Nominations open for Team 99 -- Longhorn Superuser and Superdeveloper blogger group | The Coffeehouse

scobleizer
I'm the video guy

I've been asked to restart "Team 99." What was that? Well, Longhorn got its name from the bar that's between Whistler and Blackcomb up in British Columbia. 99 is the road you drive from my house to get up to the Longhorn bar. So, Team 99 is the team that'll take us to Longhorn's launch.

Now, before today, Team 99 was secret. I've learned from my messups with Jim Allchin's dinner not to do secret stuff anymore. Make everything transparent. Transparency is good.

The problem is, Microsoft can't deal with millions of people all at once. It's impossible to listen to that loud a crowd. So, let's start small. 20 people to start with. Why 20? It's how many can fit into an average conference room at Microsoft.

I want some developers there. Some "super users" like we were talking about last night.

All will need to sign NDAs cause there are things in Longhorn that we don't want to leak out, but they'll be your proxies. They'll tell us where we're screwing up, what we're doing well, and will be world's top authorities on Longhorn.

We're in the early stages (I just got an email from Vic, who is on vacation, telling me to do it).

So, instead of me picking the Team 99 members (cause I'm bad at it and everytime I pick someone I piss off someone who wasn't picked) why don't pick the members?

How would you nominate members? How about leaving me a note over on Channel 9 on the Team 99 thread? Nominate someone you think would be a good proxy for you and who would tell you the truth about what Longhorn is all about. Tell us why they'd be good for us to invite to Team 99.

Some factors? Are they trusted by the community? Are they visible? Do you think they'd give good feedback on your behalf to Microsoft? Some requirements I have? All members must be bloggers.

I don't have a formal process in my head yet, so I'm looking for help on how to pick a great group of people who'll properly represent the community.

Now's your chance to make sure there's good diversity on such group, for instance, instead of just fat white guys like me.

Another requirement? Must be passionate and authoritative about computers.

Gerg
Anyone seen my? Oh...

I think Chris Pirillo and Paul Thurrott are a good (and probably pretty obvious, heh) starting point.

mVPstar
I'm white because I smelt an onion.

Yeah, Paul's good. He seems to be at a somewhat unbiased level when he reviews software, and he had quite a lot to say in his review of build 5048 from WinHEC.

mVPstar

W3bbo
The Master of Baiters

Gerg wrote:
Paul Thurrott

I'd have to disagree there... Paul is clearly biased and seems pathologically immune from making any disparaging or critical comment about Microsoft or any of its products.

Invite some people from the BSD and Apple camps or some trusted Linux User Groups... not any zealots.

After all... BSD is "Linux without the hype" Wink

PaoloM
Hypermediocrity

I nominate myself Smiley

No, seriously.

Really.

BHpaddock

I think Chris is a shoe-in for this program, especially since he was in the last one apparently.

I also think who you invite depends somewhat on what you're going to show them:

If you're going to show Tablet stuff, you need Marc Orchant.

If you're going to show Media Center stuff, get Matt Goyer or maybe Chris Lanier.

If you're going to show Longhorn's search/browse/organization functionality you've already got a good list of people interested in that field.

SanderV

I'd like to nominate Eric Schoonover. He is a young (22) succesful developer currently working for Avanade.

He has been very busy for the last couple of months and has not been blogging. He is passionate about technology and loves to share his knowledge.

He is very intelligent and will bring fresh/young views to the table. I know that he is ambitious and would love an oppurtunity like this.

His blog: http://capdes.typepad.com/capdes

(He has told me that he will start blogging again during the next two weeks)

Thanks!
Leah

Cider
Daze-d & Confused

Thurrott's a terrible idea.

Me, obviously!

Others? Steven Bink of Bink.nu and Tom Warren of neowin are my definite choices. Oh, and give Bink his MVP back.

Also:
- Bob Kelly of AppDeploy.com, etc
- Jamie of Channel9 (yay!)
- Chris Pirillo of the blog that looks like its the scrawlings of a serial killer

BillSaysThis

Guys like Thurott and Pirillo and the others mentioned already are all good choices but I'd like to see you pick some new voices. The 'usual suspects' will almost certainly all get early access whether they're included in Team99 or not but picking someone like PaoloM or, frankly, myself would be a positive step in developing new voices. I strongly suggest you resist the temptation to pick such well-known individuals. Except maybe Mike Gunderloy, if you'd consider him very prominent.

W3bbo
The Master of Baiters

Cider wrote:
- Jamie of Channel9 (yay!)

Nooooo!

If we do that, then IE7 will have "proper" fullscreen!

We cannot let our conspiracy plans fail! We failed on the electric car, we canno fail on fullscreen!

Rossj

Beer28. I nominate Beer28. If you can win him over, you can win anyone over.

Although I suspect it is not niners you want us to nominate, it is bloggers who can act as 'non-partisan' evangelists.

Tyler Brown
Bullets change governments far surer than votes.

I obviously nomiate myself, as I would like to contribute to the development of Longhorn and provide feedback and anything that I'm presented with! I must say that my vote goes against Paul Thurrott, as I find that his reviews are very biased, and as stated above, he will not voice a strong opinion against something that hasn't been done right, or completely wrong for that matter.

randomelements

I'll second the nomination for Marc Orchant.

TDavid
Learn more so you can earn more

would love the opportunity to be involved With This, please put my name in the hate I'm a developer and slogger.

NetRyder
Tech Junkie

Definitely get Chris Pirillo in. I was listening to some of the feedback he was giving Shanen Boettcher at the blogger lunch in Seattle on Tuesday, and he had some solid, concrete ideas for improvement. Plus, he's not hesitant to be critical when it's necessary.

Brandon Paddock also posts lots of good suggestions and feedback on his blog. I think he'd be another great choice, especially in the search and organization space.

Marc Orchant for feedback on pen-based input in Longhorn is pretty much a no-brainer. He really knows his stuff, and his blogs are a joy to read.

I'd love to be there myself. I attended WinHEC and the x64 launch last week, and it was a blast. I do meet the core "requirements" - been a regular blogger for two years, and I've been passionate about computers since the age of 8. =)

Michael Griffiths
Fatalism.

Chris Pirillo, Paul Thurrott, Steven Blink, Marc Orchant

Those are a good start.

geekling
I am an artist

Paul Thurrott and Jamie (our Channel9 Jamie!).

figuerres
???

well any of several of the folks who used to work for TechTV, Leo,Pat,Kevin,Sarah,Yoshi,Cat and the rest.

why them: they are good communicators, love to experiment, are very passionate about tech, work with all the current hardware and software, will give good feedback.

NDA wise that is a touchy one... on the one hand I do see a need to "Keep a lid on" some things for many reasons.... but I also think that MSFT needs to have a clear road-map for the interested folks to keep informed with.

also Carl Frankin -- he is sharp and keeps in touch with a lot of developers.

in the self promotion dept. Me ME ME!!!

I am not a blogger but I do have some *VERY* strong Ideas of what I think is right or wrong....
I'd love th have a chance to kill some bad ideas before they get out and perhaps spark some good ideas.

LRS

Petzold!!!

Of course he's probably signed tons of NDAs. Which may be why he's not writing much (blog-wise, at least) these days.

Also, I vote "yes" for Paul Thurrott. He knows enough technically, and articulates the information he has very well, so you can make up your own mind. That spells t-r-u-s-t in my book.

ZippyV
Fired Up

Jamie, Mike Dimmick and me.
Remove the requirement to only allow bloggers.

Gerg
Anyone seen my? Oh...

Having already nominated others, I'll also jump in and volunteer (or self-nominate, whatever you want to call it).

I work for a Microsoft partner in a key area, I make the technology and security decisions at my company and manage the security department there - all activity taking place in the real world; I manage a software product development team that programs in .NET and runs on Windows Server; I have a vested interest in helping to ensure Longhorn meets the needs of end users, programmers, IT pros, and security personnel.

And I'm genuinely interested and curious. Smiley

pikatung

I have to agree with the crowd, and say Jamie deserves it.

Sven Groot
My name has 9 letters. Coincidence? I think not...

Jamie's would be an interesting perspective to have, most certainly. From a purely selfish point of view he would not be much use, though, as his opinions are often opposit of mine.

I must admit I'm a bit confused about the purpose of this group. What value would they add over a publicly available beta?

BHpaddock

Sven Groot wrote:

I must admit I'm a bit confused about the purpose of this group. What value would they add over a publicly available beta?

That would be up to the organizers and the Windows Client team.

Having participated in the Search Champs program, I can tell you that there is a lot of value in this kind of endeavor. The key factors in the success of this program will be:

1) No holding back. From either the Windows team presenters, or the guests.

2) Listening. Again, this is important for both sides of the discussion.

Most important, though, is the follow-through. This kind of program must start early in the development cycle, so that the ideas that come from these discussions can be implemented. Given the current Longhorn timeline, this should start moving forward soon.

pikatung

W3bbo wrote:

Cider wrote: - Jamie of Channel9 (yay!)

Nooooo!

If we do that, then IE7 will have "proper" fullscreen!

We cannot let our conspiracy plans fail! We failed on the electric car, we canno fail on fullscreen!

FAT32 4eva!!! Tongue Out