I've been wanting to jump back into the community scene for quite a while, and it might as well be tonight. It has been crazy busy lately with normal ISV-Advisory-Services operations and the neat collaborative projects we have in the works. In the last year, we've made it a point to meet with as many internal groups that work with ISVs in one way or another. These teams include Vista SWLogo, Office Integrated Innovation, SaaS, SPLA, ISV competency, Worldwide Partner Group, Developer Evangelism, Ascend/Touchdown and a host of others. It's also great to see regional ISV initiatives and projects bolstering the local software ecosystem around the world.

We are just scratching the surface and it is already apparent that Microsoft is investing a *lot* to help ISVs succeed in areas such as the mid-market, on hosted software services, innovation in the Information-Worker (IW) space, Vista application compatibility, Business-Intelligence, and many more. I'm not sure if I will ever get to meet everyone at Microsoft that actively works with ISVs, but it won't be due to a lack of trying.

Lastly (but not least), let me shout out to some of our ISV-Advisory-Services developers and alums who have blogs:

• http://rahulgangwar.spaces.live.com
• http://blogs.msdn.com/ashish/
• http://blogs.msdn.com/wriju/
• http://blogs.msdn.com/sanchan/
• http://roadhouseblues99.blogspot.com

Hats-off to you!