Originally the program recognized such leaders in the various online forums, but the program has grown to recognize people from offline communities as well.  (According to Microsoft, MVPs answer more than a million user-group questions annually.)

If you’re active in forums, you’ve probably seen more than a few MVPs busily answering questions. These people are not Microsoft employees, but rather, are those recognized for their helpfulness and expertise. Presently there are about 4000 MVPs throughout the globe, and they come from 94 different countries, demonstrating expertise in over 90 different technologies. Each year, the MVPs convene on Redmond for the annual summit.

This year’s summit has brought 1800 MVPs together for a three-day conference that includes 400 technical sessions to help the MVPs get even more information to help others.