Let the Microsoft Games begin

Stan Beer
Tuesday, 07 March 2006 13:19

IT Industry - Strategy

It has always been delivery of the Queen's message that heralds the beginning of the Commonwealth Games, in a ritual reminiscent of the much more spectacular Olympic Games torch lighting ceremony. Now, however, we are told to get set for the Bill Gates message of support at launch of the Official M2006 Commonwealth Games website.

We lucky members of the IT media, here in Melbourne, have been invited to be among the first in the world to see the Games-ready features of the Official Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games website along with Bill Gates' message of support to the teams of the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games.

Microsoft Australia, the Official Technology Partner for M2006 and Marsha Thomson, Minister for Information and Communication Technology, in the State of Victoria, will launch the website in Melbourne on Friday, 10 March, at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre in the Southern inner suburb of Albert Park.

The website, powered by Microsoft technology, is expected to attract 22 million page views per day from people in 71 countries who will view the medal tally, competition results, news, record breaking moments and upcoming events during the M2006 Games.

Judging by our own experiences of being slash dotted for writing stories about Microsoft, we would reckon quite a bit of server power will be required to keep the M2006 Games site operational.