OOW08: Day -1: Jet Lag = 1, OOW = 1

Oops, forgot to post about Saturday in San Fran at OOW08.

One of the things I like to do when visiting another country is sit down and read some local newspapers to get a feel for what's happening locally. Though American news filters through the syndicated news channels back to Australia, the pure breadth of coverage is not there.

Of course the news in the States right now is all doom-and-gloom about the economy and Wall Street. Both papers I browsed were 75%, if not 95% about the economic crisis, with a large focus on stocks, federal intervention, politics and the blame game. I was surprised by the inclusion of The Wall Street Journal story As Times Turn Tough,New York's Wealthy Economize. "Oh boo hoo poor American rich people, you can't afford a nose job, I feel so sorry for you." It took me most of the day to find a story that considered the impact on the average American thanks to Time publishing Forget Wall Street. What about the rest of us?

Of course it's also a fascinating time with the race for the American Presidency, from both inside the States and out. One thing I've always found odd as an Aussie travelling to other countries is how patriotic other countries are, and in turn how much the general population is willing to visibly show their preference for political parties. Across from the hotel I'm staying at somebody has placed an Obama for President poster 8 stories up on a balcony nobody can see, and yesterday I spotted this poster near China Town. I just can't in living memory remember somebody in Australia putting something similar up, like a "I Love Kevin" poster, or a glowing picture of Little Johnny's glowing mug.

Of course OOW is far away from the local economic and political issues.

Saturday afternoon proved a great day to catch up with fellow Oracle ACEs and bloggers, Doug Burns, Tim Hall, Lucas Jellema, Marcel Kratchovil, with much speculation about the big OOW announcements.

Given that I've just sat in on the Sunday ACE Director meeting where some of the announcements have been either made or hinted at, it's a fun game to think back to our discussions yesterday to see how correct they were. Some of the announcements are completely embargoed until the keynotes so we can't talk about them. And as I have such poor memory of what we can/can't talk about, I'll keep mum till each keynote .

Monday's my Back to Basics Web Services presentation and the start of the Oracle Develop sessions I'll attend. Should be an interesting day as long as the jet lag doesn't kick in.

Disclaimer: I'm at OOW08 as part of the Oracle ACE Director program.