Who is Josh Levine and what is your background?
I graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz with a BA in Psychology and Political Science and spent six years in product marketing – most recently as a Director of Marketing for a firm in Los Angeles. In 1999 I dropped out of the workforce for two years to complete my MBA from the University of California, Irvine with an emphasis in Information Technology for Management. Upon graduation I was recruited by Microsoft and relocated to Seattle. I’m passionate about my work; enjoy traveling and spending quality time with my friends and family.
What is your job in Microsoft?
I work as a Business Development Manager for Microsoft.com (MSCOM) – the #1 corporate presence on the Web and the #4 site overall (Jupiter Media Metrix). Our team builds partnerships with third-party partners to engage them on the Microsoft.com network which reaches over 76 million monthly unique users world wide. In essence, MSCOM is the place where business decisions makers, IT professionals and developers, and casual home users come to find information on our products, our partners and the latest news. The MSCOM Business Development Team strives to enrich this experience by providing visitors with useful, contextually relevant information from our partners.
What is MSCOM? Does that include all MS sites such as Hotmail, microsoft.com and MSN?
Microsoft.com (MSCOM) is comprised of a network of over 50 properties - excluding MSN and Hotmail. Some of our major destinations include MSDN, TechNet, Exchange Server, SQL Server, Windows XP, Office XP, Windows 2000 Server, Microsoft Business and Microsoft .NET. The MSCOM network presents content in more than 50 countries and 28 languages – a truly global communication vehicle comprised of IT Pros, Developers, Home users, Knowledge Workers, Business Decision Makers, Students, etc. In essence, MSCOM is a vast repository of information and support resources that enable our users to get their work done.
What is MS Communities?
Microsoft recognizes the inherent value of the people who make their living with and depend on our technologies - we are committed to providing this online technical community with the resources they need. As products and technologies become more progressive and advanced, so do the needs of customers such as developers, IT Professionals and partners using, selling and building upon those technologies. Providing a deep level of support and information for this group of customers is a focal point for Microsoft as we continue to launch new product versions and key advancements such as the Microsoft .NET framework.
MS Communities strives to deliver an integrated community experience that responds to the needs of many and varied customers through nurturing an online venue for customers to interact, collaborate, provide feedback and get help where and when they want it. Most importantly, Microsoft appreciates the symbiotic relationship between Microsoft and non-Microsoft Communities. Together they provide a diverse, sophisticated, and important resource of information that is essential to building a healthy ecosystem for knowledge share.
What is your role in MS Communities?
My team builds partnerships with non-Microsoft Communities. These partnerships are designed to provide greater exposure and increased awareness of communities on the Web that offer important resources to IT professionals and developers.
How many and which communities do you cover (.NET, Visual FoxPro, Office...)?
We have relationships with over 150 unique communities at varying levels of engagement. These communities cover a broad representation of Microsoft products and technologies; including .NET, Visual Studio .NET, Visual Fox Pro, Windows XP, Office XP, SQL Server, etc. There is a list of community links across the MSCOM network at http://communities2.microsoft.com/home/relatedcommunities.aspx.
What kind of support does Microsoft provide to these communities on the web?
As a baseline we want to ensure that Microsoft is doing what it can to promote all Non-Microsoft communities surrounding our products and technologies. We offer contextually relevant placement across our network of MSCOM Related Community Pages - http://communities2.microsoft.com/home/relatedcommunities.aspx. A select group of communities will qualify for elevated exposure across our network and enjoy deeper educational and relationship benefits.
What kind of partnership exists between MS Communities and UniversalThread?
Universal Thread has been selected as a founding member of the .NET Code Wise Community which is our partnership program for organizations and individuals focused on "bringing together" and educating .NET developers. Through the .NET Code Wise Community program, Universal Thread has the opportunity to become somewhat of a Microsoft "insider." The program hosts monthly bootcamps in Redmond for technical education, special briefings at industry events, and a dedicated resource to help get answers to questions. Additionally, we offer a higher level of promotional opportunities for program members on MSCOM. Universal Thread's membership in the .NET CodeWise Community ensures that it receives what it needs from Microsoft to better serve its own community members.
How can we access the .Net Code Wise Community page?
The page can be accessed from two locations - the content is the same. 1) Gotdotnet 2) MSDN Visual Studio .NET
Is the .NET Code Wise Community only a page of links or it is more than that? And how do you select member sites to add to this page?
The Code Wise Community is our forum for building a tighter relationship with popular developer communities. The resources in the program have demonstrated expertise and prominence in the community. The program is larger than a simple page of links. Members receive increased exposure across the MSCOM network and enjoy a deeper technical relationship with Microsoft. Our members have been selected by the .NET Framework and Visual Studio .NET teams - we have a set of criteria that we use based on ‘reach’ and ‘influence’ of the prospective site/resource.
What can we expect from MS Communities in the future?
As we continue to respond to feedback from our customers, you can expect to see more focused and easily accessible content from Microsoft. You can stay current with the latest developer community information by visiting the new MSDN Community. You can also expect continued support for Non-Microsoft communities on the Web. Again, communities like UniversalThread provide an important resource of information that is essential to building a healthy ecosystem for knowledge share. The people who make up these communities are really the ones who are creating this world. We’ll try to simply provide a map and a few extra road signs as appropriate.
The last one, you find a bottle in the desert, open it and a jinni grants you only one wish. What is this wish?
"No comment... your honor!" ;)
Thanks a lot for this interesting interview :-)
