Chris's unofficial Office Live developer blog

WPC Day 2 - the Big Dig

Day 2 in lovely Boston brought some shocking news.  Several panels from the ceiling of one of the “Big Dig” connector tunnels had fallen the previous evening, crushing some unsuspecting motorists and killing one of the victims.  This huge project has been going on for a long time… something like 15 years, and it’s pretty tragic news.  Doesn’t help that the person killed was a mother who immigrated to the U.S. and was working jobs and sending money back to her children in a Central American or Caribbean country (can’t remember which). 

Everything at the conference was delayed by 30 minutes, a small price to pay.  News has slowly trickled out about the problems in tunnel construction, and it just seems to be getting worse by the hour.  Last I heard, they may have to shut down multiple tunnels indefinitely.  They often quote the big dig as “the largest public works project ever” in the United States.  And, oh Mayor Nickels (of Seattle), you really want to build a tunnel under our waterfront to replace the viaduct?  I guess if we don’t have such an anemic management and quality control, that might work.  But still…  Ugh.

Anyway, on to the conference.  Today Chris Capossela, a VP in Office land, presented the first big splash for the Office Live pilot partner program, including a significant portion of his keynote speech and a video including statements from our 3 Pilot Partners.  John, our channel manager for partners, deserves a gold star for flying all over the country over the last few weeks to make that video happen in the final stretch. 

Apparently both his remarks and the videos were very well received by the large audience.  I, unfortunately was not able to attend since I was sent packing from one hotel to another in the morning.  I booked in the conference too late so they moved me mid conference.  What joy.  I shall not complain too much, I suppose.  They were nice hotels and very close to the train.