Hello and welcome everybody to our Monday Interview with a Wiki Ninja post.
Before beginning my post, I wanted to thanks Ana Paula de Almeida to creating my own avatar .. I'm proud to present you "the SharePoint Ninja who brokes 2 vases with a book and mouse in hand" .. :^)
Today it is a pleasure for me to hold my first interview with a Wiki Ninja. Today's ninja is Craig Lussier. For those who don't know, Craig you always can check his blog http://craiglussier.com/ or TechNet Profil http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Profile/craig%20lussier
Why Craig? Because he uses SharePoint. Everybody who uses SharePoint is my eternal guru :-) !! ( big hugs to Margriet and Dmitry)
Who are you, where are you, and what do you do? What are your specialty technologies?
I am the father of a beautiful daughter and am fortunate that my better half, Terri, is very supportive of my career and related endeavors. I am a student for life, inquisitive and analytical by nature. I enjoy music, live theatre and sports - specifically hockey and volleyball. We are originally from Toronto, Canada and currently reside in Bermuda.
As a Senior Systems Engineer and SharePoint Architect, I have the pleasure of working with a great team at Applied Computer Technologies where I provide and contribute to SharePoint solutions for clients in many different verticals in the local and international business community.
My specialty disciplines include information and document management, collaborative team workflows and search. These disciplines naturally surface technologically through my work within the SharePoint platform, .NET Development and PowerShell.
Tell us about the SharePoint communities on TechNet Wiki. How did it start? What’s it like? Is it growing?
I feel that the SharePoint community is well represented on the TechNet Wiki. With this said, we are always looking for more quality contributions! Now that SharePoint 2013 is available for production environments, help us make the TechNet Wiki the best online portal and resource for SharePoint.
There are individuals from all over the world who contribute Wiki articles with their experiences from the field in many different languages and this is truly awesome. I believe this represents the essence of what the SharePoint platform and community is all about – collaboration and connecting people with information.
I’ve been a participant in the Wiki for a few years now. SharePoint contributions to the Wiki precede my participation, however one interesting element to note is the article growth seen during each SharePoint release cycle. We are still early in the SharePoint 2013 cycle and there are articles contributed and/or edited daily. We all benefit from each other’s efforts and I know many others feel this way.
What are your big projects right now?
At this time I am preparing to update my Microsoft Certifications for SharePoint, .NET Development and Windows Server. I am always working to expand my working knowledge of Microsoft technologies so this is an extension of my never ending learning plan.
I am presently working on client projects that include the expansion of current SharePoint 2010 deployments and am also engaged in implementing SharePoint 2013 (both installations and upgrades). Due to client confidentiality agreements, I am unable to digest any specifics.
In terms of the Wiki, I published the SharePoint 2013 Portal at the beginning of the SharePoint 2013 Preview along with many related Wiki posts. With the help of the community, I hope to expand these resources as they help me and others catalog what I have found to be useful. I am working on many new Wiki posts and will publish them when they are just right for consumption and additional collaboration.
Besides your work on TechNet Wiki, where do you contribute?
In addition to the TechNet Wiki, I contribute to the MSDN/TechNet Forums, to Twitter and to my blog. I wish I had more time to answer questions and to publish articles. There must be work-life balance. Although I have a passion for technology and for the SharePoint platform, it is very important for me to spend quality time with my family and to sing the ABC’s with my daughter.
Regarding my offline community work, I founded and am a current leader of the Bermuda SharePoint Users Group. Ongoing, the group will meet on the last Wednesday of every month. I have submitted presentation sessions for conferences in 2013 and look forward to multiple speaking engagements this year outside of Bermuda.
What is TechNet Wiki for? Who is it for?
The TechNet Wiki is for everyone who is in some way involved with any Microsoft Technology. In my opinion, it is a living online resource and an invaluable tool for the community to consume, post and collaborate on Microsoft related content. The best part is that it’s a free platform where everyone can
contribute to and learn from other experiences.
What do you do with TechNet Wiki, and how does that fit into the rest of your job?
I use the TechNet Wiki to share my experiences and to catalog useful information for future reference. I also attempt to make it easier for everyone else to find SharePoint related information by tagging articles appropriately and to promote language filtering.
All of my contributions to the TechNet Wiki are done on my own personal time and in no way are directly related to my work responsibilities. With this said, the set of resources available for SharePoint on the TechNet Wiki directly assist me with tasks for which I am responsible on a regular basis.
What does success look like for TechNet Wiki?
To me, a successful Wiki helps others achieve their goals whatever they may be. The community spirit on the TechNet Wiki ensures ongoing quality contributions. I encourage all of my colleagues and clients to use the TechNet Wiki as a resource and to post obtained knowledge from the field. It is great to see when a post is made better through edits from multiple individuals. Although success is a subjective perception, the reality of the TechNet Wiki is that it provides support and assistance to individuals in the field from those in the field – this is success.
Do you have any comments for product groups about TechNet Wiki?
Firstly, thank you to all who are involved in the ongoing development and maintenance of the TechNet Wiki. Great work!
One item I’d personally like to see is page view statistics for posts. I know this has already been suggested many times. I believe this information would be valuable to article readers in addition to who wrote an article, who contributed to it and how many edits were made. Wiki contributors get page view milestone notifications via email and I use this as a gauge for the demand of a particular topic and its utility for others. Knowing how many page views a post has (in addition to already published contribution information) would help to promote a reader’s confidence in the content in the post. It would also allow all Wiki contributors to evaluate where improvements to articles can be made and which topics may require additional development.
The idea is to make the TechNet Wiki the best it can be from a consumption and contribution perspective and I believe that making page view statistics available will make the Wiki even better.
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Thank you Craig for your SharePoint Passion and contributions! Continue any questions for Craig in the comments!
Turkish Ninja Gokan
blog: http://gknzcfc.net
twitter: @gokanozcifci
SharePoint Community Expert, MCC