Expert Zone Briefing on 5-18-2001
Microsoft Corporate Campus - Redmond, Washington

A bit of history: as Microsoft was preparing for the launch of it's new OS Windows XP, they asked for volunteers from their Windows XP beta testers, MVPs, community-based computer user group members, and others, to help in a new public newsgroup and information site called the Expert Zone. The idea was that people who were trying out the public XP betas, could go there and get help for any issues they might be having with the new OS. After the official launch of Windows XP in October of 2001, the site would continue to support new Windows XP users with hints, tips and how-to articles as well.

To provide support for the volunteers, Microsoft held a briefing on their corporate campus in Redmond, Washington in May of 2001, and invited the soon-to-be "Associate Experts" to attend. Many volunteers gave freely of their time and traveled at their own expense to Redmond, Washington for the briefing. At the end of the all day session, a photographer captured the group shot below, which provided a memento of the event for the attendees.

Only a small part of the many hundreds of volunteer Associate Experts around the world were able to attend this meeting. In appreciation of the many people who volunteered to help others in the Expert Zone newsgroups, in User Groups, or in their community, I created an image map of the group photo to help put a "friendly face" to some of the volunteers and great people I met at this event. If you place your cursor over each face in turn, you will see either a name or a place holder pop up.

If you attended this event, and would like to add your name [and be more than just a number], contact me in the AE newsgroup and give me your name and the number it corresponds to. I will update this image as I have time. Remember "Where's Waldo"? If you were not able to attend, see if you can find Microsoft's Tony Hynes who did a great job putting this and other events together, and continues to support the Associate Experts.  ;o) --Barbara Kreiss

Index of briefing photos | Webcentric Computer Services

Group Photo courtesy Microsoft Corporation - Friendly faces courtesy the individual Associate Experts! -296KB image map © 2001-

137 Jason Bottjen Gary Dikkema 134 Michael Edward Kohlman Gary Woodruff Justin Morford 130 Scott Doyle Kevin Dickson Brian Lawton Chris Shores Jeffrey M. Cole David Ferner David Denmark Jeff V. Pulver 121 MC Lawrence Lee 118 Allan Grossman 116 115 114 113 Bob McCormick Eric C. Vogel Jeffrey Struyk Boyd Gilbert 108 107 106 Ron Funkhouser Galan Bridgman 103 Rick Gray Jerry Pierce Bruce Griffin 99 Andy Domaracki 97 96 Kent W. England 94 Corey Gouker 92 91 90 89 88 87 Jerry Hughes 85 Roger Abell Chris H John Mullan 81 80 79 Reed Rinn Greg Gallagher Jim Pickering Doug Knox Jon Noble 73 72 Jim Boughton 70 69 Mark L. Ferguson 67 David C Abernathy 65 Shane Kelley 63 62 Scott D. Klassen Otto Dobias Ron Goltsch Richard Sudol James W. Barbour Sr. 56 Michel Bordeleau James Ellis Steve Steinberg Larry Samuels Daniel O’Connell Alex Feinman Eric A Whalley Cartier Hung 47 46 Dean Stewart Jonathan Kay 43 CK 41 Frank Saunders Gary Hall Danny Jordan Barbara Kreiss Clive Graven Dan Martini 34 Jeanette Harper 32 31 30 Korry Pearl 28 27 Scott Schnoll Barbara Bowman Gary Rall Joe Barker Sr. Daniel Cayea Jared Duquette Charles Turcich 19 18 Paul Gray Dion Baird Rich Roddey 14 Linda Tony Hynes 11 Ron Mendoza Reinier Martinez Dennis Lutz II Justin Harrison Gregory Cornelius Chris Barr Patti LaBarge Patty MacDuffie Harry Delevante 1