Yarr! Hoist Yer Anchors to Get 'Em While They'e Even Younger

Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day and Software Freedom Day!

I'm back in Boston once again, listening to Walter Bender from Sugar Labs talk about the platform and more specifically Turtle Art. For those not familiar, Turtle Art is an activity for the Sugar platform with a Logo-inspired graphical "turtle" that draws colorful art based on Scratch-like snap-together visual programming elements. Way to get them while they're even even younger! Not that my great and abiding love of turtles makes me biased in this matter.

Hrm. Giant Tortoise. Darwin. FOSS. Coincidence? I think not!

A member of the audience just asked about involving High School students and Walter pointed out that High School students are already Sugar developers and that their Sugar on a Stick initiative is spearheaded by a High School student. Walter and I had touched on this matter earlier this morning during coffee, as a few members of the Sugar team had approached me about participating in the Google Highly Open Participation Contest this year. (Yes, yes, we're getting a new name. Suggestions welcome!) I think many people don't realize how many pre-university students are already involved in Free and Open Source software. In fact, in talking to Titus during the first GHOP, many people have to be convinced that High School students are actually capable contributors to FOSS. Be skeptical no more folks - Walter's success stories about young people and Sugar are proof enough, as are the 1,000 tasks completed by GHOP students during the first contest. Not to mention the whole GNU Generation effort, spearheaded by former GHOP student now Free Software Foundation Intern Max Shinn.

So no doubt you're now thinking, how long until I can visit a tropical island, bond with Giant Tortoises or the odd Sea Turtle and have a pina colada, celebrating Talk like a Pirate Day in style. Swing 'round yer keel and think ye on treasures more near to hand; tasty grog, crystal waters and testudine adventures await ye if you help more pre-university students involved in Free and Open Source Software.

You may have heard that we're planning to running GHOP once again this year, but we need help to make this happen. Melange, the code base that powers Google's Open Source Programs student site, is nearly there for us to open up the contest in early December, but we're not quite there yet. Specifically, we need folks to test the all the great work done by one of our Melange Summer of Code students, kick the tires, file bugs, write patches to fix those bugs, and to document the system for all users. Knowledgeable folks are standing by in #melange on Freenode to help you get started on our To Do list. You can also post to the thread with IRC logs and notes from our latest status meeting calling for volunteers.

I can promise my eternal gratitude for your help. I can also promise t-shirts. I will buy you beer when I see you at a conference.

Boston

Ed. Note: This post is a recreation and I'm pretty sure the previous version was much more elegant. Such is life.

I left for Boston the day after MJ's birthday bash, late in the evening. I'd spent the morning buzzing around the house with Steve, performing post-party clean up, in the suitably lazy style required for such affairs, particularly when you'll find any excuse to not probe some obscure nook for various detritus. Not sure you want to look behind the couch? Have a bagel. The wet bar excessively sticky with what you're pretty confident is maraschino cherry juice? Wander around wondering aloud just how many people were there last night. People still on the couch sleeping? Clearly you can't tidy up in that room just yet; better to go to the kitchen and slice up some fruit to have waiting for them when they awake. Grab a few bottle caps along the way, toss them into the recycling bin, feel a real sense of accomplishment.

Eventually, the entire house was back to its previous state of cleanliness, and shortly thereafter MJ awoke and we settled out on the patio for an afternoon of absolutely nothing. Steve has a lovely view of the entire Valley from his deck, and the day was absolutely perfect: shining sun, crisp air, windy and chill but not cold. The Santa Cruz Mountains were visible, for a change, and lovely; the air was utterly clear. Bliss.

I flew from SJC to LAX on a turboprop plane and I don't recommend it. I also intend to never do it again. It's a slow and loud experience, the insistent hum of the engines reminding you of the inevitability of software and hardware failure. They happen. In fact, Paul Fenwick catalogs some of them quite expertly in his An Illustrated History of Failure. I remain confident, with no evidence whatsoever, that an excellent way to not meet with failure is to avoid turboprop planes, and I intend to heed my own counsel on this matter in the future.

An hour in LAX, then off to BOS. Real plane. Real sleep. Really good. After a briefish cab ride to my lodgings, I crashed for a few hours before heading out to get my hair done at theEl Coco Salon. The gentleman who gave me a cut and style had once worked at Yosh for Hair back in the day, when they were still up in San Francisco. He brought me coffee and we discussed a new fashion spread with Lindsay Lohan as Marilyn Monroe. We both agreed Lindsay didn't cut it. It was my best salon experience ever, hands down. I usually only get my hair done while I am in New Zealand, so yes, at best, once per year, but I think Boston may now be a better option. The flight time is considerably less and it would finally give me an excuse to fly JetBlue.

Monday morning, Drupalcon began. So many reunions, most of them not mine. So many Summer of Code students and mentors, so many friends I was stoked to see again. As usual, I'll leave the commentary on the sessions to those better versed in the milieu than me, but Dries' keynote was quite spectacular; it's particularly exciting to see that Usability is the watchword for Drupal 7. Now if I could only hunt down Anna Dirks and have her teach me how to make those mobile usability labs I saw her present on at GUADEC 2006, life would be even better. I've got it on the ever growing list. The Drupal as a GIS Mapping/Platform session was also quite spiffy, but then again I have a map fetish. I'm much better with the hallway track anyway.

Drupal Makes Sandwiches Happen!
Turns out that there were several GHOP students at the conference, and they invited me to be on their panel. I was truly honored to accept, so we met up at lunch time to grab some food and then plan for the presentation. We discovered that the lines for food were incredibly long, so we finally gave up and decided we'd simply power through and get food later. As we wandered through the lobby of the Boston Convention Center, Angie stopped to say hello to a lovely lady, who turned out to be one Suzi Arnold. Suzi invited us to head out for lunch, but upon hearing of our predicament promptly offered to bring lunch back for us. Have I mentioned how awesome Drupal people are?

We headed to the room for our panel discussion, which is where I discovered that Drupal apparently also makes pancakes happen. Or something. As a big fan of pancakes, I was deeply pleased. This prep was my first chance to really spend time with these folks, though I'd corresponded with several of them. Adam shocked me by being the third open source doctor I'd ever met, and since I never thought I'd meet one, I am now fairly sure there must be a secret manufacturing plant for them somewhere, probably tucked away quietly in the Midwest. Like Indianapolis. But that was the following week, this is still Boston.

I sit in utter amazement of the accomplishments of these students. In addition to other Drupal magic, Charlie Gordon made DROP happen. Michael Fogelman writes great docs and after interacting with him for just a few hours it was plain to me that he's got that rare skill that allows him to glean the necessary information from the uber-techie without causing undue irritation. It also strikes me that he doesn't ask 'stupid' questions; certainly never asked me any. Then there's Jimmy Berry, with that whole Click HeatMap and Version Control API for Git thing. Not to mention Dmitri Gaskin, who was too young to participate in GHOP so instead he mentored other students. And gave a session on practical JQuery. If these gentlemen weren't so inspirational, I'd be feeling terribly inadequate right about now.

I finally gave in and got a Flickr account. If you're interested, you can see pictures of some of these wunderkind and the few scenes I snapped in Boston here.

Monday night was my first meal in Boston's Chinatown, where I accompanied Robert for a dinner with some folks from the Knight Foundation. Family style dining and a spirited discussion about effective engagement when funding community Open Source projects ensued. In addition to good food and good conversation, I was surrounded by really great company, including the lovely Lisa Williams and Benjamin Melançon. The former, a Boston native, graciously organized a tour of her city for us visitors, though I wasn't able to accompany them; the latter generously lent me his jacket, as I'd underdressed for the walk back to the convention center after dark. Drupal, apparently, is also proof that chivalry is not yet dead. I spent a few minutes at the Monday evening conference party chatting with Lisa, but it was a bit loud so I knocked off to get some sleep.

Drupal Makes Pizza Happen!
So knowing that Drupal makes pancakes and sandwiches happen, it may come as no suprise to you that it also makes pizza happen. The Tuesday evening Acquia party venue wasn't conducive to the under-21s hanging out and hacking, so someone was kind enough to organize a GHOP BoF/Games night. We discovered that catering wouldn't be able to deliver food and the pre-arranged space at MIT was a long and cold walk away. Contingency plan one: find nearby pizza place, walk there, eat pizza, return to convention center.

One slight problem - the nearest pizza place, 1/3 of a mile away, couldn't seat ten people. I also suspect we had more than ten people, but people were happily wandering in and out so a firm head count was not forthcoming. Well, they could seat ten people, but really they had seating for eight people and we could squeeze in a few extra chairs. I hesitantly made a reservation. Short walk notwithstanding, it seemed suboptimal to wander out into the dark and snowy night to an uncomfortably small space. Hrm.

Contingency plan two: get food delivered. We'd heard this was a no-no, but apparently security didn't have a problem with it. Yay to Mr. of Chaos on that one, btw. I phoned Salvatore's again to cancel our reservation and ask about delivery. They didn't deliver. I mentioned that we had seven hungry genius kids desperate for food and asked if they had suggestions for other pizza places near the convention center that would deliver. A short on-hold moment later, the manager let me know that he'd go ahead and bring over our food order, no problem. Awesome. Bliss. Pizza, salad and pasta occurred an hour later. Life was good. If you are ever in Boston, patronize these people. They really made our night.

Satisfied that everyone was well fed and well entertained, I headed out for the Acquia party. With three floors of music on tap, clearly a good time was had by all. The best part, though, was hanging out with Bevan, stalwart GHOP mentor, Season of Usability student, and Open Source Kiwi. Open Source Kiwis ++.

The rest of the week is a bit of a blur to be honest, but memory leaks being what they are and the fact that it's been more than seven days.... Somewhere in there I gave my first keynote with Chris, and I think it went rather well. Many thanks to Adrian for the many good times out in the cold, to Sooz for being she who must get it done, to Rok for giving me juice right when my blood sugar had utterly depleted and to Kàroly for being a stalwart mentor and generally being awesome. Many thanks to everyone for making me feel welcome and a part of the wider goodness that is Drupal.

On Friday, I ended up at the MIT Stata Center, where I got to write on a real MIT chalkboard. Several actually. Somehow writing on them makes you feel like your IQ has increased by no less than 30 points. It was lovely. The rest, as they say, is history.

I'm no doubt leaving out a bunch of wonderful people from this narrative, like Addi and Geoff, but it's late and this is the second time I'm writing this novel. Chicago later. New Orleans, later, if ever. I still need a cafè au lait. Cafè du Monde, here I come.

The Merry March Travels of LH

I hit the road again this Saturday, though this time I won't be leaving the States. Heading first to Boston, where I'll be speaking at DrupalCon 2008 along with Chris. I'm particularly looking forward to the GHOP panel and the Summer of Code BoF, as well as Dries' State of Drupal talk. Also curious to learn more about how the relationship between Drupal and Acquia works, especially how their business model, which is centered around community support, functions on a day to day basis. Of course, it's always great to see old friends, meet new people and share their stories. I can't wait to hear the story of how DROP came into being, and am planning to canvas all available GHOPers and GSoCers for suggested program improvements

Most exciting, though, is getting to see Angie again. It has been far too long.

The following week I'll be in Chicago for our team all hands meeting, followed by PyCon 2008. It's always a blast to see Ben, Fitz and Trow in their native habitat. The pizza is not bad either. If you haven't heard it yet, Ben and Fitz's podcast PC Load Letter is a must hear.

Chicago Engineering has grown a bit since the old days, and it will be nice to spend a bit more time getting to know the guys I hang out with on IRC. Should be fun to hang out in their new office space, too. I seem to recall rumors of floor to ceiling white boards....

On 18 March I head to NOLA, where I am going to top off four days vacation with a visit to Penguin Day New Orleans. Louis has already promised to take me to Lake Pontchartrain, along with Cafe du Monde. I have a lot of ideas about what I want to pack into those four days. There is just never enough time to spend in New Orleans, and I have not been back in over four years.

Having never been to a DrupalCon, PyCon or Penguin Day, these next three weeks should be quite interesting. If you should happen to find yourself at any of the above, please keep an eye out for me, come on up and introduce yourself.

Man, do I want a café au lait.

It's a Small World

We hosted the Plone Strategic Planning Summit at Google last weekend. If you want full details on the summit, check out limi's summit write up. Limi is the world's foremost expert on embarassment driven development. And blogging. Seriously, ask him about this concept if you get a chance to meet up with him; I'm sure you'll find his commentary insightful.

Much to my amazement I discovered last Saturday that one of our GHOP Grand Prize winners happenned to live close to Google HQ, so I asked him if he wanted to swing by Google to meet with the Plone team. Jonathan came by with his Mom, Constance, and great conversations ensued. It was great meeting Jonathan and even cooler getting to see him interact with a bunch of folks he'd only met online previously, if at all. I think the best part of the day was hearing Constance talk about the flame wars she'd heard about from her sons as part of their participation in open source. Not that flame wars are a good thing, mind you, but it was surprising and awesome to see how engaged she was with community dynamnics.

I would never have anticipated meeting such a hip Mom, nor would I have expected one of our GHOP Grand Prize winners to live so close to Google. Talk about fortuitous timing. It also turns out Jonathan lives about two streets over from me. A very small world indeed.

It's a Small World was closed when we visited Disneyland. Somehow I no longer feel like I greatly missed out having been deprived of cathartic experience of riding through and listening to the ride's message.

This being Valentine's Day and all, I'd like to make a shout out to someone who helped make the Plone Strategic Planning Summit possible even though he didn't attend - Allen "Gunner" Gunn of Aspiration. Gunner always brings the love to any event he facilitates and I feel privledged to have had the opportunity to work with and learn from him at numerous events.

When I walked into the summit and looked at all the easel pad sheets taped to the walls, covered in sticker dots, I knew Gunner had 'been there.' Jon Stahl confirmed he'd been inspired by Gunner's facilitation techniques, all of which are chronicled on the Aspiration wiki. If you ever get a chance to visit a Penguin Day or any other event hosted or facilitated by Gunner or another member of the Aspiration team, I highly recommend them. It's amazing how much can be accomplished and what real synergies can be created in just a short time using their facilitation techniques.

Happy Valentine's Day to all those who are celebrating. And to all, let there be love!

Wrapping Up GHOP

So I'm waiting to blog about the cool thing I mentioned yesterday because I don't want to scoop someone who shall remain nameless - *cough* - limi - *cough* - so I'll just do a quick post to celebrate the close of GHOP.

This contest has been a labor of love for several months by many members of the open source community and I cannot thank them enough for all of their hard work to make this effort possible. All of you rock!!

On a final note, I want all the student participants to know how much respect you've garnered in just a short time. I consistently hear from our mentors how blown away they are by everything you've accomplished. I sincerely hope all of you stick around and continue contributing to open source. I assure you there will be an endless supply of free and low-cost t-shirts in it for you.

I'm going to take a well deserved break. Until tomorrow morning. The Apps Architecture folks are in town.

I am Iron Woman

This has been an insane seven days, but also seven of the most incredible.

Last Sunday, I boarded a plane in Melbourne. I think my flight was supposed to leave at 13:00. I am also pretty confident it didn't. I know there was a four hourish delay in Sydney, but I also spent those four hours engrossed in a, shall we say, less than Western canon status novel. I also don't really remember those four hours. I'd been traveling for 3 weeks and three days at that point, returning home after linux.conf.au, but I do remember Grant telling me more about PA-RISC, making balloon animals and giving me mini-chocolate squares. Grant, you're awesome. :)

Ben picks me up at SFO.

We drive home.

I decompress.

Eventually, I sleep.

Life is good.

The next day around 10:00 I boarded a plane for LAX. A flight and a shuttle ride later, Ben and I settled into our hotel. I caught up on mail. We had steak dinner with Cat. Pleasant fare, pleasant company. It was a good night.

Walked - that's right, walked in LA - to Disneyland from our hotel room. We were in the park from 11:00 until 01:30 the next day. There weren't very many people there in general, but after 20:00 the park was almost literally deserted. I think most of our co-workers were at California Adventure. We went for many rides, no waiting.

We rode the Matterhorn and Big Thunder Mountain Rail Road twice in a row. We went through the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean seven or eight times each. Indiana Jones is overrated. If Finding Nemo is any indication, I would do very poorly in a submarine. I love Ben because he enjoys the Enchanted Tiki Room right along with me.

Up at 5:45 on Wednesday. On shuttle to the airport in 20 minutes, finally home a little over four hours later. Ran into the office for a quick meeting. Went back home. Crashed. Bliss....

Thursday rolls around. We announce the Grand Prize Winners for Highly Open Participation tomorrow, so I spend the rest of the week getting everything together we need to make that happen. Thursday, Friday and Saturday are all about feeling the motivate love. On Friday morning, I pop in to make sure the Plone Strategic Planning Summit kicks off, then go back to making other things happen.

On Saturday, I succumbed to Steve. Yes, I bought an iPhone. The worst part is, I love the darn thing. I mean really love it. I don't particularly think the techie obsession with gadgets is necessarily a good thing^TM and refuse to become emotionally involved with my accessories and tools. I still can't change my own battery. This device is still unbelievably awesome. The UI is unbelievably intuitive. Ship of Fools melodiously steals thoughts of time away from me as I pound away at the keyboard, moving messages, making things happen. Sweet bliss.

I still feel dirty, though. Curse you, Steve, for making beautiful products that function so well. Please open source everything Apple as quickly as possible so that I can use your devastatingly sexy toys sans guilt. I will forever thank you and recommend you to all my friends.

As a random aside, there are days I think the only one on the internet that you can believe in is Fake Steve. You have been warned, people.

I'd talk about today, but that'd be eight days and that's too long for a recap. Besides which, the truly awesome things that happened today I can't blog about just yet. Tomorrow though....

So, to come full circle, I mentioned that I started last week returning from LCA, and I'll write more about my experiences later. I do want to give a shout out to two women who were kind enough to share their thoughts with me, Stormy Peters and Sarah Stokely. Conversing with both of them gave me some valuable insights on self-perception, the pull between the professional and personal when blogging about open source and a whole host of other topics. Thanks to both of you ladies for your time. I'll actually be blogging regularly now.

Oh yeah, and I finally got Slashdotted.

Busy couple of weeks ahead. Life is good.