On an otherwise harmless TechCrunch post I found the answer to everyone who asks me "well, what the heck does Evangelist mean, and what do you do at Microsoft?" (and I'm including you in that Mum!)

Actually, it's not the whole answer, and it's not wholly true.

For a start I'm probably paid less than when I was freelance before and I'm having to work at least as hard. But the benefit is having access to technologies that really interest and excite me, having a chance to work with the folks who are creating the products.

I also get a chance to communicate with a much broader spectrum of people - around the world, corporate and grass roots. Certainly it's important to pitch the product (and in most cases with out team it's new, unreleased technology rather than finished product that needs lipstick), but most important is to gather feedback and take an honest "real world" perspective back to the product managers and say what works, what doesn't work... and share some of the really cool stuff that people do with our technologies.

So... what are these cool toys I get to play with? There's a lot of stuff that we can't talk about (and in some cases it's totally new, in others it's significant improvements on existing product you know and love) but as our group goes by the name Web|Live as you can imagine it's a pretty awesome mix of Web, Live (Windows, Office and Xbox), Media and future technology - it keeps me pretty busy ;)

As well as a windbag, I'm also a retarded salmon! I think the two roles go hand in hand. On my whiteboard at the moment I have a network diagram for home... it features a Windows Home Server, Media Center, Xbox360 and 3 other computers. I think I may be a nerd!