The Boston Post Road

The Boston Post Road was a system of mail delivery routes between New York City and Boston, Massachusetts that evolved into the first major highways in the United States. The three major alignments were the Lower Post Road (now U.S. Route 1 along the shore via Providence, Rhode Island), the Upper Post Road (now US 5 and US 20 from New Haven, Connecticut by way of Springfield, Massachusetts), and the Middle Post Road (which diverged from the Upper Road in Hartford, Connecticut and ran northeastward to Boston via Pomfret, Connecticut).

Tomorrow, my two sons and I embark on our first official “road trip” for business. We have 20+ years of family vacations under our belt, but this is not personal. This is “business”. We have meetings all day long on the way to Boston. Rye, New York, Stamford Connecticut, and then a few meetings at www.Quinnipiac.edu. Then, we're off to Boston for a week with MTP vendors and clients. I think we have a few NHL games on the docket as well (Go Devils!). We have our Verizon Jetpack 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot, so we are “in” the office even when on the road (the legal speed limit, right Tommy?) and zipping up the highway. We have our laptops, iPads, iPhones and Bluetooth headsets. If we wanted to, we could host a full-blown webinar from the back of the Navigator, but that would just be showing off.

In some towns, the area near the Boston Post Road has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places since it was often the first road in the area, and some buildings of historical significance were built along it. The Boston Post Road Historic District, including part of the road in Rye, New York, has been designated a National Historic Landmark. The Post Road is also famous for milestones that date back to the 18th century (many of which survive to this day).

At last count, we have 390+ people working at www.MTP-BPO.com and they are located in every corner of the globe. Our current big thing is “distance learning” via www.NYDLA.org and it is my contention that in today's world EVERYTHING is distance learning.  While in Boston, I’ll be hosting a webinar with thousands of people invited to attend (a few hundred should show up). So, I will be virtually attending a virtual meeting (virtually) since I am on the road, and not back in the home office, but how would they know where I was unless they read this blog?

When they were building the Boston Post Road, it was a technological marvel. It changed the country, and it was the model for what can be done. The information superhighway or "infobahn" were popular terms used through the 1990s to refer to digital communication systems and the Internet. 

The Boston Post Road. The Information Superhighway. What’s next?

I’ll be sure to blog next Sunday on the results of the trip - unless we post it on YouTube first. Let's hope we are all still speaking to each other come this time next week. This will be my first time riding in the back seat instead of doing the driving. 

“Jeeves, bring around the long car, we are going to Boston. And don’t disturb me while I am working.”