As I’ve gone deeper and deeper into social media it’s been interesting to watch how large companies get involved. Most just assign their public relations people to it, but VMware did something different a few years ago: they put technical people on it. More than that, they put curious, smart, well-spoken, deeply technical people on it, people who want to get involved, have great BS detectors, and are knee-deep in it with the community. And while there are many people that work as part of the VMware Communities group, for many of us we have one person we look to for almost everything: John Troyer.
I met John in person at VMworld 2007, him having added my fledgling blog to the VMware Technology Network feed earlier that year. At first I didn’t want to be added to VMTN; that seemed like a lot of responsibility. But John convinced me I’d be fine. After all, I’d been blogging a lot about storage array documentation inconsistencies, particularly around disk alignment issues, and been doing okay. So why not?
One of my favorite times of any VMworld was that year. I ended up wandering around the Solutions Exchange with John one afternoon, seeing the sights, but more interestingly, talking frankly about the vendors and the products and their futures and potentials. That’s when I realized how cool it is to have a guy like John out front in a social media effort. And over the years he’s been a powerful force for good in the virtualization universe, true to his Wookie heritage.
John, it’s been a lot of fun these last few years. Thanks for being my fixer, conscience, promoter, lots of encouragement, and my friend. Happy birthday, and thank you for everything.
…Bob