I’m very happy to say there are several Microsoft products nominated for this year’s Webware 100 Awards, including many of my favorite Windows Live products and services (details here).  Please take a look at all the categories and nominees and cast your votes.

Thanks,

Marcus, Windows Community Manager

As I blogged about last week, I recently attended an event called the  Online Community Business Forum.  It’s where other community manager folks like me get together and learn from each other.  So in a way, it’s kind of like a “community of community managers”. 

All-in-all it was a great event, with a wide variety of attendees from companies like Autodesk, Digg, Cisco, VMware, Salesforce.com, LinkedIn, and more.  I took a bunch of notes, and wanted to share my top-level thoughts with all of you on what I learned.

First, building and being a part of a community has never been more important for businesses of all sizes.  The best communities focus broadly on how we work together across everything from sharing tips and stories (like we do with the Clubhouse today), to also helping with support and providing a place to gather feedback.  Adding more support and feedback capabilities to the community is something I’m committed to doing in the months ahead.

Second, the more conversations we have, the better off we’ll all be.  Communities talk to each other, and we have a start on this today with sharing blogs and comments.  It’s wonderful to see Windows Live Groups being started around things like Windows Live and Windows 7 to enable even more conversations.  I’m looking for ways to enable more ways for all of us to communicate, and would welcome your thoughts.  More on-line meetings?  How about in-person gatherings?  Or maybe a community-specific discussion board?

Third, we have a challenge to build a worldwide community around Windows, but that challenge is a huge opportunity.  We can’t create a one-size-fits-all community, but instead need to tap into local experts and learn what works best in any given country.  I’m going to begin that learning process now by asking all of you to let me know what communities you’ve seen in your local geography that you think are especially good.  And please tell me why you feel the way you do.  I’ll be talking to other folks at Microsoft too and plan to have more to report on worldwide community opportunities in the future.

I really enjoyed the conference.  I’m thankful to my employer for enabling me to attend, to the presenters at the conference for keen insights, and to the fine folks at Forum One Networks for putting the event together.

- Marcus, Windows Community Manager

Recently, we started asking the Windows Community how they are saving time and money.  I thought I’d add my own perspective to this by calling attention to one of the best ways you can use your Windows PC:  personal finance software.

By personal finance software, I’m really talking about two main categories of applications.  The first is the financial management application popularized by the likes of Microsoft Money and Quicken by Intuit.  Spending a little bit of money on these applications can help you get your financial affairs in order, track where money is being spent, set up a budget to help you start saving, and manage your overall financial portfolio.  I’m partial to Microsoft Money, but that’s because I work here and have used the application for years.

The second piece of financial software you should consider installing on your Windows PC is an application to help you with your taxes.  The two most popular here are H&R Block’s TaxCut and TurboTax by Intuit.  These applications help you sort through the arcane tax rules and regulations, both federal and state, and can really help you minimize your tax bill and hopefully maximize your refund.

I know there are on-line equivalents of all these applications, but I’m partial to installing the software right on my own PC and running it locally.  Even our friends at cnet acknowledge the benefits of desktop tax prep for instance. 

From my perspective, investing a little in these applications will help you save more money and actually will save more time too.  I can’t imagine spending all that time dealing with a paper checkbook and tax forms.

What do you think? What applications do you use to save time and money?  Leave me a comment below, or join our Windows Community at http://clubhouse.microsoft.com/join and share your tips and stories.

- Marcus, Windows Community Manager

If you or someone you know is a mom that uses Windows Live and lives in Washington, DC, we’d like to chat about a webcast opportunity.  Please just send me a private message on Windows Live and I’ll follow up with details. 

Thanks,

Marcus, Windows Community Manager

I’m fortunate to be able to attend a great community conference this week called the Online Community Business Forum.  It has been developed by the folks at Forum One Networks and promises to be a very rewarding two days.  I’m looking forward to coming back with a lot of new ideas that we can implement in our own Windows Community.  As members of the community, is there anything you want me to specifically find out for us?  Any questions you want me to ask any of the great presenters or panelists?  Please leave a comment here and I’ll check back often to find out what’s on your mind.

I’ll post again next week with some of my key takeaways from the forum.  It’s a fun and exciting opportunity for all of us to build a great Windows Community and I’m looking forward to learning more ways to help us do just that.

- Marcus, Windows Community Manager

By now, I hope most of you have seen our I’M A PC ads.  I love the fact there are so many PC people out there, but it got me thinking:  Why do you use a Windows PC?  Why not a Mac?  What about a PC running Windows makes it “the thing” for you?

I’ve heard different people give different reasons.  Is it the choice of applications and hardware?  Or is it the “bang for the buck” you get?  Or how about that it works in a familiar way?  I’d really like to hear your reason.  Please leave a comment below or do a blog post about it and comment with a link to your post.

I can’t wait to hear from everyone!

- Marcus, Windows Community Manager

UPDATED with twessenger compatibility info per http://kunal.kundaje.net/2008/10/twessenger-status-update/.  Sorry for any confusion.

Are you into microblogging?  Perhaps the most popular forms of microblogging are Twitter and Facebook status updates.  But if you’re using Windows Live Messenger, you’re microblogging every time you update your personal status message, like I’ve done highlighted below:

If you want your microblog entries to go even further, check out these two cool options that integrate with Windows Live Messenger.

First, you can add the Windows Live Messenger application to your Facebook profile, starting at http://apps.facebook.com/windowslivemessenger.  Then click on the Settings link at the top of the Window and check the second box:

and this will appear on your profile:

Second, if you’re more into Twitter, you can wire pre-2009 versions of Windows Live Messenger status updates to change based on your latest tweets using twessenger.  Thanks to @sthersh for pointing this out to me.

And if you want to complete the loop, you can even connect your Twitter account to Facebook using http://apps.facebook.com/twitter/. 

I hope you’ll find some of these to be fun additions to your microblogging toolbox.  Now no matter how you’re connected to your friends and family, they will all know what you’re doing all the time. 

- Marcus, Windows Community Manager

From time-to-time, I have the pleasure of podcasting with community members to learn more about them, how they use technology in their lives, as well as what other hobbies or interests they might have.   For this latest installment in our podcast series, the guest star is Greg.  If you’re a member of our Windows community, you know Greg.  He’s contributed a lot of great posts to the Clubhouse and he also participates in a number of Windows Live Groups such as All Things Live and LiveSoapbox.

As you’ll hear in our podcast, Greg has been working in around technology for a quite a while and uses it extensively in his personal life too.  He lives in Tennessee and has a great family and a number of pets.  And last but not least, his answer to my “most embarrassing online moment” question is one of the best I’ve heard.

You can download this specific podcast in the format you prefer using the links below:

• Conversation with Greg (WMA format)
• Conversation with Greg (MP3 format)

Or subscribe to the whole podcast series using these RSS links:

• Windows Community Podcast Series (WMA format)
• Windows Community Podcast Series (MP3 format)

Thanks for joining me on this podcast, Greg.  The next time any of you see Greg around the Clubhouse or elsewhere on Windows Live, be sure and say hello and thank him for making our community a great place to be.

- Marcus, Windows Community Manager