Yesterday was a political Superbowl. Millions upon millions of people weathered the cold in D.C. to watch the inauguration from the Mall. Nearly 30% of all households in America saw the event, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Reuters reports that 35,000 major media stories were filed on the inauguration, more than were filed for Hurricane Katrina, the events of September 11, 2001, the global 2008 financial news, and virtually any other event in recorded history.

Even "untouchable" television programs like American Idol were touched. The audience for Idol dropped by 26% due to defections to inauguration coverage. CNN.com had 160 million page views and fed over 25 million video streams to audiences online and it's estimated that hundreds of millions of people worldwide watched it on TV.

Honestly, if Macworld got "punked" by the Superbowl, Lotusphere didn't stand a chance against the Obama inauguration. That Superbowl was small potatoes by comparison to yesterday's events.

So, sure, the economy is down. But take heart, Lotus lovers. Those fans who did attend Lotusphere put their loyalty to Lotus products above even the biggest media event in recent history. And for you, Lotusphere exhibitors, when those folks visited your booth, I hope you got their names. Those die-hard customers and prospects are definitely keepers.

Stay tuned. More next week. In the meantime, don't hesitate to check out our news page or subscribe to the RSS feeds. News Editor Nancy Hand has been on the case all week, and the most interesting stuff is finding its way into our news coverage.

Contributing Editor Tom Lowery is President of Portage Associates, Inc., a Notes and Domino consulting firm. He holds principal-level certifications in application development and system administration. His hobbies include chasing after his two year old son Duncan and flying. Tom can be reached at tom@lowery.net.