The MVP programme is highly regarded, I think -- perhaps that could be be amended to celebrate open source contributions to a wider degree or a parallel program

The MVP programme is highly regarded, I think -- perhaps that could be be amended to celebrate open source contributions to a wider degree or a parallel programme established. Codeplex and Microsoft releasing open source code in general (eg. Oxite) probably helps too. Microsoft engineers openly working on projects not originating at MS (FacebookToolkit, say) might be a welcome move too.