Monday night at the MVP Summit was a very special night. Because of the structure behind the MVP program (by product) there are a bunch of MVPs (including myself) that don't really fit in any one group. Although Dare was able to create a MVP in XML designation, we are grouped with the Visual Developers, which are primarily ASP.Net and WinForms people. So when it came to the Monday dinner with your product group, we were sort of left hanging out there. Kirk Allen Evans (although he is no longer an MVP since he is now a Microsoft Developer Evangelist), started the process of throwing a dinner for the XML oriented folks, and that is all the stimulus needed to get one incredible gathering of people.
Now, although some of you reading my blog would think that I know most of the XML crew at Microsoft, there are very few that I've met in person. And the most popular of them have been given "Rock Star' status in the geek world, but I'm here to tell you, they are really just like you and me. I could list the folks that were there, but that would further enhance their Rock Star persona, and personally, that is doing them a great injustice.
Which is a great lead in to what Channel 9 is supposed to be all about, seeing the average everyday people at Microsoft. It's not supposed to be a blog (although it has RSS feeds all over the place). It's not VBTV, or MSDN-TV, but more of a combination of all of the above, combined with .NetRocks. It is something very new and very experimental, and will evolve over time. Why another outlet for the voices of Microsoft? Because, even though there are plenty of other options, all of them require either have a heavy corporate influence, or have zero corporate influence and require the employee to dedicate a lot of personal time. Channel 9 is supposed to be a delicate balance between the two extremes.
My only regret from last night was that we didn't have someone there walking around the dinner with a video camera, recording what I saw, a bunch of human beings in open and candid discussions. There was no Rock Stars or Morts there, just human beings. That type of recording is exactly what the people behind Channel 9 are looking to get out to the public.