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-