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Born to Learn

The Microsoft Learning Community and Evangelism Team

Yes, Virginia, there are MCPs!December 3

Chuck Hickson picked up on a subtle but significant thing in my call to cams yesterday:

I didn't think MCP's as such, existed anymore.  I know "I'm an MCTS" doesn't rhyme with "I'm a PC", but isn't it odd to promote a dead credential?

Do MCPs exist anymore? Heck, yes!

Okay, so maybe it's been a few years since Microsoft has used the term "MCP."

But really: what else are we going to call ourselves? What else embraces all of our certified IT Pros, Developers, Dynamics specialists, Office specialists, and architects?

Sure, I have an MCITP certification, and an MCSE certification, and an MCDST certification, and an MCTS certification.

But I am an MCP.

We are a diverse community spanning a multitude of professions, and we deserve a shared badge to reflect it. Me, I kind of like this one:

So

I’m an MCP, and I have a webcam!December 2

Are you Microsoft Certified? Got a webcam?

Then declare your MCP pride!

1) Record a short video of yourself that starts with the statement, “I’m an MCP, and…” (finish it any way you like)

2) Upload it to youtube (or dailymotion, or your other favorite video site)

3) Post the link here

…and if I draw your name as one of 5 random winners (from among those of you sending us a link to your MPC Pride video), I’ll send you one of our really cool new LifeCam Show Webcams!

(Yes, I’m swiping shamelessly from our "I’m a PC” campaign. If anyone from Corporate Advertising comes down on me, my story is that I’m selectively dyslexic. Back me up on this, okay?)

I’ll draw the names next Friday, so start bragging!

Service-Oriented AJAX in Denver, USADecember 1

Our Microsoft Press author, Office MVP Daniel Larson, had a great night releasing his newest book Developing Service Oriented AJAX Applications on the Microsoft Platform with the Denver .Net User Group last week.

Check out what he thinks about AJAX and some photos on his blog.  If you happen to be living in the area, here is a coupon for 30% off of his new book at SoftPro.

Certification 101 Recording AvailableNovember 26

Thanks to everyone who was able to join me and Jeff Koch (first session) and Gerry O'Brien (second session) for our "Certification 101" Live Meeting on November 18th. If you weren't able to attend the session, you can still catch all the goodies when you watch the recording.

Find it here: Certification 101

One of the questions that is commonly asked by people new to certification is, "What does Microsoft consider cheating?" A Live Meeting presented in June of this year by Peggy Crowley, the Microsoft Learning Anti-Piracy Program Manager, gives a great introduction to the topic: CSI Redmond

If you have any questions, please feel free to post them in the comments on this blog.

MCP Perks – A Follow Up…November 24

Thanks for all the opinions.  Glad to hear you like the idea.  I have many people who I am going to be giving a nice gift to :) .  Also, I do take your opinions seriously, so thank you once again for sharing! 

To go a step further in this discussion, especially considering the number of MCP’s responding who take multiple exams per year, I thought I would show the Perk leveling gift folio.  And of course, I wondered if I show you the different gifts, if it would change your opinion from the first post.  Specifically, if you moved up levels and the benefits become a better ‘value’, would you would choose differently?    

For example – if you were to be in level 1, you would choose x benefit; however, in level 2 you may choose something different…Do you think that the difference in where you are in taking your next exam, change the benefit you would choose? 

(For the sake of helping quantify the levels, imagine a person who has achieved a TS credential in Level 1, an IT PRO or PRO Dev credential would be in Level 2, and those who have multiple credentials (including MCT’s) would be in level 3. )