Freitag, 17. Januar 2003 |
I agree. Just as being able to read x86 assembly is extremely important for a Win32 developer although (s)he may never ever touch MASM (again), it's very important to familiarize yourself with the essential knowledge about the internals of any environment you're working with. It remains important to be able to at least assess whether a bug is your fault or someone else's fault. Your fault or their fault -- in the end, it's your problem. 2:19:58 PM comments [] |
The above is a summary of the Regional Director mission from a Microsoft perspective, but it's worth explaining this a bit more. Microsoft has set up this program several years ago. Local Microsoft offices (either those in the U.S. states or international subsidiaries) get to nominate one or multiple Regional Directors that shall be enrolled in the program. This sounds a lot like the Microsoft MVP program, but it's quite a bit different. MVPs are typically nominated based on their participation in online newsforums and are (well recognized) "domain experts", while RDs are typically architects, technology consultants, educators and even people in CEO/CTO/CIO-equivalent positions, who have a broader perspective on technology. Another qualification shared by the RDs is that we're absolutely able and willing to wear a tie (when absolutely necessary), are not shy to get up on stage in front of 500 people to share our experiences (and do that very well) and are likewise not shy to give Microsoft more brutally honest feedback than they sometimes wish for -- and we do that quite often before you need to deal with things. So, why should you talk to your local "Microsoft Regional Director"?
The benefit for Microsoft is that they have a community of people who they can ask for ideas and feedback on certain issues, who they can ask to present at own or third party events and we, in turn, get good access to information and help that we use to make our customers happier. I should add an explanatory word on the "customers" term: Every RD I know is more than happy to answer the one or the other quick question directly or relay them to your local Microsoft office, or depending on what you are asking for, even to Redmond. That's mostly independent of whether you are a customer of the RD's company or not. So if you don't get any help asking around in newsgroups, it's a good idea to look up your local RD or any RD with the expertise you are looking for and drop them a line. There's no guarantee that you'll get a satisfactory answer, but quite often you will at least get a pointer to information to look at. However, we are not a replacement for Microsoft's support and therefore we may even point you to go and talk to them. The seemingly paradox rule of thumb is: the more challenging a problem is, the more likely your RD will look at it. We're curious people. Also, if you work in a, say, financial software company and your RD works for a similar, possibly competing firm and you are afraid of asking because you feel that you may be giving away trade secrets -- just ask another RD. How do I find my local Microsoft Regional Director? There is a lookup tool on http://www.microsoft.com/rd where you can find an RD in your region. Some RDs work regionally, some of them work throughout the Americas or Europe and some of them are doing business world-wide. So, for instance, if you want to talk to someone about your problem in Norwegian, try talking to Andreas (everybody in Norway knows this already ;) In the very unlikely event that he doesn't know the answer, he can and probably will ask around in the RD community and someone will likely know. 10:54:16 AM comments [] |