When a research firm like Gartner writes about one of your projects as “a milestone in the maturity of crowdsourcing-based support models”, you know you’re doing something right. And Steve Alter, the Product Manager for the Microsoft Answers support community knows that feeling… since Gartner was writing about his project.
Answers was launched in 2008 to support Windows Vista and now has nearly 50,000 solutions to users questions, with 80% of the answers coming from the community participants. The site is a giant, generating more than 13 million page views and more than 4 million unique users last quarter alone! Needless to say, Steve knows community.
Which of course meant that we knew we had to add him to the Ant’s Eye View team! Please join me in welcoming out latest Ant, Steve Alter. Steve starts at AEV today as a Social Business Strategist, based in our Seattle office.
Steve’s background is impressive and diverse. In addition to Steve’s work on Answers, he also managed engagement opportunities between Microsoft and community influencers through the Microsoft Valuable Professional (MVP) program, driving feedback, advocacy, and participation in peer-to-peer support to achieve business results.
And of course he’s the only Ant with a background in the theater. Steve has always claimed that his passion for community and crowdsourcing was forged during a decade as a producer and director in professional theaters across the country.
Please help give Steve a warm welcome to the Anthill!
UPDATE: If you’re going to be at Community 2.0, Steve is a speaker. Say hi and it’s likely he’ll buy you a drink.