Silverlight MVP

about a year ago I was at TechEd 08 taking to a friend (Peter) and he asked me if I was an MVP and I had no idea what that was. Granted I had heard it but never spent enough time to put 2 and 2 together. Well over the course of the next year and half or so I did find my self more involved in user groups such as the Seattle Designer Developer Interaction Group and Silverlight Insiders Group and of course I was already going to all the cool events such as MIX. I got a tweet from Suzanne at Microsoft Tuesday evening that I had been awarded Silverlight MVP.

For many years now I have been scoofing at things like MCP etc as I found that certifications like this tend to be something students do but the guys that are really good were the ones that can whip out the stack of experience and code. So for the most part I didn't care about that. I guess why I'm so proud of the MVP award is that it is not something you can just take a test. It is awarded based on contribution to the community and on the work you do professionally. As I understand it other MVPs or MS employees are the only ones that can nominate you and to be recognized like that for the hard work (albeit doing things like Silverlight Simon I have a hard time calling 'work') by others that are generally smarter then me is something I'm really proud of. Of all the silly certifications from school or other industry related stuff the only one that matters to me is Silverlight MVP.

In any case here is my MVP Profile:

https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/David.Kelley