If you're serious about testing Microsoft products you'll want to be in the Microsoft Connect program. But who's in it? Where are they located? With how many are they? This information is now available on the Microsoft Windows Vista program!

Some statistics

Windows Test Manager Paul Donnelly sent a mail to all testers within the Microsoft Connect program sharing some statistics on the geographic location of the Microsoft Windows Vista testers. The Microsoft Windows Vista Team blog was kind enough to publish it too. Here are the interesting facts Paul Donnelly shares with us:

• We have approximately 30,000 Vista Beta testers in this program now.
• There are Windows Vista beta testers in 125 countries.
• We have testers in all 50 U.S. States, Puerto Rico, Guam and several other U.S. locations.
• Exactly 50% of our testers are somewhere other than the U.S.
• The northernmost person appears to be in Fairbanks, Alaska at 64.85 degrees N. latitude though it's a close call with a person in Iceland.
• The southernmost person appears to be in the Kerguelen Islands at 49.56 degrees S latitude.
• We have 1 person on the island of Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands.
• We also have a person in the Tuamoto archipelago which is almost exactly half-way between South America and Australia.
• If we had someone in the Yukon and someone in Labrador/Newfoundland we would have all Canadian provinces and territories represented.
• In the U.S. we have testers in over 6,000 zip codes, or well over 10% of all zip codes in the U.S.

Maps

I was stunned by the statistics, especially the fact that two weeks ago exactly half of the people in the Microsoft Windows Vista Connect program we're located outside of the U.S. What really blew me away however were the detailed maps on these locations. The map of the 'Vista' world might just be suitable for a 10 by 15 feet print:

Click here for all images released on the Microsoft Windows Vista Team Blog Website.