Josh thinks we should have cake. But I prefer champagne. Whatever your fancy, this week is Open Port's 1st birthday as a community destination--and we couldn't be happier about that. What a momentous occassion!

The site was born because we folks in marketing (shh, I know...marketing ) believed we needed a better way to help you--Intel customers--find and understand information about Intel products. However, suprisingly (to us, probably not you) Open Port has evolved into so much more. Although we know it's not yet perfect, the site continues to grow as more folks join our community. And I think it's only going to get better in the years to come.

So how did Open Port come into existence a year ago? Well, the infamous Bob Duffy was doing his usual "looking under the hood" of stuff and realized folks weren't connecting with the technical content that was available on the intel.com website (uh, as in traffic was pretty bad). So he looked around at some other sites, like Slashdot and Ars Technica, and realized many folks were getting their information--yes, even technical information--from each other on forums and in discussions. "What if we hosted discussions on Intel technology on our site?" Bob wondered. And the rest, they say, is history.

Open Port first launched with three "communities" or "zones:" the general community, the vPro Expert Center, and the IT@Intel community zone. We've now grown to 7 communities overall with plans to add more and re-organize the content so you, our wonderful users, will have more control over the content you see on the site.

So what are some of the highlights of the past year? Well, you'd have to ask those who've been around longer for their unique perspectives. But here are some of the things I know:

• Just this year alone site visits, comments on posts, and logins have grown at about 250%*
• User registrations for the community have climbed by 500%*
• More and more content is coming from you--our wonderful community--than from Intel folks...this includes our superstar technical expert Javed Lodhi who keeps answering questions in our Ask An Expert forum. Thanks and keep up the great work, Javed!
• We've made some mistakes, heard your comments, and hopefully changed things for the better both here on Open Port and in our technology as well.

Josh goes into greater detail on many of the highlights and lowlights of the past year on his Happy Birthday blog so I won't bore you or steal his thunder.

What I will tell you that you may not yet realize is that Open Port represents a monumental shift in the way Intel talks with our customers and community. I say "with" purposely because in the past Intel's primary way to "get our message out" was to talk at people instead of with them. But inviting you, our community, to share your ideas with us and engage in dialogue, you not only learn from us but from each other--and we learn from you. And that, at a minimum, is enough to inspire me to raise a glass and make a toast.

Oh, and lest I forget...thank you to you and to everyone who makes this community so terrific. We couldn't do it without you!

*On September 2, 2008 I realized that my math skills are still terrible. I had erroneously calculated these stats too low when I posted this originally. These are now correct. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Here at IDF, Intel is training how to use Intel AMT. Matt Royer explains how they are making this happen.

Here's a quick video of Todd talking about blogging on the vPro Expert Center. Check it out.

Hi All, the time is coming for our IDF (Intel Developers Forum) in San Francisco. One of the courses that Kenny Chan & myself will be teaching is as follows: Pro Platform Interoperability and Integration – Are You Pro Ready? The course is focused on what End Users, ISV's & developers can do to make Interoperability & Integration a snap.

I will also be joining up with Bob Duffy & Ken Kaplan to help work the technology for the IT Panel on Social Media. I think this session is going to be great forum for discussing what Intel is doing on social media both internally & externally. I have high expectations for this session.

If you anybody from the Open Port / Intel(r) vPro(tm) Expert Center is going to be at IDF please let me know. We were kicking around having an unconference during the venue to get together with fellow bloggers & talk anything from social media to client manageability technology.

Also, Bob Duffy & I will be hitting the road this week to SF to join up w/ the Office 2.0 conference. We're both pretty jazzed about the experience & also hearing from the presenters & break out sessions. If you haven't checked it out.. http://www.o2con.com/index.jspa

If you happen to be at this venue.. look us up.. we'll be on the panel on Friday. I will also be bringing my HD Camera to record the journey.. Stay tuned for video..

Cheers..