So it's my turn to do the Friday post with our International Update!

This couldn't be anymore international, I'm sitting cozy in Business Class heading to Italy to attend and speak at the Overnet BizTalk Innovation Event. International speakers are attending and a total of 4 BizTalk MVPs and 2 community members. (MVP Saravana Kumar, MVP Steef-Jan Wiggers, MVP Sandro Pereira the host MVP Nino Crudele, Community member Lex Hegt and myself.) So this blog post is written in the sky, where the limit for the wiki is!

So with my shoes off and a cold drink (cola) I decided to use notes on my iPhone and I wonder why the font is so bad.  It's really hard to use it for anything other than notes. When I was younger I decided to study graphical and multi-media design but ended up as a developer and now a BizTalk Administrator Expert. But now I'm getting off topic (I love to elaborate and go on and on, so please excuse me)

The international update this week is by the commitment for the Norwegian community. At the moment only one out of thousands IT specialist in Norway contribute to the wiki, and that's me. You might ask why I do an effort, what is really the point? Norwegians are usually good at English and have no trouble reading English (it's a part of school and everyone learns English parallel to Norwegian from first grade in elementary school) One wise man (Laymon Patterson) once told me that I could be someone, and that I could do anything I ever wanted. That ignited something in me, someone have to start making the ball roll, someone needs to "take the first bullet" (a bit drastic?) So for me translating these articles over to Norwegian was the start of something, the beginning, making the search engines see it and users locate it. It's up to 45 pages in the TechNet Wiki. And people view, read and update them!

My work brings me into many funny scenarios and issues that might be well known to me, but not for all, good example are stress testing, BizTalk architecture etc. I often explain how it's done and refer to a TechNet Wiki article later on in an email, having it in Norwegian will often let words that are "big" and not so often used in the English vocabulary easier to understand in their native language. So Even though English is your second language there is no harm in translating, last but not least for students, kids etc. Maybe where English maybe isn't developed that well, yet a native copy of the article is worth more then it's weight in gold.

So for those thinking about starting or creating the first article in their language go ahead, broadcast it out to your community and share it to everyone, even your better half or kids. Make use of what we have and show community spirit by sharing and helping! 

The International Contest #2 - Connect and recruit!

So to start out something new, a new competition, get the most people to help contributing to TechNet Wiki in any language! To keep a record, the person you "recruit" to the Wiki must complete at least one article (I will elaborate more about this), in their native language and they must comment in this blog post that you recruited them.You've got 5 weeks from today!

 Ex: I started "wiki-ing" thanks to Tord G. Nordahl, and I LOVE IT!

So in order for the nomination to have an effect, and to count as a point one of the following choices must have been fulfilled.

1. Edit a current article with their native language (must be edited to provide a better article, spelling and layout does not count as an edit). Or...

2. Create a new article in their native language (or any other language). It can be completely new or a translation... so it can be from English to Norwegian, or Norwegian to English.

This can be on TechNet Wiki English (with the language tag ex. en-US, nb-NO) or on one of the three devoted language wikis (Portuguese, Chinese, Russian).

So a few tips to win:

1. Comment on non-English articles and tell them about the competition, make them join and translate their articles.

2. Connect with others and help them out!

3. Talk to your friends and co-workers, they can join too!

So what can you win?

1st price is: An interview for the top individual recruiter and a Jedi Knight Ninja stick figure! Example

2nd price is: Jedi Padawan stick figure for your language's group! Example

And all contributions will be checked and verified!


Are you up for the challenge? Spread the word and continue sharing!

 May the force be with you all!

Jedi Knight / Norwegian Ninja Tord (Blog, Twitter, Wiki, Profile)