Comments and Feedback contest winner...

Hold on a second there. I can't spill the beans just yet.

On behalf of the team, I wanted to first of all say THANK YOU!!! It is nice to know the audience is listening but more importantly - willing to give some constructive feedback. Who did we hear from ? We had over 25 comments and emails from people all over Canada (and the rest of the world) ranging from around the corner Peterborough to across the oceans in Europe and Perth, Australia. Back in Canada - I believe we had feedback from at least one person in every province, except Newfoundland and the Territories.

First off - Some interesting quotes from the feedback.

Scott from Fredericton puts it quite bluntly. "You are doing well. I am still subscribed to the feed, so that means I have not decided the feed sucks".

Jerry from West Vancouver has a slightly more positive spin. "This BLOG does what it is meant to - inform and entice with entertainment to boot!"

Andy has taken it to a new level and has even added our RSS feed to his teams sharepoint site. Way to spread the word man!

dspencer made some great comments on editorial style and choice of media (keep it mixed with text, video and audio as required). I especially like the comment he made about Ruth Morton joining the team. "Now that Ruth is with the team, I want more Ruth! I know that she has a lot of good ideas and perspectives on the industry. In addition, she hasn't been in the Microsoft corporate pool for too long, so her viewpoint (and Rodney's) may be more like that of the ordinary IT pro."

Overall the lessons I learned from this exercise:

How are we doing?
- Sounds like we are on track. everyone agreed that we are providing some good value and entertainment to IT Professionals in Canada - and around the world. We should be sticking to our current strategy. The approach of sharing stories and not just feeding you links seems to be greatly appreciated.
What is your take on the Tags / Categories in use? Are they helpful or should they be trimmed down?
- Hit and miss on this one. They are valuable, but for the most part, people don't like the "cloud" effect that is currently in use. We'll be investigating both tightening them up as well as converting them back to a list format.
What interests you more: Text, Audio Podcast or Video Podcast?
- Text still rules, but there is a strong interest in mixing it up. We're branching out to embrace the mixed media of audio and video. Both Rod and I are exploring more with what makes sense. Common thread on this follows the k.i.s.s. principle - Keep It Short and Simple.
What do you want to see MORE of?
- Stories, stories and stories. Got it. That being said - got any you want to share? :)
What do you want to see LESS of?
- This one surprised me. The majority of you said you didn't like or didn't get much value from the "post event blogposts". I guess you figure why would you want to know about the event in Regina, if you don't live in Regina. (not to pick on Regina, it is a nice place!). We've talked as a team and have a new approach to these, as I believe they will provide some new value going forward.

So who's the winner? My random number generator spat out lucky #14, which on my non scientific list of individuals who commented turns out to be:

dspencer a.k.a. Don Spencer

Don is an IT Pro / IT Manager who lives in the Kitchener / Waterloo area and works for Pano Cap Canada. He does the whole range of IT management duties at Pano Cap, including systems administration, network administration, business analysis/report design for their ERP software, training, project management, help desk management, product acquisition and deployment, etc. His most recent project has been the introduction and implementation of a wireless warehouse system. Don is also an active member of the WWITPro user group.

A big thanks goes out to Don and all the rest of you for giving us some honest feedback on how we're doing. Got any other comments? Drop the team a line by hitting the "contact" link at the top or "ask a question" link on the left. We'd love to hear from you.