Another speaker at the MVP Summit last week was Ray Ozzie. He spoke to us about how MVPs are vital to the company. He stated “Who do you listen to if you’ve got a scale issue? You listen to the people who care about what you’re building the most, people who have a stake in it, people who have their own conceptual model of what they want it to become. For Microsoft’s products that means you, the MVPs. You care, clearly care a lot. By the numbers, by the results, it’s just incredibly impressive how you’ve connected with us, how you’ve chosen to connect with our products and with others in the community.”

Wow. If you were to believe that, you would believe that Microsoft really listens to what we have to say. In some instances… they truly do. They pay attention when we talk. They take notice when we blog. They actually respond when we Email.

Yet in other ways, very important ways, they simply have no clue. Many of us in the Consumer Security field were severely disappointed and even angry after each of our breakout sessions. Not one person… including our beloved Mark Russinovich… had a clue what it is we really do. The things they spoke about during “consumer security” sessions had nothing to do with what it is we do on the many forums every day. We would try to talk to them, explain ourselves… only to be basically ignored or sidetracked. We would ask questions, trying desperately to relate what they were saying to what it is we do… only to be sidetracked again. Yes, they presented interesting and useful information. It’s just that none of it really pertained to why we are MVPs to begin with.

Microsoft claims that we MVPs are extremely important to them. They bring us to Seattle every year to teach us things, communicate with us. Why not, then, take the time to really know what it is your MVPs do… and relate what you’re talking to us accordingly?