers, and I like smiling, happy customers. Now, I’m planning some time off.

Within the TN Community, right now, I have three big projects:

  • https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Maxer-for-SharePoint-2010-8cd0f26f , I’ve created Maxer for SharePoint 2010, a tool that checks for SharePoint capacity limits. I’ve released a first version to see if there’s any interest in this. As of yet, results have been rather disappointing, so I’m hoping this interview will contribute to turning this around a bit.
  • https://blogs.technet.com/b/wikininjas/archive/2012/05/20/wikis-just-may-be-your-best-bet.aspx : I’ve come to the conclusion that Wikis can be a great aid when it comes to estimating project sizes, and I’ve started an initiative for SharePoint concerning this topic. As far as interest/views go, this has been quite successful, but thus far I’m hoping for more contributions by other community members.
  • I’m building a free SharePoint tool for TN Gallery. It’s not finished yet, and I’m contemplating a dramatic name for the tool, such as “The Getaway Dragon”

On a non-work related note, I’m in the middle of a rather big side-project. I’ve been wanting to write a child book for some years, and now I’ve done it. It’s called “Iris and the Little Moon Bear” and the illustrations were done by Helen Prochazka. This week I’ll start approaching publishers and I’ll make sure that, one way or another, I’ll get it published. I thought it’d be fun to share a sneak preview, although I’m sure the readers of this interview hardly belong to the intended audience (unless you’re +/- 4 years old):

 

 

Besides your work on TechNet Wiki, where do you contribute?   

I have my own blog at https://sharepointdragons.com/ . As you can tell by the name, in principle it’s dedicated to SharePoint. The popularity of this blog is rising fast, so I’m quite pleased by that. Other than that, I frequently reply and answer SharePoint TN forum questions, I’ve posted some gallery contributions, since recently I blog as a Wiki Ninjette too, and I’m a moderator for the SharePoint forums.

 

What is it about TechNet Wiki that interests you?

The fact that you can start out little, and develop an idea in something quite big. If you’re lucky, you won’t have to do that alone.

 

On what Wiki articles do you spend most of your time?

There are two articles that stand out:

 

What are the top Wiki articles or areas that need more attention and development?

I want to mention 2 here.

First, this one: https://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/7341.which-features-do-i-need-to-activate-in-sharepoint-2010-en-us.aspx It can be difficult to know what SharePoint features need to be activated before you’re able to do something. It does need more work though, the page will be super useful when the list is near-complete.

The second one is the one I’ve mentioned before, https://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/10590.sharepoint-2010-best-practices-to-estimating-and-benchmarking-project-efforts.aspx , it would just be great if others would want to share their insights on this one.

 

Who has impressed you in the Wiki community, and why?

Well, it has been said before, but my choice has to be Ed Price. He’s been a real driving and motivating force behind TN Wiki. To be honest, if it hadn’t been for his encouragements, I don’t think I would have started contributing to the Wiki community.

 

What does success look like for TechNet Wiki?

For me it comes down to a simple question (and answer): what constitutes a successful TN Wiki page? A Wiki article needs to be read by a lot of people, it needs to be alive (it needs to be updated regularly) and it’s infinitely better if other people are willing to contribute.

 

=========

Thanks Margriet! And thank you for the kind words. =^)

Here are some ideas for comments to leave for Margriet...

  • Guess the plot of her children's book (Iris and the Little Moon Bear). Mwahahahaha!
  • Ask her questions about anything she wrote. I'll start us off: Why did you name your company Lois and Clark (I have an idea, but I'd rather get the full story from you)?
  • Margriet, come back here later and give us an update on "Iris and the Little Moon Bear". Tell us the progress you make as you try to get it published.
  • Ask questions about her next SharePoint tool for TechNet Gallery (codenamed "The Getaway Dragon").

The TechNet Wiki interviews continue! Who's next?

  - Ninja Ed

Comments

  • Anonymous
    June 06, 2012
    Ah, the name Lois & Clark... Well, when I, together with my husband Nikander Bruggeman, founded a dev/consutling company years ago we had to come up with a name. For some reason, when you're starting a company you immediately start thinking about names of famous duo's. The first name that came to our mind was the "Dynamic Duo", which commonly refers to Batman and Robin. But, Batman and Robin don't exactly operate on the basis of equality, and who wants to be Robin? Eventually, we had a breakthru: Lois and Clark (inspired by the TV series about Superman and in it's turn of course inspired by the famous explorer duo Lewis & Clark en.wikipedia.org/.../Lewis_and_Clark_Expedition ) was a perfect match. A man and a woman, in love, and complementing each other. We thought it fitting for our situation and expected that it would be easy to remember. Although I have to say, in the Netherlands, people don't tend to recognize the name so much. At the time, all relevant domain names were taken by Warner Brothers, but because of the waning interest in the TV series and the new release of .eu domain names we were able to obtain http://www.loisandclark.eu

  • Anonymous
    June 06, 2012
    Well that makes you the mere mortal, then. =^) Good story. I guess they didn't watch that show in the Netherlands. Next question: Why is your next gallery project codenamed "The Getaway Dragon"? Thanks!

  • Anonymous
    June 07, 2012
    Ah, good question. Well, my blog is called SharePointDragons.com, and I thought it would be a good idea to group all the tools I'm building by a common name and somehow link them to my blog as well. Therefore, the plan is to make the name of all the little tools I build end with "Dragon". I think it makes a far more cohesive group that way. The tool is a smart migration tool, and I've considered names like "Exodus Dragon", "Farewell Dragon" (both a little too dramatic) or just "Migration Dragon". I'm open for suggestions...

  • Anonymous
    June 07, 2012
    Yes, that's good for branding. What about "SharePoint Migration Dragon - migrate x to x" ... So you have SharePoint, what it does, and Dragon in there. Then a dash and a brief description (4 or so words). The description would briefly explain the "why would I want to use this tool?" question.

  • Anonymous
    June 07, 2012
    So maybe Maxer could be "SharePoint Max Dragon - checks for capacity planning limits". Or "SharePoint Capacity Dragon - checks for capacity planning limits"

  • Anonymous
    June 08, 2012
    I like that a lot, just changed it for Maxer.

  • Anonymous
    June 08, 2012
    Part of what gave me an idea for this is Rich Prescott's successful PowerShell scripts on the Gallery. He used the branding name "Arposh" a lot, the product name, and then fit a solid tool name and description in. Now he's moved on to create branding around a few individual tools as well (and his name is becoming known as a quality producer), so he doesn't use the same branding formula, but it worked well at first. Thanks!

  • Anonymous
    June 08, 2012
    "Arposh" was also a personal branding name he used on his site/blog.

  • Anonymous
    June 09, 2012
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    June 11, 2012
    Aaaaawww, so close. Although it is true that a company specializing in developing SharePoint solutions once wanted to have the right to be the first one to hire our first born child, for now we're keeping Iris at a  long distance from SharePoint... No, the little moon bear is a bear that watches all children in the world to make sure they're safe at night. Once in a while, he visits children and makes all sorts of clumsy mistakes which makes the children laugh. All in all, he's a pretty good friend to have around!

  • Anonymous
    June 11, 2012
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    June 12, 2012
    Ed, I'm curious, are you doing a series of articles for Moderators, or would MCC / Answerers be include in the long run?  I'm quite keen to contribute to more than jsut the forums too.

  • Anonymous
    June 12, 2012
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    June 12, 2012
    Steven, There is a series of Wiki articles for Moderators and Answerers. What did you want to contribute more to? We could definitely find ways to have you contribute to the Wiki. Ultimately that's what this blog does... it celebrates our top Wiki contributors and discusses what people are doing on TechNet Wiki. You can email me at edprice at Microsoft, and we can discuss specifics. Thanks!

  • Anonymous
    June 12, 2012
    Margriet, I wish I had a ladder that long! Then I could get on my roof. =^) Thanks!

  • Anonymous
    October 26, 2012
    The TechNet Wiki interviews continue! Who's next? Can I be the next? :-)

  • Anonymous
    October 26, 2012
    Gokan, Absolutely! I'm sending you the questions now! Thank you Gokan for all your many contributions!

  • Anonymous
    January 14, 2014
    You can find the list of authors here: Wiki Ninjas Blog: The Contributors Anyone can join us

  • Anonymous
    March 13, 2014
    This blog is a follow up to our last list of Wiki Ninja Blog Authors: Council Spotlight: Who are the

  • Anonymous
    April 24, 2014
    To arrange interviews with writers and with knowledgeable people and with new beginners technician who works with technical developments. it is like getting to know those from a close distance and to encouraging them for their work and to bring more work in the future.

  • Anonymous
    August 24, 2017
    Thank you, this blog gives a good inspiration for me.