Hi, Denis.

>I really hope that what you say is true Craig but still...
>
>If it was only a matter of being an MVP that would be fine. I mean you guys receive the recognition from MS once a year as long as you deserve it and that's it. Nothing more attached to it.
>
>But because you guys also:
>
>- Receive MSDN Universal
>- Get to attend meeting with the big suits at MS (Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, Ken Levy...)
>- And whatever else is given to MVPs
>
>this is where some persons could see a possible conflict of interest. I imagine that for some this could represent a big incentive to do more just to be sure to be on the right side of MS suits and keep getting the freebies.

I think that sometimes you can be confusing cause and effect, and of course there can be a bit of myth around the MVP program from the outside. I'll tell you how I feel and experience it from the inside:

I'm using Microsoft tools from a lot of years, and I known them quite well, so it is not very strage that I could talk about some Microsoft product (before or after the award is the same thing). Some people actually share a lot of the Microsoft viw about software in general, so they generally spoke well of Microsoft, and if they become MVPs, they keep doing it. In my case, I've been always quite a harsh critic here, but it seems that at some point they judge that even so I was helping many people with my articles, sessions and the forums, and they gave me the award. It didn't change too much for me. Maybe right now I have an extra amount of information from the program, and then I also find more things that I like and don't like from their tools.

Some people at Microsoft Argentina don't like me so much. Every time I do a presentation they give me cold looks when my desktop is there showing the NetBeans and Eclipse icons, not to mention when I use SharpDevelop instead of Visual Studio, or when I start mentioning all the goof Open Source tools around for .NET (by the way, there is a new open project that could be close to an alternative to the upcoming Team System). Guess what? Their opinion doesn't count! What "counts" (as far as I know) is that after my presentation, the eval forms are processed an the results are seen by the MVP program staff. And they don't care about what we presented as far as it is Microsoft-related (many of my presentations are not base on products, but on methodologies that you can apply to anything), and the community perceives a value there.

So, for me, at least, the program doesn't change so much, except I feel good to be recognized fro what I do, and it is my understanting that the only they expect from me is to keep doing the same, with no conditions.

I just want to expose my view, and of course this is 100% subjective, but my contact with other MVPs makes me believe that it is not so different for them.

Regards,