Interview with Margriet Bruggeman: SharePoint Author, SharePoint TechNet Forum admin, former SharePoint MVP, Maxer creator, and SharePoint 2012 guru

Welcome to our Monday interview with a Wiki Ninja! Today we're interviewing Margriet Bruggeman.

Margriet's Profile

 

Who are you, where are you, and what do you do? What are your specialty technologies?

I’m Margriet Bruggeman, live in The Netherlands, and I’m the owner of my own little consulting company Lois & Clark IT Services (https://www.loisandclark.eu/Pages/default.aspx ). I can be hired as a consultant/developer/architect/trainer working with all kinds of .NET technology. My specialty? If I was in a dramatic mood I’d say I live and breathe SharePoint, and have been doing this since the beta version of the first release of this product. At my web site, you can find a list of all my publications as far as books and articles go, and they’re solely related to SharePoint. I’ve been working with other Microsoft technology for a long time as well, and have enjoyed working with stuff like SQL Server, BizTalk, WCF, WPF, Silverlight, C#, ASP.NET, Entity Framework, AppFabric and much more. No worries, here’s where the marketing campaign ends… I think…

 

What are your big projects right now?

The last two projects I’ve just completed were for a Triple A status bank and a major airline company. Both projects resulted in happy customers, and I like smiling, happy customers. Now, I’m planning some time off.

Within the TN Community, right now, I have three big projects:

  • https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Maxer-for-SharePoint-2010-8cd0f26f , I’ve created Maxer for SharePoint 2010, a tool that checks for SharePoint capacity limits. I’ve released a first version to see if there’s any interest in this. As of yet, results have been rather disappointing, so I’m hoping this interview will contribute to turning this around a bit.
  • https://blogs.technet.com/b/wikininjas/archive/2012/05/20/wikis-just-may-be-your-best-bet.aspx : I’ve come to the conclusion that Wikis can be a great aid when it comes to estimating project sizes, and I’ve started an initiative for SharePoint concerning this topic. As far as interest/views go, this has been quite successful, but thus far I’m hoping for more contributions by other community members.
  • I’m building a free SharePoint tool for TN Gallery. It’s not finished yet, and I’m contemplating a dramatic name for the tool, such as “The Getaway Dragon”

On a non-work related note, I’m in the middle of a rather big side-project. I’ve been wanting to write a child book for some years, and now I’ve done it. It’s called “Iris and the Little Moon Bear” and the illustrations were done by Helen Prochazka. This week I’ll start approaching publishers and I’ll make sure that, one way or another, I’ll get it published. I thought it’d be fun to share a sneak preview, although I’m sure the readers of this interview hardly belong to the intended audience (unless you’re +/- 4 years old):

 

 

Besides your work on TechNet Wiki, where do you contribute?   

I have my own blog at https://sharepointdragons.com/ . As you can tell by the name, in principle it’s dedicated to SharePoint. The popularity of this blog is rising fast, so I’m quite pleased by that. Other than that, I frequently reply and answer SharePoint TN forum questions, I’ve posted some gallery contributions, since recently I blog as a Wiki Ninjette too, and I’m a moderator for the SharePoint forums.

 

What is it about TechNet Wiki that interests you?

The fact that you can start out little, and develop an idea in something quite big. If you’re lucky, you won’t have to do that alone.

 

On what Wiki articles do you spend most of your time?

There are two articles that stand out:

 

What are the top Wiki articles or areas that need more attention and development?

I want to mention 2 here.

First, this one: https://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/7341.which-features-do-i-need-to-activate-in-sharepoint-2010-en-us.aspx It can be difficult to know what SharePoint features need to be activated before you’re able to do something. It does need more work though, the page will be super useful when the list is near-complete.

The second one is the one I’ve mentioned before, https://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/10590.sharepoint-2010-best-practices-to-estimating-and-benchmarking-project-efforts.aspx , it would just be great if others would want to share their insights on this one.

 

Who has impressed you in the Wiki community, and why?

Well, it has been said before, but my choice has to be Ed Price. He’s been a real driving and motivating force behind TN Wiki. To be honest, if it hadn’t been for his encouragements, I don’t think I would have started contributing to the Wiki community.

 

What does success look like for TechNet Wiki?

For me it comes down to a simple question (and answer): what constitutes a successful TN Wiki page? A Wiki article needs to be read by a lot of people, it needs to be alive (it needs to be updated regularly) and it’s infinitely better if other people are willing to contribute.

 

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Thanks Margriet! And thank you for the kind words. =^)

Here are some ideas for comments to leave for Margriet...

  • Guess the plot of her children's book (Iris and the Little Moon Bear). Mwahahahaha!
  • Ask her questions about anything she wrote. I'll start us off: Why did you name your company Lois and Clark (I have an idea, but I'd rather get the full story from you)?
  • Margriet, come back here later and give us an update on "Iris and the Little Moon Bear". Tell us the progress you make as you try to get it published.
  • Ask questions about her next SharePoint tool for TechNet Gallery (codenamed "The Getaway Dragon").

The TechNet Wiki interviews continue! Who's next?

  - Ninja Ed