Oracle OpenWorld 2008 - LIVE FROM SF - #1

I'm going to try something that I normally never do with this blog - a live blog from Oracle OpenWorld 2008 on the keynote of Charles Phillips. We'll see how it goes. Also, check out Josh Weinberger's tweets on it. Josh is the managing editor of CRM Magazine and a stellar writer and person. Follow him on this. I'm sitting next to him at the press/blogger tables at OpenWorld. Usually, I'm at these events as an analyst but this time they got me in as a blogger so the perspective is very different. But Oracle is doing this right. We had separate entrance so that we could miss the crowds which apparently are backed up from the inside of the Moscone Center North all the way out to Mission Street in a single line. There are close to 45,000 at this event. Which is a staggering number. Right now, the conference hall is bathed in Oracle red and there is a very good classical cellist playing solos on stage - has a punk haircut - but very good. The crowds are moving in and starting to fill the place up. It's all so weird to me because of the level of activity and the anticipation you'd think Obama or McCain was giving a very important presentation. The buzz is around Oracle Beehive which they are going to release today. Its a collaboration tool that they claim is going to make bloggers and blogging "mainstream" though I have to tell you, given the amount of attention they've given bloggers here, you have to think its a mainstream media form already. ....the cellist is playing what Denis Pombriant (who is on my right along with ZDNet star blogger Michael Krigsman - great guy BTW) primordial music and its building to this amazing crescendo - contemporary and oozing from the primordial sludge all at once..... .....the crowds keep rolling, actually given the activity levels, they are roiling not rolling. There is even a section for Oracle Gold members who are like 1K members that fly United or some superclub benefit or another..... ......I'm impressed with the crowds. There is a large smattering (rather than rousing) of applause for the cellist.... ....I'm impressed with the pomp and circumstance but we'll see how impressed I am with the keynote. Stay tuned.