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Early next month, Microsoft is set to share its vision for its next-generation Office, Windows, database and other products with hundreds of its Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs).
MVPs are the independent technology buffs who are recognized experts in one or more Microsoft technologies. They complement Microsoft executives, product managers and developers in tasks ranging from answering online forum questions, to assisting Microsoft at trade shows and other events. The MVP program is eleven years old.
For the past few years, Microsoft has convened an annual MVP summit where these evangelists hear about Microsoft's current and forthcoming products straight from the developers, product managers and top management.
Last year's MVP global summit was held in February and was attended by nearly 700 MVPs. This year, it's slated for April 4 through 7. This year's MVP global summit will be the first since Microsoft decided to extend its Windows Shared Source program to cover pre-qualified MVPs.
Read More About the 2003 MVP Global Summit
And More on Microsoft's MVP Shared Source Program
What's on the summit agenda for this year? MVPs are slated to receive:
A preview of "the vision" for Office 12 (which is currently expected to debut in 2006);
More information on "Yukon" SQL Server Beta 2, "Whidbey" Visual Studio release, Longhorn WinFX application programming interface (API), and other Longhorn APIs and subsystems;
New details on Windows XP Embedded Service Pack 2 (which is due out a couple of months after the main XP SP2 ships); and
An update on the future of Windows Server System for the post-Windows-Server-2003 timeframe.
The MVPs also are slated to hear from a number of Microsoft's top brass, ranging from CEO Steve Ballmer, to Platform Group VP Jim Allchin, to Senior Server VP Eric Rudder, among others.
(This is an edited version of an article which appeared in the March 1, 2004, issue of the Microsoft Watch newsletter.
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