Microsoft gets a clear run at Games
vnunet.com | at | by Mike
IT deadlines often slip badly. So running a project where the live presentation takes place before a billion people could be unnerving. Yet Gerry Pennell, technology director of Manchester 2002, is confident the 17th Commonwealth Games, opening in the city on 25 July, will pass without a glitch. This will be the UK's largest ever sporting event, bigger than the recent Winter Olympics in the US and nearly half the size of the last summer games. It will feature over 5,000 athletes from 72 countries, reported on by 5,000 journalists. A million visitors will attend at 15 separate venues, supported by 15,000 volunteers - nearly 900 of them working with the IT infrastructure. The public web site is expected to receive up to 200 million hits a day.