We at SharePoint Magazine want to help the SharePoint community grow. Our best chance of growing the community is through writing and bringing forth the greatest content and authors in the SharePoint community.

As such, we are proud to announce our first Aspiring Authors competition here at SharePoint Magazine.

In the competition, we invite aspiring or established authors to contribute their articles to SharePoint Magazine. Then, an expert jury consisting of two of our editors and one faculty member from USPJ Academy will select three finalists whose contributions stand out from the rest. These three finalists will have their articles edited and prepared by the editorial team, before the articles are presented in the magazine.

We then invite the community to vote and comment on their favorite article, and the article that receives the most votes from the community wins the grand prize.

What Can I Win?

We have some great prizes for you, sponsored by USPJ Academy and USPJA Publishing:

Grand Prize:

• 1 Full Tuition Scolarship for 12 months at USPJ Academy ($5,964 value)
• Publishing contract for three additional articles in SharePoint Magazine ($450-750 value)
• Guaranteed inclusion in the Author Mentoring program launching in 2011 (not available)

2 Runner-Up Prizes:

• 1 Full Tuition Scolarship for 3 months at USPJ Academy ($1,491 value)
• Publishing Contract for one additional article in SharePoint Magazine ($150-250 value)

The three finalists’ competition articles will be published in SharePoint Magazine, both online and in print.

Finalist Entries

Now it is time for the community, meaning you, to decide which of these entries and authors deserves the grand prize.

We have now posted each of the finalist entries as featured articles on SharePoint Magazine. The finalists are, in no particular order:

Mikael Svenson’s “Three Main Reasons Why You Should Upgrade to FAST for SharePoint”

Josh McCarty’s “Best Practices for SharePoint Groups”

Andrew Vevers’ “A Guide to Leaving Lotus Notes and Moving to Microsoft SharePoint”

Please read each of these entries and decide which author you think deserves to win.

Voting has now ended!

We will announce the results and the winner shortly.

The Egg Hunt Code for May 21 is E68F4BB5BB

Have you registered for the SharePoint Magazine forums yet? If not, that may be a good idea to do by tomorrow.

Default disclaimer and legal stuff

Competition is open to all who are 18 years or older as of January 1, 2011 and who are not affiliated with USPJA Publishing LLC or Understanding SharePoint LLC. To enter, submit an article using this form or to pubeditor@uspja.com. Users must be registered with a valid email address. All entries must be submitted by April 15, 2011, 11:00 PM EST. Multiple entries are allowed.

Grand prize is (1) a full tuition scolarship for 12 months at USPJ Academy, (2) a publishing contract for three articles with terms as negotiated with the winner, and (3) inclusion in the USPJA Publishing Author Mentoring program, to be detailed later. Two runner-up prizes are (1) a full tuition scolarship for 3 months at USPJ Academy, (2) a publishing contract for one article with terms as negotiated with the winners. Publishing contracts do not include the comnpetition entry contract.

All competition entries are considered to be under the default terms of USPJA Publishing. Participants will retain copyright to the articles, while USPJA Publishing will retain all commercial publishing rights. Competition participants will not be compensated for their competition entries in any form.

The finalists, as decided by an expert jury, will be announced on SharePoint Magazine on or about May 1, 2011. The winner will be decided by a forum poll open to registered SharePoint Magazine community members, in the period from May 1, 2011 to May 31, 2011. In case of irregularities in the poll and final vote, SharePoint Magazine reserves the right to overturn any single vote or mass votes, or the entire poll if deemed necessary, for any reason.

Winners agree that (except where prohibited) SharePoint Magazine will announce the name and city and country of residence of the winner on the SharePoint Magazine pages and in any publication without further compensation. Any disputes will be settled individually. SharePoint Magazine will not be liable for any damages beyond the cost of entry or $1, whichever is smaller.