The Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Award programme is an annual award given to members of the technical community that show an outstanding contribution as they actively share their expertise with peers. There are over 100 million people participating in technical communities each year, yet only 3,500 are awarded the MVP status and this year Earthware’s Technical Director, Brian Norman, is one of them!

Brian has been named a Windows Live Platform MVP as a result of his activity in technical communities as he shared his passion for developing online applications that are rich in content and simple to use but that also give a real, tangible value to business rather than being the latest gimmick.

Having been nominated for the award, a panel of Microsoft employees and previous MVP’s assess the nominees technical expertise and voluntary contributions over the previous year to technical communities based on their quality, quantity and the impact they have had within the technical communities. MVP’s are not spokespeople for Microsoft or an employee, rather they are objective technical experts with an award from Microsoft that recognises their achievements and knowledge.

Brian regularly contributes to the Bing Maps MSDN forum, he writes on interactive mapping developments for Earthware and on technology solutions for The Technology Studio. You can also follow Brian’s actions on Twitter (@Earthware).

Well done Brian!