Its always cool to see an example of how open Microsoft is becoming...
In my previous post, I mentioned how Microsoft gave us a couple of copies of Team Suite to give away, and how cool I thought that was. (And I still think it is cool, BTW). I emailed my MVP Lead, and told him thanks (again) for giving us this gift. He pointed out that Soma (http://blogs.msdn.com/somasegar/) was the person who thought of this idea, and made this possible, and gave me his email address if I wanted to pass my comments on.
Now I can guess how much email a typical Microsoft employee recieves during the day, based off of some of the blogs I read. What with internal mailing lists, people like me leaving comments on blogs, general work and non-work related emails, I'm sure they get quite a lot. I have friends there that it can sometimes take a little bit for them to get back to me. Given that, I shot an email off to Soma expressing my appreciation, but I didn't necessarily expect to hear back right way, if at all.
And now comes the part where I say Microsoft is becoming more open. I recieved a response back within 5 hours of when I sent it. Now it wasn't a book or anything, but it was a personalized response, and not just a "thanks" with nothing else in the body of the message. He took the time to respond back to someone he didn't even know. I find that very refreshing. And I find it indicative of how Microsoft is striving to become more open and communicative. Ever since Tech Ed 2004, where they announced Team System and began the CTP process, I've seen this, and I have really come to appreciate it.
So keep up the good work!