Community: Who can be an Author?

One of the questions I'm frequently asked of late is, "Who can be an Author?"  I like to respond that anyone can be an author, but realistically one should be one of the community of Experts on Microsoft technologies (the "Crowd of Experts".....).  The community is a pretty collegial group, but they are very experienced professionals from across the planet.  For example, today some members are located in (but not limited to) Norway, Israel, the UK, Australia, Brazil and the USA.  The ranks are swelling on a weekly basis.

Many don't realize that there are members of the Community from within Microsoft, too.  Numerous Microsoft Product Groups, Services Groups, and members of Microsoft Learning are active in the community.  Other Microsoft-related members include Certified Partners, Certified Trainers, Certified Professionals and Most Valuable Professionals (MVP's). The Community is not limited to its relationship with Microsoft, though.  There are a considerable number of IT Professionals, Developers, Architects, Consultants and Business professionals who have broad and deep expertise in Microsoft technologies and their real-world experiences are extremely valuable....and they are not Certified nor do they have a formal relationship with Microsoft. They are engaged in training, a lot of the time without even realizing it (when was the last time someone came up to you and asked for help?  When you took them through the steps to create that Excel macro or perform the analysis on the server event log, you taught....). Most of the Community has a wealth of training material on various hard drives and SOP documents that constitute learning paths for others.

If this sounds like you, you can be an author.  I want to hear from you.  The Courseware Library site can be found here for further information (there's a good FAQ there), or you can submit questions through this blog or contact our team at clauthor@microsoft.com.