Tell us who you are?
Hi Everyone, My Name is Yasir Attiq, but I am mostly known as Jerry Yasir in the communities. I am SharePoint Services MVP and SharePoint Trainer and Consultant at EJADA, Saudi Arabia. I am also Founder and Lead for Riyadh SharePoint User Group (RSUG.NET). RSUG is a Leading SharePoint User Group in Saudi Arabia with over 1600 Members. I am Microsoft Certified Trainer and presenter.

Tell us about your MVP history, when were you first awarded?
I have been awarded on 1st April for the very first time.

What do you do in order to keep up with latest tools and technologies?
As the key area of Interest for me is SharePoint, I keep reading information about the technology from Blogs, RSS Feeds and articles. Having Interest in Research and Development, Leads me to test the products early in beta and try to learn it myself and later share it with my community members and colleagues through community events and trainings. I do trainings regularly which enables to prepare for new technologies by preparing every day.

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Tell us who you are?
Mohamad Halabi – Lebanese – Degree of Computer Engineering from B.A.U in Lebanon. I am Devlifestyle community lead; a community based in Saudi Arabia – Riyadh – targeting developers. I am MSCD, MSF, MCTS: BizTalk, and ITIL certified.

Tell us about your MVP history, when were you first awarded?
I was awarded on April 1st 2010.

What do you do in order to keep up with latest tools and technologies?
Get my hands dirty.

What does being an MVP mean to you?
It’s good to being appreciated for my work and passion. I am excited since being an MVP includes me in a community with the best professionals from all over the world.

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Tell us who you are?
I am Ayman Mohammed El-Hattab, SharePoint Server MVP from Egypt living in Cairo. I graduated from Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University in 2006. After graduation, I worked for two of the largest software firms in the Middle East using Microsoft Web Technologies especially SharePoint. I am currently working as an independent consultant providing SharePoint consultancy and training for many Egyptian and Arab clients.

I am the co-founder of www.sharepoint4arabs.com, the first web site dedicated for teaching the Arab speaking world all about SharePoint 2007 and 2010 by providing localized content in the form of screencasts, How- Do-I’s , technical articles and more. I have also sponsored and organized Live Online SharePoint Saturday Arabia a couple of weeks ago which was a huge success.

I’m also one of the leaders of Egypt SharePoint User Group, regular speaker at online and offline conferences and events, contributing author on SharePoint 2010 Unleashed book which will be released In June 2010 , active participant at MSDN Forums and currently preparing for the launch of EgyGeeks, the first online .NET/SharePoint User Group in Egypt.

Tell us about your MVP history, when were you first awarded?
I am a newbie I was recognized as MVP in April 2010. Oh, and it wasn’t April fool !

What do you do in order to keep up with latest tools and technologies?
I am passionate about Microsoft technologies, the easiest ways to keep up with the latest technologies are RSS Feeds and twitter search. Setting up a twitter search and keeping an eye on what people say is always a key. Also being active in the online and offline communities especially user groups and MSDN forums is extremely essential to catch up the latest headline.

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Join SharePoint architects, developers, administrators, branders, and other professionals that work with SharePoint Server 2007 and SharePoint 2010 on March 27, 2010 for an exceptional “SharePoint Saturday” event. SharePoint Saturday Arabia is a free, educational, informative, & lively day filled with sessions from respected SharePoint professionals & MVPs who are willing to share their great experience with Arabs. They are all about bringing great Arabic SharePoint content to the Arabia. Follow them on Twitter at #SPSArabia

Registration is now open for participation in Live Online SharePoint Saturday Arabia. By registering for this event, you are confirming you would like to view the live presentations, presented from 7:00am to 3:00pm (GMT+0), on March 27, 2010. In order to hear the presenters, you will need headphones or computer speakers. There will be no conference call dial-in phone numbers. The live blogging platform will allow for real time questions to be passed to the presenters. There will be multiple sessions running simultaneously so that we can present to a diversified audience with different technical needs.

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Riyadh SharePoint User Group will be organizing their next User Group event to be held on February 18, 2009 at the Microsoft Innovation Center, Alyamama University, Riyadh. The event will provide deep knowledge about SharePoint 2010, Administration, Development and Upgrade while providing live demos. This event will also give you quick “how to do” with SharePoint Lists and using Microsoft Project 2010 with SharePoint 2010.

Why should you attend the event?

• If you are eager to learn and get ready for SharePoint 2010
• You want to win Windows 7 Ultimate
• You want to have chance to Win XBOX 360
• A Chance to Win 400 GB USB Hard Drive Include SharePoint 2007 and 2010 All Software Virtual PC and HyperV Images
• Cool Give Ways including Books, USBs, Reading Material etc.
• Chance to ask questions and get answers to your problems.
• Get SharePoint 2010 All Software Hyper V Image. (Bring your USB Disk with around 15 GB Size)

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On January 23rd, SharePoint Saturday will be held for the first time online in EMEA (Europe, Middle East & Africa) region. It will be a complete online Sharepoint Conference, covering different topics in different timezones. SharePoint Saturday EMEA is a loosely knit group of SharePoint evangelists from around the world. Some of the featured MVPs are

• Ágnes Molnár (Hungary)
• Claudio Brotto (Italy)
• Jan Tielens (Belgium)
• Marwan Tarek (Egypt)
• Mostafa Elzoghbi (USA)
• Muhanad Omar (Jordan)
• Nicolas Georgeault (France)
• Steve Smith (United Kingdom)
• Zlatan Dzinic (South Africa)

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GDC’09 has been concluded few weeks back in Riyadh where it has been attended by over 3,200 technical professionals. Some attendees came from different regions of Saudi Arabia and from neighboring Gulf countries. GDC’09 has been sponsored by top technical solution and service providers like SSS IT, Link.NET, Nesma, Sure Technologies, New Horizons, Zidny, ExecuTrain. It was also been sponsored by Nas Air (regional airline) and Jarir Bookstore (largest retailer in Saudi). A full team of researchers from one of the top universities in Saudi (King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals) have attended the event to showcase one of the most famous solutions on Windows Mobile.

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RSUG

http://www.sharepointgroups.org/rsug/default.aspx

RSUG is the primary SharePoint user group in Saudi Arabia. It consists of a set of great technical consultants from different well known partners in the industry.

• International Associations: ISPA, INETA, CULMINIS
• Community lead: Jerry Yasir

VirManSec

http://www.virmansec.com/

IT Professional community that consists of strong potential IT Pros and technical experts who are working for top Microsoft partners in the areas of virtualization, security and system management (Windows Server technologies).

• International Associations: CULMINIS
• Community Lead: Asem Hourani (https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile=A7574DBE-B82B-48C4-A51D-3E52B5B521C7)

DevLifeStyle

http://www.devlifestyle.net/

Devlifestyle community is the second oldest community in Saudi that is lead by a number of great technical experts in the areas of .NET development, SQL Server BI, and BizTalk technologies.

• International Associations: INETA , CULMINIS
• Community Lead: Mohamad Halabi

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Gulf Developer Conference was the biggest developer event that took place in Saudi Arabia. This was a 3-days conference that attracted more than 2,400 attendees from Saudi Arabia and near-by Gulf countries. The conference was held at Al-Yamamah University, on the same premise of the new Microsoft Innovation Center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Now we are looking forward for TechEd Middle East. Do register between Tuesday, December 01, 2009 to Sunday, December 27, 2009 to avail Super Early Bird Offer which entitles you to a $230 discount off the regular price. Here are some pictures from the Gulf Developers Conference.

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SharePoint Pakistan User Group recently arranged “SharePoint 2010 Community Launch” at University of Central Punjab, Lahore. During the event the speakers covered latest technologies like Windows 7, Visual Studio 2010, ASP.NET 4, ASP.NET MVC, Visual Studio Team System and provided real world guidance on Developing Application on top of SharePoint 2007, ASP.NET, Exploring Implementation and Integration scenarios and getting ready for SharePoint 2010.

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Creating User Group or technical groups is not easy step. It requires lot of time and resources to find people who are interested in working with you as volunteers and successfully creating a trust in your group members minds. But once everything is up and running the result is great. So while answering the question I was able to note down the things and resources to get help from. It is given below.

• Name the User Group and define your scope, objectives and target audience.

• Get Volunteer/Community Geeks on board – You need to define a Board build a relationship between the volunteers who are interested to be part of such a group and designate positions and responsibilities.

• Distribute Roles according to Skills and availability

• Create Check Lists of Tasks

• Design Group Logo and Moto

• Try to find a Local Microsoft Community Lead or MVP to guide you and present you some contacts.

• Do board meeting in the early weeks to discuss user group topics and vision for 6 months at least.

• Create a Facebook/Online Group Site and publish your Group with basic introduction to get peoples interest and on-board.

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SharePoint Pakistan User Group is arranging a “SharePoint 2010 Community Launch” that will be held on 5th of December, 2009 at University of Central Punjab, Lahore. Technical Communities play very important role in helping developers stay in touch with other developers, learn latest technologies and getting solutions to the problems they are facing in the their working environments This event will help reigniting the communities in Lahore as well as help restructuring SharePoint Pakistan User Group and related Microsoft User Groups.

The event will exclusively disclose the latest technologies like Windows 7, Visual Studio 2010, ASP.NET 4, ASP.NET MVC, Visual Studio Team System and while providing real world guidance on Developing Application on top of SharePoint 2007, ASP.NET, Exploring Implementation and Integration scenarios and getting ready for SharePoint 2010.

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Riyadh SharePoint User Group, DevLifeStyle and CodeBetter communities recently collaborated to conduct the first ever Riyadh Community Summit on October 22, 2009 at the Microsoft Innovation Center, Alyamama University, Riyadh. During the event the speakers disclosed the latest technologies like Visual Studio 2010, BizTalk Server 2009, Visual Studio Team System and also provided the real world guidance on developing applications on top of SharePoint 2007, ASP.NET and BizTalk, Exploring Implementation and Integration scenarios and getting ready for SharePoint 2010.

Windows 7 was also offically launched during the event. Ammar Abuthurayya from Microsoft (Saudi Arabia) highlighted some amazing and useful features of Windows 7. He also explained the background on how developers can develop application for Windows 7 and increase productivity of end users.

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Jerry Yasir, Founder of Riyadh Sharepoint User Group recently done an interview with Ammar Abuthuraya (DE, Microsoft – Saudi Arabia) at the Riyadh Community Summit to discuss the history, evolution and future of Microsoft Communities in Saudi Arabia.

Riyadh SharePoint User Group, DevLifeStyle and CodeBetter communities collaborated to announce the the first ever Riyadh Community Summit being held on October 22, 2009 at the Microsoft Innovation Center, Alyamama University, Riyadh.

The summit will exclusively disclose the latest technologies like Visual Studio 2010, BizTalk Server 2009, Visual Studio Team System and while providing real world guidance on Developing Application on top of SharePoint 2007, ASP.NET and BizTalk, Exploring Implementation and Integration scenarios and getting ready for SharePoint 2010.

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