Microsoft India MVP Nominations for 2004 are open, and will be for a week.

www.microsoft.com/india/mvp is where you can nominate yourself.

But there is a huge catch! Other than wondering what the MVP program is about and whether you want to nominate yourself in the first place, there are more things to consider.

For one, you have to download Microsoft Office InfoPath 2003 (which is a 134 MB download) to fill up the nomination form.

I did that - thanks to my corporate broadband Internet connection - and I am sure they won't be really amused to find I used it for such a huge download!

Filling up the form itself is quite easy - InfoPath is a very user-friendly tool.  But what you do after you've filled it is something you got to figure out (an MVP qualification test?)

To submit the form, you need Microsoft Outlook 2003. There is no link to where I could download that. Furthermore, if I did download it, I am not sure if I want to install a "preview" version and screw up my current Outlook (XP) installation.

Sorry, but my close-to-0.5-GB mailbox is surely worth more than taking the risk! Moreover, I have no idea how to convince my network administrators on installing a different mail client that is connecting to the corporate Exchange network.

Abhishek Kant, the Microsoft India MVP Lead from Microsoft has an entry on his blog where he justifies the complex nomination process. No mention of the Outlook problem and most of the justifications are not really convincing.

I know it is difficult to become an MVP. Now, I'm realizing the hidden meanings of *difficult*!