On March 15th the voting for the 2011 Umbraco MVPs begin. If
that sounds all gibberish to you, don't panic - I'll (try to)
explain it all in this post!
What's an MVP
MVPs are quite common in different projects and they're all
inspired by Microsofts "Most Valued
Professional" program. In Umbraco MVP stands for "Most Valued
People" as we see at least as big value in amateurs as in
professionals. In fact several Umbraco MVPs started as amateurs
only to find that Umbraco is now the cornerstone of their
professional career.
An MVP is a person who's not a part of the core team nor a part
of the Umbraco HQ (the company), but in some other way adds
extraordinary value to the project. Looking back at previous MVPs this
translate into being friendly in the forum or making incredible and
highly useful packages. In other words, MVPs represent the best of
the community which is the last building block in what makes the
foundation of the Umbraco project; the company, the core team and
the community.
How does one become an MVP
We nominate the candidates for the 2011 MVPs on Tuesday the 15th
of 2011 based on the people
who got most karma on 'Our' from March 14th 2010 to March 14th
2011. The twenty people with most karma who isn't either a part of
the HQ or the core team will be selected and the community can
start voting. This year, you can vote on three people (giving them
5, 3 and 1 point respectively) and you can only vote once and not
change your vote. So make sure to consider your votes carefully! In
order to vote you'll need to have a profile on Our Umbraco.
The voting ends on April 15th 2011 and we'll notify the winners
directly. From here it gets really tough as you'll have to keep it
a secret until CodeGarden '11 where we'll officially announce the
MVPs. Being the magician I am, I know that you're thinking then why
not just wait with ending the voting until CodeGarden, right? Well,
there's a good reason which brings me to the benefits of becoming
an MVP!
The benefits
The number one benefit is obviously the honor. As the nomination
of MVPs are solely in the hands of the community, becoming an MVP
means that you're among the five most regarded and appreciated
people in a community over 10.000 people strong. It takes a lot of
effort, courage and patience and the biggest benefit in my humble
opinion is the loads of virtual high fives you'll get.
There is another benefit too, though. You'll get free admission
to the annual developer conference, CodeGarden. In fact you'll also
get free accommodation at the best business hotel in Copenhagen
during the conference too. Oh, and we'll pay for your flight no
matter where in the world you live. Not even Microsoft does that to
their MVPs! But there's one more thing and whether it's a benefit
or not, I'll leave it for you to decide!
The CodeGarden Retreat
Four years ago we started what became a tradition - the
CodeGarden retreat. We invite the most active cores, the HQs and
the MVPs to an extended weekend in a country house right before
CodeGarden. It's four very long days and nights where we combine
deep talks on the future of Umbraco with socializing. And since the
beginning it has been where the best ideas for Umbraco has be
coined. For four days we got twenty very different Umbracians
together without customer deadlines nor any it-cannot-be-done
mentality. The sky is the limit (and so is the beer tap we've
learned). It's fun, but it's much easier to show videos of the 2008
and 2009 retreats (unfortunately, I didn't get a video done in
2010):
2009:
2008:
Godspeed to everyone who's among the twenty nominates next week.
Umbraco wouldn't be Umbraco without you!