Interview with a Wiki Ninja, MCC, and Exchange Expert: Ed (DareDevil57)

This week we have an interview with someone who shares my name! Ed has been tearing it up on the Wiki (and the community in general), so this interview is long overdue!

 

Edward van Biljon

Edward van Biljon's avatar

Here are some of Ed's awesome stats:

  • MCC
  • 33K+ Recognition Points
  • 1,200+ Forum Answers
  • 5,500+ Forum Replies
  • 9,300+ Downloads on his Gallery Items
  • 83 TechNet Wiki Articles
  • 1,100+ Wiki Edits
  • 1,500+ Wiki Comments
  • 400+ Blog Comments

Some of Ed's top Wiki articles:

 

Let's get to the interview!
Who are you, where are you, and what do you do? What are your specialty technologies?

Hi, My name is Ed, I was born in a small town called Krugersdorp in South Africa. I have been in the IT Industry over the last 15 years, starting out as a junior technician and now full collaboration specialist, focusing on Exchange, Lync, WAP and ADFS. When Active Directory first came out, I encountered a bug and at the time MS didn’t have a fix but I was able to provide the solution which has been archived on the system.

I have been actively working in the collaboration space for the past 10 years as I have a passion for Exchange and Lync.
What are your big projects right now?

I am currently working on a major project of building new CAS servers across data centers as well as designing the Exchange 2013 Architecture for the company. I am very active on my blog which is collaborationpro.com

I am planning community nights chats at Microsoft to talk about Office 365, DPM and Exchange. This happens once a month.

I am planning on writing the second Exchange 2013 Exam in the next 2 months, however the projects above are keeping me rather busy.

    
What is TechNet Wiki for? Who is it for?

TechNet Wiki is for anyone who wants to learn and share knowledge. In our industry it doesn’t help housing knowledge, the more you can share and empower people, the better. TechNet WIKI has great content and the more people that can contribute in there space, the more resources we will have amongst each other.

What do you do with TechNet Wiki, and how does that fit into the rest of your job?

I used TechNet WIKI as a portal to share my experience and knowledge on how to do things, from simple articles to complex ones. I look through articles on a daily basis to see if someone else maybe wrote something that can better the way I’m doing things or provide an alternative way or insight on a product.

What is it about TechNet Wiki that interests you?

The people that are on the WIKI. For example, MR X posts greats articles, Ed Price as well. Seeing what the MVP’s are writing and sharing.

What is your favorite Wiki article you’ve contributed?

My favourite article that I have contributed: Exchange 2013 Setup Guide. I have spent hours on this article and feel it will help a lot of people out there.

What are your top 5 favorite Wiki articles? Exchange 2013 Setup Guide,  WAP setup, ADFS Setup, SCOM & SCCM installation along with SQL.

Thank you Ed for all your contributions (and for having such a great name)!

Everyone, please join me in congratulating Ed on this interview! He has more than earned it!

- Ninja Ed