Kalen Delaney - SQL Server MVP Deep Dives, Volume 2

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To all the children of Operation Smile

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This is the second volume of a book that many people thought would never see the light of day. In early 2007, the editor of the first volume, Paul Nielsen, had an extraordinary idea. Ill let him tell you about how this idea came into being, by including a section from the preface to Volume 1:

Each year Microsoft invites all the MVPs from every technology and country to Redmond for an MVP Summitall top secretdont tweet what you see! During the MVP Summit, each product team holds a series of presentations where they explain their technologies, share their vision, and listen to some honest feedback. At the 2007 MVP Summit in Seattle, Bill Gates presented his vision of the future of computing to the MVPs and then took questions for about an hour. I really enjoy these dialogues. I get the sense that if BillG wasnt the founder of Microsoft, hed make a great MVP. You can tell he likes us as fellow Geeks, and hes rather candid in the MVP Q&A time. Its one of my favorite parts of the MVP Summit.

During the Q&A, the lines at the microphones are far too long to bother to join, so I daydream a few questions Id ask BillG:

• As the worlds wealthiest Geek, what can you tell me about your PC?
• Even with all your accomplishments, do you still find the most happiness and satisfaction with your family?
• Do you play Age of Empires 2, and if so, want to join me in a game?
• Kirk or Picard?
• Can I buy you lunch?

And then I thought of a good, deep, Charlie Rose-type of question: Centuries from now, would you rather be remembered as the guy who put a computer on every desk, or as the guy who ended malaria and fought the good fight against poverty? As I try to guess what BillG might say, the answer is obvious. Im glad that BillGs intellect and resources are being directed at improving the human condition, and as an original Windows fan Im proud of BillG. But the answer to my question is bothWindows has already done as much to fight poverty as will the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Toward the end of the Q&A time, which was mostly taken up with technical questions, I was thrilled to hear one of the MVPs ask for his advice as a philanthropist. BillG said that we should all be involved in our communities and give of ourselves in creative ways: at the library, at schools, and with charities. Do philanthropy where you are. This idea of giving of ourselves is central to the MVP community.

Paul then went on to describe how he decided he could make a difference where he was by writing about his passion, SQL Server, and using it to create a charity book to help children. He enticed me into the project, and after communicating with the rest of the SQL Server MVPs to determine if there was enough interest to make a project of this type viable, together we started approaching publishers.

It didnt take long to find that Manning Publications was extremely interested in producing this kind of project. Michael Stephens liked both the community aspect of the project and the charity goals. Manning also offered us a higher-than-usual author royalty, because we were giving it all to charity. We recruited four other prominent MVPs to help with the editing, and the project was underway.

A project such as this had never been done before. We had 53 independent authors from all around the world trying to collaborate. Figuring out how to manage the technical editing and rewrites, and dealing with writers who were technically extraordinary but lacking in some writing skills, and deciding what to do with a chapter that came in at 40 pages when all the rest were 1015 pages, made the project much more time-consuming than we expected. Many of the MVPs who had written chapters early in the process despaired of ever seeing their work in print.

But then it all seemed to come together, just in time for the 2009 PASS Conference, which is the largest conference in the world for SQL Server professionals. The book had been available for preorder, and by the time the conference started, the preorders alone had earned the chosen charity more than $10,000! Manning made an all-out effort to get 200 copies of the book available in print to sell at the conference. Almost three dozen of the MVP authors were speaking at the conference, and they told their audiences about this remarkable work we had done. On the Thursday of the conference, right after lunch, we launched Volume 1 in a special event in the vendor area and followed this with the most popular book-signing in PASS history. Most of the attending authors stood behind a long table, and eager readers flowed by in front of us, getting autographs from all the authors present. All 200 copies of the book were sold, which was another PASS record, and many people who wanted a copy werent able to get one and participate in the signing. Although my hand was numb from signing my name so many times, it was the most exciting event of my professional life. Volume 1 was so well received that there was immediate talk of another one. We all needed a rest, however, and we needed to give the community time to absorb the first terrific volume. But in late 2010, Paul and I decided it was time to start thinking about Volume 2.