Submitted another talk

I submitted another talk. I decided after I submitted a previous proposal to the local jQuery conference that regardless of talk acceptance, I was going to give the talk. The audience might be only Bella and Annie, or maybe just Sonja down for her nap. I figure, if I submitted a talk proposal, then I have something to say, and I should say it. The proposal might not have been accepted because the audience wasn't the correct audience, I might be just under the threshold of awesome talks (just like when I came in 11th at that damn math contest when I has missed only one question, the same as the 2nd place finisher), or politics may mean that another speaker is chosen even if my talk is more relevant. There are lots of reasons why my talks might not be accepted. I still want to give them.

The latest one I submitted was to Open Source Bridge, titled "Hacker Dojo: Anarchy with Respect." The conference is in Portland during my birthday week. Whoo!

The excerpt (helped by Jonathan, who, by the way, suffers domain name envy, just ask him):

Imagine an open source project was an actual place: a place where people volunteer to make something better; contribute their time, knowledge and resources; a place to share ideas or just to get work done. Hacker Dojo is for hackers and thinkers and this session will describe how the open source ethos can successfully be applied to a physical space.

And the full description:

Hacker Dojo is a community center in Mountain View, California, for hackers and thinkers to meet, discuss, learn, create, build and play. More than a co-working space, more than an event space, and more than the chaos it could be, Hacker Dojo encompasses the open source culture and spirit both at its start and in its continual development.

Starting from a small but passionate group of developers, Hacker Dojo has grown into one of the biggest hacker spaces in the world. The growth hasn’t been without its pains, the same pains that successful open source software projects go through: How do we manage a large group of people with differing opinions and personalities? How do we inspire the many to help help the dedicated few who do the bulk of the work? How do we “indoctrinate” new members into our open and inviting culture without losing their valuable contribution? How do we handle the bad apples while building our champions?

Adopting an open source philosophy from the code to the conduct has enabled our community to grow, developing into our vision of a Silicon Valley institution. Hear of our journey of “anarchy with respect,” and how open source works in physical space.

I recall having a conversation with Andy a while ago, where he mentioned there was no way he would give a speech, much less submit a proposal. Not something he wants to do, nope. Kris said the same thing. I know that I struggled when I gave presentations and taught classes at PDI, and I talked fast when presenting plans at various board meetings ("Wow, she sure is nervous." "No, she's talking fast because she has a lot to say."), but, when I do them well, I enjoy talking with a group of people. I like the challenge of being both entertaining and informing. And keeping their eyes off their laptops and on me.

Hmmmm, now that I think about it, I should add a "speaking" section when the site redesign happens. I can have three sections: "happened," "not yet happened," and "not gonna happen." Oh, yes, this amuses me.

UPDATED: talk was accepted, my write-up is finished and available, too.

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