How's that for a title???

Well, Florian had this idea to interview several people about a unique Wiki topic: Interview with a Wiki Ninja: Richard And Ed

He interviewed people on a team (Richard and me in this case), and the result was a nice collaborative conversation. When Gokan and Philippe asked to interview me about helping out with the MTFC awards, I gave my entire interview in one sentence. You can see my interview at the bottom of Gokan's blog post here:  New winners announced for our MTFC Award - June 2013 !!

Instead, I countered with an offer to interview all three of them in this collaborative style that Florian started.

Let's meet our interviewees...

Bruno Lewin- Bruno has been key to getting translation options and features on TechNet Wiki. He works in the Server and Cloud International team as a Senior Program Manager. He helps lead the International aspects of the TechNet Wiki. He assists product teams at Microsoft in creating a great experience for International users – covering areas that range from Planning, Design to Quality Assurance.

Yagmoth55 (Philippe) - Authored 54 Wiki articles, made 968 Wiki edits, and left 321 Wiki comments! He's posted 14 times on this blog, he's a member of the TechNet Wiki Community Council, he's an MCC, and he's the top French translator of content on TechNet Wiki. He works on IT's that work in the field and for managed service customers. Microsoft MCTS : Exchange 2007. Citrix XenDesktop CCA. Citrix XenApp CCA. Dell Equalogic Specialist. HP Accredited Platform Specialist. CompTIA A+. Lenovo/IBM Technician. Helper on TechNet Forum. Enthusiast Blogger.

Gokan Ozcifci - Authored 298 Wiki articles, made 2,213 Wiki edits, and left 2,001 Wiki comments! Gokan was voted best SharePoint contributor in all of Europe! He contributes in four languages: English, French, Turkish, and Dutch! You can be mesmerized by his contributions here: Gokan Ozcifci. He is the SharePoint Pirate/Ninja!

Enjoy the interview!

How did this idea of MTFC come about?

(Gokan): It was a little bit the idea of Bruno to begin a French Community Award system. Everything began on a WikiNinja blog post where I said "I want the same as the Brazilian Community" ( Luiz is running TechNet Wiki Day & Luciano Lima is also featuring key Brazilian contributors). And Bruno came to us and said we can start! And we finally built our Microsoft Technical French Contributor Award a few months ago. Our concern and goal is to promote the french community. What do you think Bruno? 

(Bruno): Indeed, when I saw what your contributions were, it just seemed so natural to go this way.  

Who’s involved in making this happen? What do they do?

(Gokan): Philippe helped us a lot and I can proudly say he was the brain and a little bit the pusher of our program! He always thinks twice and sends us new ideas! He is the hidden brain of this Award. Philippe, where do you get all these magnificent ideas?

(Philippe): I thank everyone, Gokan, Ed, Bruno and Florin. Teamwork is always the best thing!

How do you select the candidates?

(Bruno): This is the most beautiful aspect of community – people really select themselves by contributing interesting material, and since the French speaking community is still relatively small, there is a lot of opportunity to be seen. From a strictly practical perspective, we are relying on the more mature Community of TechNet forums users that have a regular friendly challenge -- they find and highlight the valuable posts.

How do you determine a winner?

(Philippe): The winner is determined by the online community by the article they create in the forum. After they create the content, we help the user to migrate it to the wiki! :)

What does the winner receive? Who sends it?

(Gokan): The winners receive a wonderful certification made by the Wiki Ninjas that is only valid for 1 year. The winner will also receive recognization on the TechNet Forums and is featured on the Blog Posts at the Wiki Ninjas blog (this blog). This is the best way to promote the contributor and the French Community! I prefer that a Microsoft employee sends the mail and it's always Bruno. It's a real gift from God that we have Bruno!!

(Bruno): Come on, you are doing the hard part! It’s just a pleasure to be able to provide some help with logistics.

What’s been your biggest challenge with this program? 

(Bruno): This is a less formal program: members of the French language Community recognize other members. There is no big Microsoft team, budgets, etc. The success hinges on the passion and work of people like Gokan and Philippe, and how they were able to use and bring their ideas, time, and contacts. This meant stepping back and letting them decide the direction. After having worked together for a few months, that part is obviously no longer a challenge!

(Philippe): The biggest on-going challenge is to get more active French contributors to participate.

What surprised you the most as you started running the MTFC program? 

(Phillippe): The help and the spirit of everyone who wants to make it work and continue the effort !

(Bruno): Yes, I agree, though in retrospect this should not have been a surprise!

Where do you see the MTFC program heading? What’s the potential future of MTFC?

(Bruno): In the short term, as Philippe hinted, a big part is still fostering growth of the French Community and Content. The program is very much about peer recognition so I see Gokan, Philippe, and active French language members taking the feedback and agreeing to the next steps. And feedback is of course welcome here.

 ===============

Thanks again to Philippe, Gokan, and Bruno! I'm honestly not too sure what I did in this process. But Philippe came to me, and so I started connecting people together, and they formed their team and ran with it. It's a privilege for me to see their progress!

Do you want to do something like this for your language? Leave a comment (preferrably in English)!

Do you have any feedback for Gokan or Philippe? Leave a comment (French is okay)!

Do you have a comment? Leave a comment (maybe in Yiddish)!

Wiki while you work,

   - Ninja Ed

We're continuing the Tuesday article spotlights with another May TechNet Guru winner!

Naomi N is our T-SQL TechNet Guru for May! See more about the Technology Guru TechNet Wiki for May contest.

About Naomi: I am an IT professional with more than 15 years of experience in variety of programming languages and technologies. I am a Microsoft Community Award Recipient and Personality of the Year at UniversalThread.com forum in 2008,2009,2010,2011.

She had two winning articles. Here they are:

• T-SQL: Dynamic Pivot on Multiple Columns
• SQL Server PIVOT

Here are all the May T-SQL winners: 

Transact-SQL Technical Guru - May 2013

A big thanks to Naomi. This was exactly what we'd hoped for, and Naomi swept the board. Naomi takes two gold medals, as both articles scored exactly the same, when all votes were added up! Also thanks to Andrew for another excellently crafted article, that ticked so many boxes.

And here's an excerpt from the Dynamic Pivot article:

The problem of transposing rows into columns is one of the most common problems discussed in Transact-SQL forum. Many times the problem of creating a dynamic pivot comes into the light. One thing that many people who ask this question forget is that such transposing is much easier to perform on the client side than on the server where we need to resort to dynamic query. However, if we want to make such pivot dynamically, the important thing to understand is that writing dynamic query is only slightly more difficult than writing static query. In fact, when I am presented with the problem of dynamic pivot, I first figure out how static query should look like. Then making such query dynamically becomes rather trivial task.

Read the rest here:

T-SQL: Dynamic Pivot on Multiple Columns

Thanks to Naomi for all your great contributions to the TechNet Guru contest! You can read about all the May winners here: TechNet Guru Awards - May 2013

Also, for the June Guru competition, see TechNet Guru June Roundup & Commentary.

Are you a Wiki Ninja? http://technet.com/wiki

- Ninja Ed

UPDATE: Reply to the latest update blog post to get your Wiki Ninja Belt Rank added: Wiki Ninja Belts Update

Welcome to the first blog post for the new Council Spotlight series on Thursdays!

What better way to kick off our new Thursday theme than to launch our new reward system for TechNet Wiki???

Who did what?

This is a new system that I started with the help of Margriet Bruggeman. Eric Battalio came up with the original theme of ninjas. I first started drafting this concept of a fun TechNet Wiki award system (based on Eric's ninja theme) in fall 2011... to come up with the different levels as Ninja Belts and to reward the community with a fun theme and fun rewards... and lots of them! Lots of requirements, lots of belt ranks to burn through, and lots of rewards! The basic idea is if anyone actually makes it through all the rewards. But it was too big and too intense to launch and track, so I shelved it. Then fast forward to 2013! With the dawn of the new TechNet Wiki Community Council, I realized that we now had enough people helping so that something like this would even be possible (previously it just seemed like a pipe dream).

So I launched the system with a rough pass, really not knowing too much about martial arts (I did some research to try to get it so that it looked good). Well Margriet stepped up and helped me by giving me a ton of feedback on how to get the belts, ranks, and titles more accurate and authentic (plus other Council members with Martial Arts experience helped a little as well). I made a first pass on the Requirements and Rewards. Margriet went through the 25 different ranks and gave them all the fun "Sensei Says" (and similar) quotes, to make the theming even more fun! (Special thanks to Margriet, because I think this really takes it to a new level of "fun!") Then I added the "About" sections so that we can speak to the different belts, rewards, and requirements a little (like maybe we can drop a few hints there). I made a pass at tweaking the rewards (note that they will require a lot more tweaking, especially the ones that might cost some money, like stickers or T-shirts). Then Margriet, Richard Mueller, and I made a pass at tweaking the requirements. And Bruno and Yagmoth have been helping us think through how to make the physical rewards a reality (like the pens or buttons). Margriet even helped me figure out how we're going to track all this! Once again, thanks to Margriet and Richard for helping get it "done enough to launch."

I'll start by properly introducing the first three belts (that make up the first class, Novice Wiki Ninjas)...

NOVICE WIKI NINJAS

White Belt

Sensei Says: "A white belt is like a finger pointing to the moon… Don’t concentrate on the finger or you miss all the heavenly glory. Don’t focus on the achievements too much for now, they will come. Just enjoy working together in the TechNet Wiki community."

About: This is only the start of a journey. The white belt can be achieved with 1 week of putting in extra effort.

Requirements:

• Bronze Achievement Medal: New Wiki Editor - You made one revision.
• Bronze Achievement Medal: New Wiki Commentator - You left one comment.
• Bronze Achievement Medal: New Wiki Contributor - You authored one article.
• Benchmark - You placed in the Top Weekly Contributors 1 time.

Rewards:

• Wiki Ninjas Blog: Belt Rankings - You first appear in the regular Belt Rankings blog post

Yellow Belt

Sensei Says: "A yellow belt means practice, practice, practice... And when you're done? Practice some more."

About: Your journey continues as you prove you're a consistent editor. The tweety bird sings your song.

Requirements:

• Silver Achievement Medal: Wiki Editor II - You edited 25 articles, and 10 of those received 500 views.
• Benchmark - You placed in the Top Weekly Contributors 2 times.

Rewards:

• Tweet - We tweet your TechNet Profile and primary Site out to our followers

Orange Belt

Sensei Says: "Someone always knows more. Don't let that faze you, you're well on your way."

About: After writing your first 10 articles and seeing your name on the Wiki Ninjas blog a few times, it's time to feature you as a Wiki Ninja on the blog.

Requirements:

• Silver Achievement Medal: Wiki Contributor II - You wrote 10 articles, and 6 of them have 500 views.
• Silver Achievement Medal: Wiki Commentator II - You left 35 comments.
• Benchmark - You placed in the Top Weekly Contributors 3 times.

Rewards:

• Featured Wiki Ninja - We feature your accomplishments as a Wiki Ninja with a blog post dedicated to you
• Tweet - We tweet about your featured blog post

You can find all the Ninja Belt Ranks here: Wiki Ninja Belt Rankings

And now, let's start tracking who has what belt...

How to Get your Wiki Ninja Belt Rank Determined

So in the spirit of interaction, the people who will get their Wiki Ninja Belt Rank first, are the people who respond to (edit: the latest Wiki Ninja Belts Update)! When you respond to that blog post, you become the top priority for getting your belt rank calculated! And then of those who respond, they will be calculated in the order of who commented first! UPDATE: Reply to the latest update blog post to get your Wiki Ninja Belt Rank added: Wiki Ninja Belts Update

Second, we will go through the Wiki Ninja Blog Authors, in the order of who posted on the blog first (the one exception is that I will make sure I'm calculated last in this group). See Wiki Ninjas Blog: The Contributors. If someone new posts a comment to this blog post, we'll make that one a priority before calculating more of the blog authors.

Third, we will go through the Wiki Ninjas who we've interviewed. See Interview with a Wiki Ninja. We'll go through them chronologically (starting with the first interviews).

Fourth, we will go through the "Saturday Top Contributor Awards" blog posts to pull more people. We'll go through them chronologically (starting with the first blog posts), and we'll focus on the top 3 contributors for each award/category.

So leave a comment below, and we'll calculate your Wiki Ninja Belt first!

As we track your belt, we'll announce it in the Wiki article Wiki Ninja Belt Status: Who Has What Belt Ranking, in future blog posts here, and as a response to your comment below.

Come on in! The Wiki is fine (and now it will earn you Ninja Belts)!!!!

   - Ninja Ed

It is summertime and we are half way through the year 2013. For Microsoft integration it is has been a great year so far. What do I mean by Microsoft Integration? It is the area within the broad range of Microsoft products and technologies that has its focus on integration. You could call it Microsoft's integration stack contain products and technologies like BizTalk Server, WCF Services, SSIS, Workflow, Windows Azure Service Bus and the recently available BizTalk Services. Within the Microsoft MVP program Microsoft integration is one of the technical expertise. It is definitely an important area of interest for Microsoft and its customers.

The last 18 months there has been extensive build up of articles around Microsoft Integration. Just take a look at these entry points on the TechNet Wiki to the available resources:

• BizTalk Server Resources on the TechNet Wiki (access to 100+ articles and other resources)
• Windows Azure BizTalk Services Resources on the TechNet Wiki  (access to 10+ articles and other resources)
• Windows Azure AppFabric Service Bus Content Map
• SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
• Windows Azure Service Bus Resources
• About Workflow Manager and ServiceBus for Windows Server

This accumulative build of articles is the result of Microsoft efforts to drive integration forward. A new release of BizTalk Server 2013, BizTalk Services, Workflow Manager, Service Bus for Windows Server, and enhancements to Windows Azure Service Bus is just an example of what Microsoft has done over that period of time. During the TechEd North America Microsoft told the integration story at this moment: Microsoft Integration Vision and Roadmap. There is one slide that in my view says it all.

A customer has choices when it comes to integration with the Microsoft Integration Stack. All have matured or are maturing to an enterprise level. Microsoft will push forward with innovating these technologies. Therefor, I believe integration has a bright future and it will mean for us as integration folks: "Integration is my business and business is good!"

 - Ninja Steef-Jan (Blog, Wiki, Twitter, Profile)

Hello all!

I am Patris. I got an email from Ed to post in the Wiki Ninja Blog. First, I will write a story. That was a real story in the last year for me.

Here is My Story:

I sent my CV (resume) to a company (I linked to my TechNet profile in CV). After 3 months, I got an email for an Interview. The Interview was 1 Hour. The IT Manager did not ask any technical questions in the interview. I thought that I did not get this job!!

Then the IT Manager asked me if I had any questions, and I said "Yes, I do." And I asked, "Why did you not ask me any technical questions?"

He said, "Because you solved some our problems!!!!"

I told him, "Sorry, but something is wrong here. Because your company (your employees) never called me or contacted me about a problem; I just got an email for the job Interview without any questions!!!"

He said, "No, that is correct, but my employee asked some questions in the TechNet forum and you answered, and my employee used your articles in TechNet Wiki. Because of that, we know that you can do the job very well!!"

I watched him; I was very surprised, and he told me, "Yes man, the World is small!" And we laughed.

That was amazing.

What do I want to say to you?

When you write your articles in TechNet Wiki and answer the questions in TechNet forums, you show to people who you are and what you can do. We do not know who reads our articles or asks questions, but believe me, when your article or answer solves the problem, people don't forget you!

Keep in mind, that if you are an MSFT, MCA, MCM, or MVP, people will know what you can do and who you are. But, what about the rest of us?

Here is an example (I am using Ed as an example character):

Ed does not have a job, but he is good and is very knowledgeable and needs a job. He sends his CV/resume to a lot of companies, but he always gets a negative answer!!

After few months, Ed begins to help people in the TechNet forums and writes articles in TechNet Wiki to help the TechNet community. Now, for every 10x CV/resumes he submits, he gets an Interview or telephone call.

The question is, why or what happened??? What improved? Why the sudden change?

The answer is, when the human resources department (HR) reads his CV/resume and sees his TechNet profile, then they see that...

1. He is a Team player (he helped TechNet community)
2. He has knowledge (he wrote articles and answered the community's questions)

Those are two important factors in an IT company. Because of this, the HR department send his CV/resume to the IT department.

Now he has contributed to the community, Ed has so many friends in so many countries across the World.

I hope you enjoyed my story, and I hope we will see more people write articles in TechNet Wiki and help people in TechNet forums.

Articles + Community help (Wiki/Forums) = Success