Today’s interview is with…

Sjoukje Zaal

Sjoukje is a Microsoft Partner.

• Website: http://www.puttysoft.net/
• 188 Forum Answers, with 435 Forum Replies
• 7 Wiki Articles with 66 Wiki Edits

Sjoukje has also contributed on this blog:

• A first look at Azure Media Services

Let’s get to the interview!

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Who are you, and what do you do?

My name is Sjoukje Zaal and I live in The Netherlands. I work as a Principal Architect & Lead Productivity for Ordina, an IT company in the Benelux (Belgium, The Netherlands, and Luxemburg). Sixteen years ago, I started my career as a web designer. After that I worked as a software developer for several years and for the last 6 years I work as an Architect.

In my daily job, I work with customers on Azure, Office 365 and Microsoft integration solutions. Besides that, I spend a lot of time on participating in the Microsoft community.

How do you contribute to the community?

How long have you been answering questions on MSDN Forums? What have you learned from that experience?

I started answering questions back in 2008, only for SharePoint. I took a break for a couple of years when I was focusing on other technologies, like Azure and BizTalk. The last couple of years I am more active again. Answering questions gives me the ability to become much better at these technologies, learning new things and share my learnings and experience with others.

Why do you contribute to TechNet Wiki articles? What kind of articles have you written, and why?

The TechNet Wiki articles have helped me a lot in my career with troubleshooting and solving issues. As I became more experienced I wanted to give something back to the community. When a question is asked multiple times in the MSDN forum, I find the solution, write it down and create a Wiki article about it. This way it can help a lot of people solving issues and gaining new insights. So far, my articles are mainly about Office 365, Azure Logic Apps and BizTalk.

Tell me about your involvement with Azure Advisors. How do you interact with the Azure development teams?

My involvement mainly focusses on reading and answering questions that are asked by Azure customers inside the group. Microsoft employees are also part of this group, so you can join Skype meetings as well and stay updated on news, issues and updates.

Who has impressed you in the Azure development community, and why?

I don’t have a particular person but I’m impressed by anyone who takes the time and effort to make contributions to the community. It helped me throughout my career and will help a lot of others in the future.

Do you have any tips for new community members?

You learn as you go along…

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Thank you Sjoukje for your various community contributions, especially your contributions on MSDN, TechNet, and in Azure Advisors!

Please join me in thanking Sjoukje!

Remember to keep your heads in the cloud!

• Ninja Ed