Just one of the many reasons: Our product is fundamentally changing how people interact with their televisions.  Case in point: John Canning (my peer) and Andrew Adamyk (our boss) were in Europe this past week meeting up with Media Center partners.  As Andrew related...

We were doing internal training in Stockholm for subsidiary program management and in the morning John was demonstrating Media Center. On his machine he had installed a Media Center Add In which allows user to see news alerts within Media Center. In the middle of the demo an alert popped up saying "multiple explosions reported in London."  We all looked at each other and said - wow, what strange test data to use for an application. But then, after scrabbling around on different web sites, we realized we were seeing a real news alert…

It didn't matter where John was in Media Center (Music, Pictures, DVD, TV, Online Spotlight, etc.) -- he got an alert with important news -- doubly important for Andrew who is from the UK and has family / friends in London.

And here is the *really* exciting part: I was pondering John and Andrews experience today and realized it is totally possible to create a Media Center Add In which embraces and extends an Emergency Alert System.  The EAS today in the United States relies on the user listening to a live radio broadcast or watching live TV.  In many DVR equipped homes it can be rare for people to watch live TV (I even hear of some folks who ONLY watch recorded TV and forego all live events).  With Media Center it is possible to extend this important public safety system so those listening to personal music, watching a slideshow, playing a DVD, watching home movies or recorded (time shifted) TV -- in any room of the house with a TV.  Put another way, we have a platform which can be leveraged to alert people of important (and potentially life threatening events) in an ever increasing 'on demand' world where real time content is no longer the norm. 

I'll go into work from now on thinking *way* differently about our platform.  It's no longer just about great digital media experiences alone.  It's about doing our part to help keep friends and family safe.