Each year we give awards to individuals and organizations whose extraordinary contributions benefit the entire Windows Mobile community. That community includes end users, developers, Webmasters, retailers, publishers, device manufacturers, carriers, and Microsoft.
2001-2003 Winners
In 2001, the first year, we gave these awards to Webmasters Dale Coffing, Jason Dunn, and Chris De Herrera for their outstanding sites, and to Pocket PC evangelist Derek Brown of Microsoft. In 2002, we honored Microsoft MVPs—independent volunteers who give their time to support users, HP, for growing the industry to over 2 million iPAQs sold, Pocket PC evangelist Beth Goza of Microsoft, and Mark Winstanley and John Tidwell of the Pocket PC Summit. In 2003 we honored three retailers responsible for the widespread education about and distribution of devices, software, and accessories: Handango, PocketGear, and Mobile Planet, and to Nathan Clevenger for his work evangelizing Windows Mobile development in the Enterprise.
2004 Winners
The 2004 award goes to the Pocket PC magazine Board of Experts. In judging our contest these experts spent hours upon hours downloading software, testing, and filling out our forms with their comments. The amazing thing is these volunteer efforts represent a minuscule portion of their collective contribution to the Windows Mobile community. They support users through forums, great websites, and in-depth writings.
I am going to name some of our experts whom I happen to know well, or who I am especially aware of their contribution. These people represent the entire group, and I could have just as well mentioned any of the other experts not named.
This issue focuses on multimedia—years ago Tari Akpodiete was one of the first to write about the multimedia potential for the Pocket PC. Barry Shilmover has contributed as a webmaster, a developer, and a writer. David Ciccone was the first to provide quality in-depth support on one product line. Chris Leckness followed suit and built a well-regarded Dell Axim site.
Closer to home, Pocket PC magazine has managed to attract as writers a terrific staff of volunteer experts, many of whom are top professionals in their own fields. Gamers and we value Allen Gall both for his entertaining magazine column and his weekly e-newsletter. I cannot overstate my appreciation for contributions in GPS, wireless, and related areas from Shawna Kelly, Dan Hanttula, and David Shier (David has been writing for us since 1993!). Physician Ed Zabrek (another long-time contributor), and lawyer Gary Garland lend their enthusiasm, vision and insights to the magazine on an ongoing basis. Thanks also to other Board of Expert writers including Derek Ball, Nathan Clevenger, Tim Hillebrand, Jeffrey Wales, Steven Hughes, James Kendrick, Rabbi Jeffrey Kurtz-Lendner, John Ottini, and Don Sorcinelli.
Two special thanks go to Chris Forsberg and Stephan Schmidt. Chris is responsible for us having awards for developers. Stephan has greatly improved our Smartphone coverage in the magazine and the awards.
I don't have much personal conact with contributers outside the U.S. However, I do know that Paul O'Brien and John H. Lose pioneered Windows Mobile Smartphone Internet coverage. Becky Benfield who writes our European column has a revitalized her U.K. site. Helio Diamant, Tomer Eisner and Saar Avigour from Israel have been especially supportive and fun to work with, as has UK's Elizabeth Lidell and Mexico's Ricardo Morales. Franz Haslbeck and Alex Januschewsky of Germany and Austria in addition to their many contributions have taken the lead in the non-profit, multilingual, Windows Mobile Web Portal Project.
Finally, about a year ago we launched the hugely successful Pocket PC magazine support forums. We launched because of Bob Katayama's commitment to support users. Soon David Hettel and William Ramby jumped in to help form a top team of knowledgeable helpers.
A huge thanks goes to Heather Arrington of Handango, who went way beyond the all of duty, working long days and nights to supply 80 judges with registration codes for well over 500 products in a timely manner.
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