Just a Gwai Lo fun within prescribed limits [?]

I've finally checked out Darren Barefoot's Gnomedex talk about geeks doing good, where he invents a currency called the Stacy, named after a woman he helps feed sometimes in Vancouver, designed to track how much good you do. The talk has helped inspire some good deeds already, including delivering pizzas to Pigeon Park in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside (instead of participating in the BarCamp Vancouver thread where the idea first appeared, I decided to donate to the Greater Vancouver Food Bank). Since reading Social Acupuncture, I've dropped my objection to talking about the good deeds people have done as self-serving, since done right bragging about doing good can influence people others to do so as well. I'm not going to keep track of whatever good it is I do: I lie enough to people asking me for change that I'm sure it balances out in the end.

Last year I was grumpy while attending Gnomedex: a combination of not enough sleep and not enough to eat in the morning combined with not very interactive sessions involving already-eminent people (or people from already-eminent companies) talking at us lecture-style. I hear this year will be different, but I'm not attending this time.

I'm in downtown Seattle now for Drupal Camp Seattle 2006, which has two tracks, one for introductory sessions and another for advanced hacking. Some of my Bryght colleagues are here too. I'm a little nervous about this as with any conference: I didn't do enough planning yet again, and I'm worried that I'm not going to get a lot out of it. Some friends with whom I've discussed this tell me it's not about what I get out of it or what others get out of it from me, but just to enjoy the experience of being in another city for a few days. I'm either paraphrasing badly or not remembering what they told me. Anyway, I wish I was better at this kind of thing, better able to enjoy meeting new people in an unknown environment.

Jen had a great comment a month or so ago about my situation that I'll try to keep in mind: “The only suggestion I have for the introvert is to just start speaking. If interrupting is the status quo, don't be afraid to do it yourself. It takes some practice and time to build confidence, but it does get easier. Just be sure to schedule some decompressing "alone time" shortly thereafter.”

Boris points me to The Fever who is seeking a definition of the phrase "the Dark Web". There is at least one article on my weblog where I discuss the term (which surely could have used a paragraph break or two). Even better, though, is Suw Charman's amazing interview at Supernova, talking about personal weblogs, that is, the ones with people talking about their personal lives as distinct from what they do for a living or as distinct from a strictly subject-based weblog. That would include weblogs that are intended for friends to read and maybe discuss later "offline"—I know that I've learned about as much about my friends from when they started blogging (i.e. this year) than the period before that, which for some is almost 9 years now. They're expressing what they are doing and how they feel as if it were a private weblog yet knowing full well that anybody who wanted to read the site could.

I saw Julie Leung's excellent presentation for the second time, this time at Gnomedex (the first time was at Northern Voice), and even though I knew what to expect from it, I still had to wipe tears from my eyes as she talked about the struggle to find the balance between reaching out to her community and keeping important things private. In the presentation she talked about trying to figure out how to write about her brother's passing. What she didn't talk about this time around—possibly due to time constraints—was the response to her article on her daughter's surgery, and how she helped other parents by writing some tips for when their child is about to have surgery. In the presentation at Gnomedex, just as the presentation at Northern Voice, she quoted from an article I wrote in January about my so-called personal life and whether or not people are obligated to write about it. She documented the links to the resources she cited in her presentation on del.icio.us.

Since I had seen it before, the most interesting part of the presentation was the audience's reaction towards it. The applause afterwards was hearty, but there seemed be a slightly stunned silence when Gnomedex conference organizer Chris Pirillo said Julie's presentation was his favourite presentation of the two days, and I think that was because the audience were people the majority of which read exclusively technical material. That would be my way of saying that those who exclusively read and/or write technical weblogs don't really understand what "the Dark Web" is about, but that's more an assumption based on the silence than anything.

As mentioned earlier, my colleagues and I will be leaving for Seattle for Gnomedex. I'm excited to at least meet some minor heroes and at least see them speak, but it's probably an objective fact that I don't get as much out of geek conferences as my colleagues do. I'm more looking forward to the conference in Portland coming up in August than this one, but it will be a fun road trip, and besides, it's been a while since I've been to the Emerald City. Just wanted to put a call-out for people who read Just a Gwai Lo and will be attending the conference to come say hi in person. My about page has a photo of yours truly for visual reference.

Kris Krug has an aggregator for Gnomedex attendees (dead link), and there is also a list of attendees with links to their weblogs. I'd love to see something similar for OSCON, which I know will be attended by more people in the industry my employer is in.