Jon Stahl’s Journal

Before they escape my head, I wanted to share a few things I’ll remember from Plone Conference 2006:

• The din of 350 people introducing themselves to each other.  The even louder sound of those 350 people telling each other how they found their way to the Plone community.  The nearly deafening sound of those 350 people telling each other what they wanted to get out of the conference.
  
  
• Watching a live video feed of Martin Aspeli in Second Life while sitting in the room watching his presentation in person. 
  
  
• Seeing 350 Plonistas assemble for a group photo in under 10 minutes.  I wouldn’t have believed it possible.
  
  
• Sean Kelley’s bravura Lessig/Hardt style talk on PHP vs. Plone.  The only talk I attended in full, and the only one that ended with cocktails.
  
  
• Finding “Plone Rules” scrawled on the bathroom chalkboard at the Lock and Keel.  I heard similar reports from Hattie’s Hat as well.  Several of my friends mentioned to me that they’d “seen Plone in Ballard.”   Plone knows how to party. 
  
  
• Watching Jackie Arasi’s eyes grow to the size of dinner plates when I told her that I grew up in Port Jefferson, Long Island.  Turns out we grew up about two miles apart and went to rival high schools (but we didn’t quite overlap in time).  The response of an unnamed third party upon hearing of this coincidence: “Man, what do they put in the water there?”
  
  
• Eben Moglen’s passionate, inspiring keynote talk.  Holy cow.  What an amazing gift.  Thank you, Jonah, Paul, and Ian, for making it happen.  And thank you, Eben, for doing all that you do to make open source possible.
  
  
• The way so many folks pitched in to help keep the whole conference moving — Ann & Jesse from NPower Seattle, Dave, Kelley, Sean, JonB, and Andrew from ONE/Northwest, Eric & Lucie from Six Feet Up, plus Josten, Joel, Alan and Alma, Richard, Wayne, and all the other folks who took on tasks large and small.
  
  

Tags: Plone