>>> Considering that 99% of what the MVP program was designed to do was to provide a select part of the community better communication with the product teams <<
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>I'm not sure I agree with that interpretation. At least in part, the MVP program is a way for Microsoft to reduce costs. They get extremely high caliber FREE tech support from the user community at a cost to them of a few hundred dollars a year per MVP. If they had to hire their own employees to provide online support -- which they did until 1995 or so -- it would cost them many times that. Don't get me wrong, I think it's a great program and am proud to have been in it for several years. But it undeniably saves Microsoft a heck of a lot of money. My guess is that was a bigger factor than improving communications with part of the community. Remember that there were only half a dozen or so FoxPro MVPs (IIRC there were 7 the first year I was in it) until Microsoft stopped providing online support by MSFT employees.
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>Mike

Mike;

Interesting points! I recall paying Microsoft several hundred dollars for one year of support related to FoxPro (1993). It was such a waste of money as I never got a correct answer and most of the time there was no answer given. Reminded me of Ashton-Tate! Some of our local Silicon Valley FoxPro members were and still are a great source of knowledge.

I have no idea how MVP’s are chosen. Perhaps Microsoft has some high school kids surf the Internet at specific web sites like Microsoft newsgroups, CompuServe and the UT. Then compile some data and submit it on a specific day of the year. I do not think Bill Gates is the one who makes the decisions on this. :)

Tom