Earlier this year, Microsoft launched our Azure Data Community initiative, with assets such as a landing page for the community, a support network for local Community Groups, and Microsoft Teams subscriptions for Community Group leaders. We are following through on our commitment that community should be “Community-Owned, Microsoft-Empowered".
To drive this initiative, we’ve chosen various recognized Community experts from all over the globe to act as an advisory board to Microsoft on community needs. The current members of the Azure Data Advisory Board are Annette Allen, Javier Villegas, Wolfgang Strasser, Tillmann Eitelberg, Randolph West, Kevin Kline, Gaston Cruz, Pio Balistoy and Monica Rathbun.
These technical professionals are well known for their commitment to the community, getting things done, and being problem solvers. They are speakers, leaders, organizers, advocates and represent user groups and conferences of all shapes and sizes. We're asking them to advise Microsoft on what the data community needs and how we can help.
Since these folks can’t do this job alone, they’ll be tasked with selecting and establishing a larger, diverse advisory committee to collaborate. Together they’ll decide the guide lines for the board and committee, such as who should be on the advisory board, when to step down from the role, how a replacement is selected, how often they meet, and other general logistics.
But it isn’t all just advising. There’s work to do. These folks will be among the first people and groups onboarded to the Community Teams Tenant. They will be pairing up with other groups to help them onboard and to speed up the roll out, just as other user groups will be asked to do the same. This is a community driven effort. And Microsoft is listening. Make sure you reach out to them with ideas, especially if you are a local Community Group leader.
This group isn’t advising the Azure Data Community – that’s something the community itself should decide on. We will be holding an Azure Data Community group leaders meeting soon on the Teams channel to discuss community and share best practices with each other. We’re looking forward to seeing the amazing things you do and how you help each other learn and grow.
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