Council Spotlight: Impact of the TechNet Guru Awards (May 2013 - March 2014)

This is an update blog post. The original post is from October 2013.

XAML guy is a member of the TechNet Wiki Community Council, and he owned the area of integrating the MSDN and TechNet forums better with TechNet Wiki.

And so the TechNet Guru Awards were born!

They cause some pain. We've had many debates on the forums about whether or not answers on the forums should be converted to TechNet Wiki articles. And we've written those reasons in detail before. Here are those blog articles:

• Wiki Life: Why create a TechNet Wiki article when you can just link to a forum thread?
• Top Five reasons to use MSDN/TechNet Forums & TechNet Wiki together
• Community Win: Social Synergy across TechNet Forums, TechNet Wiki, TechNet Gallery, TechNet Wiki again, and now TechNet Blogs

And while we do that, we've had to be careful not to make the Wiki too much about a competition. And we've had to make sure we don't award articles that shouldn't be awarded (like if a solution was wrong or dangerous).

But overall this last year has had an amazing affect on the Wiki. Let's take a look at that!

May Guru Awards:  TechNet Guru Contributions - May 2013

• 23 New Articles
  • 8 Visual C# Articles!
• New Categories:
  • Visual C#
  • SharePoint 2010
  • Transact-SQL
  • Visual Basic
  • Windows Phone Apps

June Guru Awards:  TechNet Guru Contributions - June 2013

• 63 New Articles!
  • 20 SharePoint Articles!
  • 9 T-SQL Articles
• New Categories:
  • BizTalk
  • Small Basic
  • SSAS
  • SSIS
  • SSRS/Power View
  • Windows Store Apps
  • WPF

July Guru Awards: TechNet Guru Contributions - July 2013

• 59 New Articles!
  • 12 SharePoint Articles!
  • 9 Windows Store Apps Articles
• New Categories:
  • FIM
  • SharePoint 2013 (added to SharePoint 2010)
  • Power Pivot (added to SSAS)
  • SQL Server DBE

August Guru Awards: TechNet Guru Contributions - August 2013

• 79 New Articles!
  • 25 BizTalk Articles!
  • 12 Visual C# Articles!
  • 11 T-SQL Articles!
  • 9 SSRS/SSIS Articles
  • 8 SharePoint Articles

September Guru Awards: TechNet Guru Contributions for September 2013

• 56 New Articles!
  • 8 T-SQL Articles
  • 8 BizTalk Articles

October Guru Awards: TechNet Guru Contributions for October 2013

• 69 New Articles!
  • 15 SharePoint Articles!
  • 11 Windows Server Articles!
  • 8 BizTalk Articles
  • 7 Visual C# Articles 
• New Categories:

  • Windows Server

  • Power BI (added to SQL BI & Power Pivot)

      

November Guru Awards: TechNet Guru Contributions for November 2013

• 52 New Articles!
  • 10 Windows Server Articles!
  • 9 BizTalk Articles
• New Category:
  • SQL Server General (added to SQL Server DBE)

December Guru Awards: TechNet Guru Contributions for December 2013

• 57 New Articles!
  • 9 Windows App Dev Articles
  • 9 SQL BI & Power BI Articles
  • 8 BizTalk Articles

January Guru Awards: TechNet Guru Contributions for January 2014

• 70 New Articles!
  • 13 Windows Server Articles!
  • 9 SQL Server & DBE Articles
  • 9 T-SQL Articles
  • 7 BizTalk Articles
  • 7 SharePoint Articles 
  • 7 SQL BI & Power BI Articles
  • 7 Windows App Dev Articles

February Guru Awards: TechNet Guru Contributions for February 2014

• 61 New Articles!
  • 8 BizTalk Articles
  • 8 Visual C# Articles
  • 8 Windows Server Articles
  • 7 SharePoint Articles
• New Categories:
  • Wiki & Portals
  • System Center

March Guru Awards: TechNet Guru Contributions for March

• 50 New Articles!
  • 7 SharePoint Articles

Overall, here is what the impact has been (from May to March):

• 639 New Articles!

1. 99 SharePoint Articles!
2. 88 BizTalk Articles!
3. 68 T-SQL Articles!
4. 62 Visual C# Articles! 
5. 60 SQL BI & Power BI Articles!
6. 56 Windows Store App & Win Phone Articles!
7. 52 Windows Server Articles!
8. 32 VB Articles!
9. 31 Small Basic Articles!
10. 30 WPF Articles!
11. 24 SQL Server & DBE Articles!
12. 18 FIM Articles!
13. 8 Wiki & Portals Articles!
14. 6 System Center Articles!

• 120 Award Winners!
• More new article authors and editors than any other program or initiative! We've grown a new generation of contributors!
• Because the focus was initially on MSDN development forums, the message is clearer than ever that TechNet Wiki is for Developers too!

So special thanks to XAML Guy and to all the TechNet Guru contributors who make this possible!

   - Ninja Ed