As the end of the month draws near, the fight for the top spots is getting pretty tight. This month has been alot of fun with many different folks contributing from countries all over the world. In fact, just in the top 20 positions you will find contributors from the US, Italy, India , Israel and Malta. Each person's contributions has a rather unique characteristic to them, so let me give some feedback and thoughts on how the competition is going. Well, let me at least give my thoughts on the top four.....
a) Karl Shifflett - At the time of this writing, Karl is in 2nd place. For a brief period, Karl Ruled the boards and had the number one spot with his name on it. Since then, he has dropped to number two, but let me say a little bit about his contributions because they raise a very helpful point for those who are pursuing an MVP designation. Looking at his profile and the quality of his articles, I would have thought for sure that he was an MVP. The first thing that I noticed is that he has a very well rounded set of contributions. He doesn't just limit his contributions to blogs or discussion posts or presentations, he does a little bit of each, okay alot of each. An important aspect to becoming an MVP is to do just that. He also just posted a really inspirational blog about mentoring which I highly recommend that everybody read.
b) Emanuele Mattei - He is just a maniac when it comes to contributions. He has really pulled quite far ahead of the pack and will be hard to knock off of that top spot. I actually met Emanuele when I was in Italy and he is a pretty good guy. If you look at his contributions, you can not help but notice how his enthusiasm toward technology shows. To reach the level of contributions that he has, you really have to eat, drink and breathe technology and community. This is not the first time for him, actually, as he was a past grand prize winner with a similar record of contributions the last time around.
d) Marco Minerva - Marco has been very active in Community Credit for as long as I can remember. His contributions weigh heavily on the blogging side. Not solely blogging, though, but blogging, giving feedback to blogs and making announcements through blogs. One category that you will notice that he has earned alot of points in is in announcements. If you are wondering about the value of announcements, it really comes down to announcing what is going on in the community. This is really an important aspect of supporting our development community. If you get a chance, follow Marco's lead and tell your fellow geeks about an upcomig event, a good tool that just came out, a software release, something that a fellow geek is working on or anything you find useful. It helps to make the development world go round.
d) Chris Williams - Chris has done a truly amazing job this month. He is currently in 4th place, but the one aspect that seperates him from the rest of the pack is that he is on a 75% curve. This means that he is only getting credit for 25% of his contributions to the development community. Earlier in the month, he had his sites set on that grand prize, even knowing that he is on a curve. You really have to admire that kind of ambition. I made the offer to him that I would send him a "How To Spot a Cylon" poster if he won the Grand Prize. He is a hard-core contributor to the development community, so if anybody could do it, it would be him. Nonetheless, the chances at grand prize are slipping away pretty fast, however just the fact that he is up so high even, especially under a curve, demonstrates his level of dedication.
Well, that is the current standing for now. I find myself to be very active in the development community and these guys just make me feel like a lazy bum in comparison.
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