Mingling

I am not the strongest mingler in the crowd. Never have been. But when standing in line for some food or wine or sitting next to people eating, it's hard not to say something. As such, I had the opportunity to chat with several interesting individuals whose names I have forgotten.

MICROSOFT: As I approached the wine table, a charming smile asked if Kirkwood was in Washington. I said no, but that it seemed Kirkwoods are in many places. I asked where she was from and we got to mingling. Turns out she works as a consultant for Microsoft and has been traveling all over the country showcasing Office 2007 and Vista. I asked her how fast she thought adoption of the Office suite would come about. She couldn't nail down a timeline or anything, but did say that most clients she spoke with would make the transition in Fall of '07. The wine table was free and I scored a glass of White Merlot.

BLACKBOARD: The buffet lines were always slow. In one, I waited along with an incredibly sharp Blackboard representative. I found it fascinating that she wanted to attend this conference given the less than warm reception it seems Blackboard has received here. Perhaps they are just going through a rough PR patch. That aside, she was surprised to hear that we were having difficulty with the new product name: "Blackboard Learning System CE6." I explained many faculty and staff told me it wasn't very catchy. I was surprised she was surprised. I mean, really, it isn't very catchy. In terms of product names, it must be the most clumsy I have ever heard. She graciously told me she would pass on these thoughts. Then, it seemed we were at the end of the buffet line, but most of the food was gone. She was bothered the chicken was gone.

MOODLE: This might not technically count as mingling since I actually stood at the Moodle booth while talking. In the first two minutes of our conversation, the representative made two star-trek references. I think that says something about Moodle, but I'm not sure what exactly. I remember one was the adjective "Borgish" in reference to the kind of growing collaboration Moodle was enjoying and seeking out. I didn't call him on the generally evil assimilation the Borg is typically associated with. Instead, I asked him about a complaint I often hear from our database admins: the number of users can break the system and drop data. He told me about Open University with 150,000 users. People are making this happen.