Overview

How do you become a member of the TechNet Wiki Community Council?

From 2010-2012, it previously was 8 members (4 MS and 4 external). In 2013, it expanded to 11 members (4 MS and 7 external).

First, please browse the profiles of the current council members: . Their Wiki stats should be humbling and make it obvious why they were invited (the council is currently made up of doers, people who have already done incredible things in our Wiki community).

Requirements for External Community Members

Here are the requirements of the External Community members:

You must have authored at least 30 Wiki articles.
You must have been invited to join the Wiki Ninjas blog.
- See Wiki Ninjas Blog: How to Become an Author.
- To be invited is a little more subjective, but it basically means that you have something to add to the community in the way you communicate and collaborate. It's purposefully vague.
- If you contribute to the Wiki a lot and then comment a lot (on the blog and Wiki) and contribute to discussions, then that's a first step.
- The next step is making it obvious what you'll provide.
  - For example, when Yottun tweeted an awesome chart that listed the progress of each language on TechNet Wiki, that became a reason to beg him to join our blog (to post an updated list each month).
  - When Peter Laker and Ana made TechNet Wiki widgets for Windows 7 & 8, it became crystal clear that we wanted them to blog about their apps (and anything else).
  - Or that Margriet could blog about her fantastic Best Practices (and anything else).
  - Or for Gokan, it was a combination of a strong blog presence (on his own blog), social in comments, and a ton of great articles and edits spanning multiple languages.
- Or sometimes it's just a combination of doing a lot of editing/improving in the Wiki plus being social in the comments. That makes us want to know what you have to say (in blog form). What it is for you, only you would know. But you can explore and ask questions until you find out.
- One idea for you is if you sign up to help one of the Council Members in their area, and you do that for a bit, we'll make you a blog author of the Wiki Ninjas blog so that you can blog about your journey and updates. You can sign up in the comments of blog posts like this one: TechNet Wiki - Enter the Council. Or in the comments of Wiki articles like this one: TechNet Wiki Community Council: Areas of Focus.
You receive an invitation. How this process works:
- The head of the Community Council discusses with the council about who to invite.
- The head of the council then nominates the most obvious candidate to invite.
- If the feedback from the council is positive, the invitation is sent.

Just to be clear, a ton of people have met requirement #1, and a lot of people have met both requirements #1 and #2, and so currently we have an astonishing problem... too many amazing community contributors (it's humbling that these requirements are even possible). So we'll slowly grow into inviting some more members and replacing members as they need to step down (as mentioned, it's already grown from 4 community members in 2012). Please have patience with us, as we want to make sure our primary focus is on progress on the Wiki (versus growing the council).

Requirements for Microsoft Employee Members

The requirements are very similar, but there are a few minor differences. First, whenever we have proactive MSFT members who want to get involved (for example, it could be passion for Wiki or it could be part of their job to help with the Wiki), then they start as Observers. They observe in the meetings and help out a little, giving advice and learning along the way. But they typically won't own an Area of Focus and aren't "Members". Observers often become Members.

Here are their requirements:

One of these three requirements is met (only one):
1. You have authored at least 30 Wiki articles.
2. TechNet Wiki is part of your job (localization, community content, content tools, technical writer, field representative adding content, etc.).
3. You have been an Observer for at least one month.
You must have been invited to join the Wiki Ninjas blog.
- To be invited is a little more subjective, but it basically means that you have something to add to the community in the way you communicate and collaborate.
- If you're an Observer or TNWiki is part of your job, then you'll be invited to blog about those things.
The head of the Community Council nominates you to the existing council. As long as there aren't any big disagreements within one day, the invitation goes out.