Another belated summary: Web 2.0 Expo

April 29, 2007 — Aaron Fulkerson

I attended the Web2.0Expo last week. MindTouch was exhibiting and Ken spoke about wikis in the enterprise. I had an interesting and pleasant conversation about badgeware with John Roberts. I made it to the AllThingsD launch party. And I spoke so much to so many people I ended up losing my voice for a couple days. I believe this was the largest trade show/conference I have ever been to. I was told there were over 10,000 people in attendance and the exhibit floor had more than sixty exhibitors.

I spent most of my time at the conference on the exhibit floor working the MindTouch booth with Patrick (our newest addition–a very competent and pleasant sales dude) and Corey. I have to mention I love demoing our software! I'm not trying to gloat, but when we show people our work we regularly receive unanimous praise from the crowd. Or should I say from the merry mob? We had a lot of traffic. Those who gave us positive feedback included customers of competitors and even a couple competitors who stopped by to see, our enterprise software, MindTouch Deki in action. Every once in a while I spoke with someone who wanted to know if MindTouch Deki could part the Red Sea, end world hunger, or make their ex-spouse love them again all for under $5,000. However in general, folks understood Deki for what it is: a very powerful, highly usable, incredibly affordable collaboration platform that MindTouch has managed to make ridiculously easy to install (15 minutes including download), remarkably easy to use, and it's delivered with a dramatically lower total cost of ownership because Deki automatically updates and patches itself.

I had the distinct pleasure of speaking with some current customers of MindTouch who stopped by our booth too. One had come all the way from Salisbury, North Carolina. The city of Salisbury uses MindTouch Deki for sharing information and team collaboration. I wish I could remember the fellow's name. It was nice chatting with him. I asked him how the software was working out for them and he said: "It's great, we love it!" Sweet! (I said 'sweet' not him). I really enjoy connecting with folks, talking tech, and showing off MindTouch products. MindTouch gets most of our inspiration from feedback we get through in person encounters or by way of our community at OpenGarden.org.  

Unfortunately I only managed to make it to a few sessions. I caught a couple sessions on identity and missed a couple others I would have liked to had made it to. If you read this blog regularly you know I'm keenly interested in an Open Web Initiative (OWI) by which we users could have an extended YADIS or just use XRDS to describe a person's identity; e.g.- OPML file for feeds, and podcasts, URIs to personal resources (Flickr, Jaiku/Twitter, personal and work blog), a URI to a personal Atom repository, a FOAF, etc. This isn't for any commercial interest, but is really spurred by my (and SteveB's) personal interest in having more sophisticated privacy controls and mobility of profile, content, contacts, ect…i.e.- identity. Anyway, it was great to meet the folks who are driving OpenID, The first OpenID talk I attended was Kaliya's (talk here). She's wonderful and fun. She's also a powerful Connector in the OpenID space and an information Maven, which is remarkable because she isn't an engineer. At one point I participated in her talk because the audience didn't seem to understand the significance of OpenID beyond a single sign-on. So, I gave a 60 second monologue (at her invitation) about how it can and almost certainly will enable things like OWI. Later I attended Brian Ellin and David Recordan's talk, which was a rudimentary technical talk about how to implement and consume OpenID. It was useful and well attended. They also passed out a fancy OpenID tools CD. 

I attended a session on Open Source Business Models for Web 2.0 with John Roberts, Co-Founder and CEO, SugarCRM  and Mårten Mickos, CEO, MySQL AB. I met Mårten previously at OSCON06 along with Monty Widenius (co-founder MySQL) who graciously attended our OpenGarden.org launch party. I asked John a few pointed questions about badgeware during the question/answer section of the session that got him a tad on the defensive. Turns out badgeware is a dirty word to folks with an attribution clause in their software license. One of the questions I asked was: "do you think that if all the components and libraries you use in your stack required similar attribution it would adversely effect your business." I didn't really get an answer from John on this. After the session I spoke briefly with Mårten and tried to pin him down on whether he thought the recent badgeware licenses were good, bad, or otherwise for open source. I also asked him if he thought the recent flood of cash from venture captialists to "open source" companies was going to positively, negatively, or at all effect open source and the software industry as a whole. The VC backed open source companies are primarily the folks spawning new licenses with attribution clauses. Mårten was very diplomatic and unwilling to voice any opinion other than suggesting companies with attribution clauses were trying to prevent closed source competitors from stealing all our portions of their source code. I suggested using a GPL style license would prevent this from happening.

After the crowd of job hunters cleared from around John I spoke with him about badgeware, open source, and OSI. He seemed defensive initially, but as soon as I convinced him I wasn't out to 'get him' and that I was only interested in understanding his position he lightened up considerably and we had a friendly chat for about thirty minutes. He described his point of view and I described mine regarding attribution licenses. John wants to protect his and his team's work. He feels attribution is the right way to do this. I feel attribution is unnecessary and I reiterate my original question, which I never did get a good answer to, what if every open source project required attribution? For example, PHP, Linux, MySQL, etc. How would this impact companies like SugarCRM or MindTouch? It seems ridiculous, but I think it's a valid question. The fact is the forces driving innovation today in technology on the web, you know this thing we call Web2.0, is open source and open standards. Period. Developers can very quickly create compelling applications because there is a wealth of open source components available to us. Also, thanks to open standards you can throw an API or two into the mix and you have something pretty cool. If it's not particularly useful it will likely become a component of something that is useful at a later date. What if all these components had attribution licenses? Even trivial applications would end up looking like NASCAR race cars. I suppose that's not the worst thing in the wor
ld.

John suggested attribution is similar to what open source packagers like RedHat are doing when they bundle software and brand with the RedHat logo. I disagreed because removing RedHat branding is trivial and there is not a licensing requirement that the RedHat logo be present. At least, not to my knowledge. The conversation with John was friendly, but at times I felt like I was talking to Ari Fleishcer because so many of my questions were being deflected or were met with canned responses that didn't quite answer the question and were barely applicable. John was warm to note that the entire SugarCRM application was developed by his team and it's not a fork of something or a repackaging. I'm sure this is true, but it's still using a lot of additional open source components and libraries. There are many people who are passionate about open source who believe John thinks open source is whatever helps him to make money. I told John this and he sincerely informed me that he and his team are engineers who believe in open source and are simply trying to protect their hard work.

The final point I pressed John on was OSI. I think OSI performs a useful service to us as open source developers. They educate the public and attempt to ensure standardization of licensing, which prevents confusion. Also, they're a useful resource and community that can be tapped when people have questions about copyright and software licensing. By SugarCRM not seeking OSI certification of their license they're, in effect, turning their back on what is widely accepted to be the organization that is the keeper of the open source definition. John said he had tried to engage with OSI and had not gotten anywhere. He was interested in participating and claimed that some of the people he had spoken with had unfairly labeled the SugarCRM license as being a rehash of the Berkeley advertising clause (I'm recalling from memory), which personally I don't think is an incorrect assessment. John also posited that OSI is non-inclusive and difficult to work with. Moreover, John asked who are these guys and who voted them into office? How do they vote? Why are they the keepers of open source? Who appointed them? Can I participate? How do I? These are valid questions. Some, but not all are answered by the bylaws and there is an, albeit slow, movement underfoot to create membership, which in my opinion is long overdue. I'm glad to be able to point out the board is now posting their minutes too. The very interesting point John made was that the FSF was being especially helpful and inclusive in approving his attribution license. This surprised me because of the previously linked to article put out by GNU on the Berkeley advertising clause (re-link), which describes a history identical to my aforementioned NASCAR example.

For the record I think John is a good guy who is trying to do what he thinks is right for him, his team of engineers, and his company. Also, I think SugarCRM is a good product worth buying. I'm not sure yet if attribution licenses are bad. I think they're unnecessary. I am suspicious of this new crop of licenses because more licenses means there is more to be confused about. Moreover,  it seems strange to me that an application should be given special concessions that other components required by it are not given. In other words, what makes SugarCRM or one of the other twenty applications with an attribution clause different from the more than dozen open source components they're building on? Should they honor these components and libraries similarly to how they're demanding by prominently displaying all their logos on their application's interface?

The last bit worth covering regarding my attendance at  Web 2.0 Expo is the AllThingsD launch party thrown by Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher of The Wall Street Journal that Graeme and I attended. It was held at the Mountain View Computer History Museum. There was great food and good drink. Graeme blogs about my driving. Also, the Web2Open party was fun, but I'm afraid I had quite a lot to drink there.

One final note. Ross Mayfield attended Ken's wiki session. If you read my blog you know he had some harsh words for me at the Gilbane conference in San Francisco a month ago. Granted, I've been critical in the past of Socialtext espousing open source. When Ross saw me he came over and shook my hand and said: "Hi, my name is Ross. We got off to a bad start previously. Let's drink a beer some time and chat." That was nice of him. We bumped into each other throughout the event and we were friendly. I had planned to take him up on that beer offer and discuss with him badgeware, to get his opinion as I did John Roberts, and my opinion his company has approached open source incorrectly. However, the fact is his team has helped define open standards, adheres to them, and has helped several other open source projects monetarily and otherwise. Nonetheless, I don't agree with his approach to licensing or that Socialtext claimed for several years to be open source, but didn't release any source code.  

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Carnevale and Mardi Gras in a Single Post

February 22, 2007 — Aaron Fulkerson

San Diego’s manufactured festivals: Carnevale and Mardi Gras. Matt Yukor, the Visions restaurant bartender, is drunk and itching for a fight.

Little Italy has a Carnevale night. Tara, Ashby, and I spent about an hour and half walking around the neighborhood checking out the stilt walkers, musicians, and people wearing Venetian masks. I asked on gentleman on stilts if I could ride on his shoulders. He said ‘no’. I asked if he would consider at least giving me a piggy back. Alas, he said no to this as well. We grabbed a Guinness and Calamari at Zia’s Bistro. They do wine events early evenings on the weekdays. We hadn’t been there, but we liked it. As for Carnevale, it was pretty sedate. Then again we were indoors by 7PM. Maybe it got crazy after we left, but I doubt it. The whole concept of Carnevale is cooked up by the local businesses in order to get folks from outside Little Italy to come out and spend money. I noticed Fillippi’s had a line of people going darn near around the block. This is one of the busiest places in Little Italy, but not one of the best in terms of quality of food.

San Diego does Mardi Gras. Kind of. The city cordons off a 2 block by (about) 10 block wide swath of the city in the Gaslamp district, creates a police militarized zone of happy-fun-time, and charges $20 for admittance. I didn’t actually go to Mardi Gras, but Steve and I walked the circumference of the event bar-hopping along the way. Neither of us could convince ourselves, or one another, that spending $20 a person to listen to DJs, second rate cover bands, and throngs of drunks cheering maniacally at passing PG-13 rated floats was a good use of our dollars. We did decide that if we saw a hole in security we would slip in. However, the city was damn serious about collecting their $20 a person. Security was better for this event than I have seen at some military installations. I’m serious. There were police in staggered patrols around the circumference on horseback, bicycle, foot and squad car. I don’t believe we were ever out of site of police or hired security. The city likely needs to collect $20 a person because keeping people out must have cost a fortune! Inside the event, Damien told me, they were equally serious about maintaining absolute control. Allegedly, even crossing the street was a security risk in the eyes of the police and was disallowed. This made it difficult to meet up with friends on the opposite side of the street.

In lieu of Mardi Gras, Steve and I started off at an Irish pub on 4th st. We had a couple Guinness. We then walked all the way around the event. On 7th street we almost stepped into a restaurant called Visions, which Steve had been told by somebody was a happening and funky place. While walking toward the, albeit side, door I was physically halted by a fellow named Matt Yukor. He was a tall 30-ish bartender who shoved his hand into my chest and demanded to know: "where do you think you’re going?" I told him we were planning on going inside to have a drink and he derisively sneered: "no you’re not" with an alcohol laced breath and slight slur to his speech. Apparently Matt Yukor had been drinking on the job. Evidently the bar was in the Mardi Gras and Matt Yukor, the bartender for Visions restaurant, San Diego, CA (search engine optimization) thought it appropriate to lay hands on a potential patron and assert what little authority his life afforded him. I thanked him for letting us know it was closed to the public as I gently placed my hand on his chest in a much more ginger manner than his was thrust onto my body and told him to have a good night. As Steve and I turned to leave it must have struck Matt that I had made a point of mimicking his actions and he flipped out. Matt Yukor, Visions restaurant bartender, San Diego, CA was itching for a fight. I suggested to him that he probably shouldn’t shove potential patrons. With his chest puffed out he charged us in an attempt to rub against either of us, mind you we were already walking away. It was hilariously reminiscent of high school, which I’m guessing Matt Yukor, 30+ year old Visions restaurant bartender (another attempt at search engine optimization), likely did not graduate from. This made me stop and smile. I asked a couple other employees who were smoking nearby what Matt’s name was. Matt Yukor proudly announced his name and even spelled his last name for us: "Matt YUKOR–Y-U-K-O-R". I hadn’t asked for the spelling, it struck me that he may be attempting to prove that he could spell. Meanwhile another employee proudly hollared at us: "the owner don’t give a fuck so don’t bother, he don’t give a fuck man, I’m serious." Hehehe… Needless to say, avoid Visions Restaurant in San Diego, CA where Matt Yukor drinks on the job, is itching for a fight, servers don’t speak grammatically correct English, and allegedly the owner "don’t give a fuck".

Steve and I left Visions Restaurant in San Diego, CA and went to the the Marriott’s Altitude bar, which is on the 23rd floor (if I recall correctly) and overlooks the ball field. A very cool place where the staff is classy and polite. Finally, we finished our night off at La Cantina. Daniel the bartender sings opera and makes the best damn margarita I think I’ve ever had. Here’s how he does it: 1 lemon, 1 lime, 1/2 an orange, 2 shots tequila, and about 1 1/2 shots of Controy. All shaken vigoursly with ice, served in a salted glass with a lime. Killer. Not too sweet, just right. The food is pretty good there too.

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Valentines Day

February 14, 2007 — Aaron Fulkerson

We went out for seafood at Anthony’s Fish Grotto for Valentine’s Day. It was pretty good. It’s very casual and is on the harbor only a few blocks from the condo. I liked it. The food was above average and the service was good too. I’ll give it a 7.5/10.

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Glenwood Springs, Colorado

January 30, 2007 — Aaron Fulkerson

With Nebraska behind us we lunched in Sterling, Colorado and spent the night in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. Sterling is a town of 1,500, which according to the waitress has "boomed" in the last several years since the state penitentiary opened. It’s in the high desert plains about an hour or more out of Denver. We ate at the closest restaurant to the highway, which happened to be a Country Kitchen. The service was good as the waitresses, like so many people, were enamored with Ashby. The food was what you would expect from a Country Kitchen, which is to say: poopy.

Tara and I sped through Denver and headed into the mountains. This was why I chose this route rather than heading south and cutting across on 40. The route is spectacularly picturesque. We got into Glenwood Springs a little after 6 PM MST and stayed at the Ramada Inn, which was probably pretty nice twenty years ago. We dined at Tequilas, which makes a mean margarita and had some pretty good mexican food. Tara and I have finally learned that kids meals are easily the size of a reasonable adult portion.

I really wanted to stick around for another day in Glenwood Springs and check out the hot springs, but duty called and I needed to be in San Diego by Wednesday so I could make the Content Week conference on Thursday. It’s small and probably a waste of my time, but it’s local and we should be there representing.

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Lincoln, Nebraska

January 29, 2007 — Aaron Fulkerson

On the road to California the food is bad, the cold is worse, and Ashby is cool as ever. Tara, Ashby, and I got on the road late this morning. The temperature, with wind chill, was well below zero. Re-packing the car was a chore in the bitter cold. I don’t know how I could have ever fit everything were it not for the Yakima Skybox. That thing rules! Here’s a shot of our vehicle that was taken later in the day in Iowa.

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Notice the "Baby on Board" sign and UNC ram that was supplied by Roy. Tara got the "Baby on Board" sign to deter people from road raging around her. I’m not sure the sign effective is with road ragers. However, It’s been my experience that there are a couple signs you can place on your vehicle that will deter police from ticketing you, no not the UNC ram, but:: 1). "I love Jesus" 2). "Baby on Board". Don’t ask me why, but both have worked for me.

We got on the road at 10:34 AM CST. We made it to Iowa about an hour and a half later. Tara and I stopped for lunch about an hour out of Des Moines at a fancy roadside diner and gas station. It was so bloody cold I had to pry the car’s gas tank flap open with my knife. Although we didn’t eat the buffet, I did shoot a photo of it. Fabulous. The highlight of our meal was when Tara asked the waitress (photo below) if she enjoyed the salads the diner served. Something tells me this server mostly enjoyed the buffet.

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Kansas may be flatter than a pancake, but Nebraska, I suspect, is at least as flat as one.

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I’m currently writing this from a hotel in Lincoln, Nebraska. I’ve driven by Lincoln several times before, but I’ve never actually been in the town, until now. It’s clean. And what little I’ve seen of the city it seems strangely new. Lincoln is the capital of Nebraska and has a population of 250,000, the main industry is insurance. Odd, insurance. We’ll hit the road very early in the morning and will make Denver, Colorado tomorrow.

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Adiós Otra Vez Duluth

January 19, 2007 — Aaron Fulkerson

I’m overdue for a family update. First, turns out Tara is 50% Wonder Woman and 55% Hulk (see comments), BrwaaAAAaaa! Last weekend we headed north for our last visit to Duluth before our move. Tara had a chance to spend some time with her mother and I stopped by Scenic Cafe for coffee and a couple Guinness (in that order). Tara was happy to see the in-laws and their undead rat dog. On the topic of Scenic Cafe, if you are looking for dining on the North Shore of Lake Superior this is the place to go. Disclosure: my buddy Scott owns it. Scott is an amazing chef. The place is funky and fun. The menu is eclectic. It has great beer, wine, and coffee, and the food is even better. Plus it is on Lake Superior (between Duluth and Two Harbors).

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Ashby is really diggin’ her forts. We set up a blanket and pillow fort in the family room and she goes crazy with excitement! Evidence below. The only other event of significance to report is that we’ve sold the Accord. It’s great to be down to one car. I really looking forward to the office being two blocks from home as it will be in San Diego. I won’t have to drive, less waste! Work has been a tad painful as my office in MN winds down and the office in CA winds up. With all the odds and ends Tara and I have been managing I’m especially out of touch of with work. Living downtown San Diego is going to be different. I know Tara and Ashby are going to love it. Take today for example. It is butt ass cold and snowing outside. Tara and Ashby are trapped in the house all day. Something as simple as going to the store is a huge undertaking and, at best, a two hour ordeal. In San Diego it’s 50-something F. There is a play ground a few blocks away. They can go a couple blocks away for coffee. Walk along the harbor. Go to the zoo. Head out to the beach. Catch a donkey show in TJ, you know whatever. :-)

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I was planning a going-away party for myself last week. Pathetic, I know. As I sifted through my address book it occurred to me that I’ve pissed off a lot of people in this state. Sure some were people I had to fire, or instilled with a desire to quit. Then there was a raft of contractors that I had the misfortune of working with. From the incompetent to the criminal. My favorite contractor in Minnesota was definitely the graphic design firm that incorporated another company’s trademarked logo into the design they sold us. At first they claimed it wasn’t a trademarked logo, but instead a generic graphic. Then they asserted that it was our fault because it was just a place holder image in the design and they never intended for it to be part of the design. That was awesome. And then of course there were droves of people in technology organizations that I suppose I offended by being very vocal and maybe occasionally rude. So, I’m opinionated and I don’t suffer fools lightly. Is that bad? At least you know what I think. Most of my offenses come from me being very candid. I do not like to waste time on prancing about issues and I tend to be pretty direct with my opinions. Don’t get me wrong. I always respect others’ opinions. I appreciate hearing them in fact. Indeed, I find it difficult to deal with people who obfuscate their emotions or are unwilling to candidly share their opinions. It’s painfully frustrating for me. I think this is why I’ve always loved Italy. Southern Italy especially. They scream, they yell. You know what they think even if you don’t speak their language. I like that. As for work, I’ll admit I’m pretty demanding. I know Pete’s woman said something to him when he decided to come work with me along the lines of: are you sure, you know Aaron is impossibly demanding…or something like that. I know I can be difficult to work with, or be married to (for different reasons though I believe). I think it’s because I’m passionate about what I do and I tend to demand a lot of commitment. If you’re not fully committed to something, why do it? Just to collect a paycheck? I don’t want to share my life with people like that. Just going through the motions.

Maybe I’m being too harsh. Most people do just work for the paycheck and have no real interest in their jobs beyond that. Maybe those people are really passionate about side hobbies. Cool, go get paid doing that. You’ll probably be happier. I’m not saying these people are less worthy, I just don’t want to work with them. If you’re not all in, don’t bother, and don’t waste my time.

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Ashby Crawls on Water!!

November 14, 2006 — Aaron Fulkerson

Ok, so she hasn’t crawled on water (yet), but Ashby did start crawling last week. Right at 10 months. She has been mobile for at least two months now, but she would propel herself about by what I can only describe as log-rolling. She would roll from one end of the room to the next, which had to make her dizzy. She is so darn big I think it’s been difficult for her to master crawling. Now she is trying to master climbing up the stairs.

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Tommy and Brenda were down this weekend. Tara and I broke the news to them that we’re very likely moving to San Diego at the end of February. Needless to say that was rather emotional. It’s been wonderful living so close to them and Tara, Ashby and I will all miss them greatly. I know Tara takes great comfort in having her folks so close by. Moreover, Ashby loooooves Tbone and PorkChop. To be honest, they’re really our closest friends. We generally spend two weekends a month with them and I’m going to miss having them nearby. Also, I know Tara and Ashby are going to miss our wonderful neighbors J.J., Ron, and Alla. Tara and J.J. have grown close in the last few months (as have Ashby and Alla) and Tara doesn’t easily open herself to new friends. I’ll admit I have allowed myself to fantasize about Alla and Ashby growing up together and remaining close for many many years, even though I knew we almost certainly wouldn’t be around long enough for that. Alla is Ashby’s first friend though and they’re so sweet. End the long term I’m certain it’s for the best though.

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We went to Buca’s in Maple Grove. I’ve never been particularly fond of their food–it’s ok, but it’s a great place when you have young children. It’s loud and there’s lot to look at. While waiting for a table I took Ashby into the bar (non-smoking) and sat at the bar and had a drink while waiting for Tara and her folks to park the car. The place was totally packed and it was the only place I could sit down and keep Ashby somewhat sheltered from the throng. I got some disapproving looks, which I thought was odd. So, what’s the protocol now that most places disallow smoking? Who cares if I take my daughter into a non-smoking bar? Does she soak the sin of drinkers by way of osmosis? It’s not like I’m tying one on nor was I driving. She certainly enjoyed it.

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Ashby, as always when she is on the go, had a blast. I believe she’s been to Buca’s at least five times since being born. The chain started here in Minneapolis. As an uninteresting side note many many years ago I opened a 350+ seat restaurant that was a total Buca’s rip-off. It was called Bella Vita. I didn’t know it at the time being I had not been to a Buca’s (I think there was only a couple around back then). Anyhow, I guess that’s another reason I like it. I had opened Bella Vita just months after meeting Tara (over 10 years ago). I started out as Soux Chef and then about 6 months later took over as executive chef. The former chef was a complete moron. Then 6 months later Tara and I took off and backpacked Europe for several months having very quickly saved enough money. It was kind of a funny thing. I remember I had just been promoted to Executive Chef and was making really good money (for how young I was and where I lived). Tara and I were talking outside of Bella Vita, smoking of course. And somehow we got on this conversation about how we should go to Africa. So, we decided we would save for the next 5-6 months and split to Africa. After a little research we discovered Europe would be lots cheaper to fly to. At that time I made it a practice of working for no longer than a year before splitting into the woods or on a road trip for a prolonged period of time. I miss that. I can’t believe I’ve lived in MN for just over two years now and I only made it into the BWCA once and only did one white water canoe trip (which Tommy and Brenda still swear they’ll never canoe with us again since that trip–gooood times). Lame.

I can’t wait to take Ashby abroad. I’ll never forget that American fellow we met in Pompeii. He was there with his wife and ~5 year old son. I believe he was a gemologist, or diamond merchant, or something odd like that, but related to gems. I remember thinking how damn cool it was that he was able to just take off and travel Europe for several weeks with his wife and son. With two kids this would be really hard, I think. If not impossible. I think we’ll stick with one child.

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Halloween in the Homeland

November 6, 2006 — Aaron Fulkerson

Halloween_2006 (7)I had a couple speaking engagements in San Jose at KMWorld last week that conflicted with Halloween; so, rather than missing Ashby’s first Halloween, Tara and Ashby headed out to San Jose with me. It was great to have them there. We spent the entire week at my sister’s house, Julie, in Atherton. It would be wonderful if Tara and I could live the rest of our lives without ever being separate for an entire day. Tara read somewhere this is how Paul and Linda McCartney lived. That would be fantastic. Anyhow, it was great for Ashby to see her cousins again: Skylar and Owen. We were out there in June for at least a few days; so, it wasn’t their first time together, but now that Ashby is older she was able to really engage them.

Ashby really digs traveling. She is so into it, it’s a riot. She just has the time of her life at the airport, on the plane, strolling about in public from place to place. I think she thinks she is the queen of the parade or something. She just loves it! This girl loves to be on the go. This was the third time Halloween_2006 (13) she has flown since being born. The first time we flew to North Carolina so I could speak at UNC, then, as I said, we were in California last June (Tom Tran’s wedding), and now this Halloween trip. She’ll likely fly again this year to San Diego. More on that later.

Tara and Ashby spent all day at Julie and Paul’s while I went into San Jose to work from the hotel was holed up at: Hotel Montgomery, a snazzy and affordable hotel just a couple blocks from the McEnery Convention Center where KMWorld was being held. For some bizarre reason my sister’s place doesn’t have WiFi with broadband. I have no idea what’s up with that considering Julie is a Publisher for a major technology media company. It’s always strange going back to the valley. It definitely feels like home. As soon as I step off the plane the smell hits me and I immediately know I’m back to the homeland. Maybe that’s my kind of pollution. I don’t know. There is something comforting about the urban sprawl, the rolling foothills, and good Asian food on every corner. I guess you can go home.

Tara and I got out for sushi twice the week we were there. Living in Minnesota we don’t get many chances to get decent food…I mean Asian food. In case you didn’t know: Swedes, Norwegians, and Irish don’t have the most diverse palletes. We went to Bonsai in Redwood City off El Camino on Monday while Julie and Paul monitored Ashby while she slept, which had totally shitty service and ‘ok’ food. Then later in the week we took Ashby to some sushi place in Palo Alto that, oddly enough, Tara had been to once previously a couple years ago with her mother. Odd coincidence. This place was pretty good. Ashby ate rice for the first time, she loved it, and, as usual, had a gay ol’ time with us. She really gets a thrill about being on the go.

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I spoke on Tuesday about wikis being the future of Knowledge Management and then on Wednesday I spoke about business/enterprise wikis and features and attributes to consider when selecting a wiki. I wrote briefly about this at my OpenGarden.org blog, which reminds me: I need to publish my PPTs up there. In general, I’m sorry to say, I think KMWorld is lame. Mainly because the Halloween_2006 (23)organizers were just so damn disorganized. Just to give you some idea: it took me 15-20 minutes, 5people and three trips to figure out that I needed another ribbon on my badge to get me into the exhibition hall. Also, they misplaced Joel Waterman (Program Director, Enterprise Search Solutions, IBM) and I in the ‘collaboration’ track and totally boffed the description for our presentation.

I was stunned to see TheBrain there. Apparently they’ve been at KMWorld every year since 2000. It’s weird because I remember this software application like 6 or 7 years ago. It’s a mind map based personal information manager. I remember when I first saw it I was so impressed by the interface. Strangely the interface hasn’t changed since I first saw it–six years ago. It looks old. It’s kind of like when you see furniture from the 1980′s…not pretty. Not exactly a classic. I look at some of these bubbly Web 2.0 interfaces and I just know it’s going to be the same thing a few years from now. We’re going to look back at them and wonder what the hell was everyone was smoking. Just because we can make everything clickable, draggable, with rounded edges and primary colors doesn’t me should. San Jose

Then there was Halloween. Wwwwweeeeeeee!! This was so much fun! I hauled ass back to Julie’s house after my presentation on Wednesday just in time to catch everyone geared up and ready to go trick-or-treating. Ashby was, as you can see, dressed as a Lady Bug from hell. Ok, so I said she was from hell for creep factor. It didn’t work well. I grabbed the only costume I had at my disposal in 5 minutes and we headed out. It was awesome! Ashby was totally into it. We went a couple miles away from Julie and Paul’s place and met up with a mob of children, and their parents, that Julie and Paul know. Tara and I made it out to about a dozen houses before heading home early to get Ashby to bed.

On Thursday, Paul and I went to a San Jose Sharks game. I had never been to a hockey game. It was a blast! Paul got us some killer seats: eighth row center. Other than Mark, the very big and clearly mentally impaired dude in the seat next to who kept crowding me and periodically dropping peanuts into my beer it was great. Hockey is loads of fun live. San_Jose_Sharks (32)Sharks lost 1-2 to the Rangers.

Friday, we convened the: "Phase 2 of Establish Global Dominance" meeting with several of the MindTouch core team. MUHAHAHAHA!!! The next 6 months are going to be very exciting.

Finally, on Saturday we had brunch in Las Altos (Las Altos Cafe–good) with Josh Branscomb. An old buddy of mine that I graduated from UNC with. We did our senior project together. He’s pretty cool, for a Republican. Josh actually helped forge MindTouch waaaaaay back when it was still just an idea, before there were even other Wiki companies out there. In fact, he really was a founder. Instead of continuing with MindTouch he decided to go to Stanford Law School to get his law-monkey certification. He’s doing great though. He spent last Summer in D.C. and he’ll be working with Wilson and Sonsini this summer. In case you didn’t know, this is probably the most well respected technology focused law firm in the country. They represent Google, Yahoo, and perhaps the most impressive client: MindTouch!

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MidTown Global Market

October 15, 2006 — Aaron Fulkerson

Midtown Market (34)Midtown Market (12)Having only lived in the Twin Cities for just over two years now I had heard of an ethnic market in South Minneapolis on more than a few occaisions, but we hadn’t visited it until today. The Midtown Global Market [d] is an internationally-themed public market featuring fresh and prepared foods, ethnic restaurants, and vendors of arts and crafts from around the world. Ron and J.J. mentioned the market a week or so ago and Tara and I figured we should check it out. Ashby loves being out and about. She is really into people watching. We didn’t make it to the market until 3:30 PM today (Sunday); so, it was pretty slow, but it was really fun. We had some food at Safari, which was some type of African/Island fusion that was just wonderful! We got some proscuitto and a couple types of salamis (still not the same as being in Italy). Also, I had a great cup of coffee at Mapps Tea and Coffee, which was truly one of the best cups of Joe I have had in some time. Finally, some Latina took to the center stage in the market and provided us with some lovely music and enterntainment that Ashby danced to as she watched this darling chica with some maracas. I’d like to know the history of the building. It looks like an old grain exchange or something. I didn’t see any historical plaque on it though. I hear there are several other ethnic markets in the Midtown neighborhood.

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"You might enjoy this"

February 27, 2006 — Aaron Fulkerson

I got this email today. I was rather offended. Here is the original email:

—–Original Message—–

Subject: Catagory “5″ Blizzard Emergency

This is an actually weather bulletin from a county emergency manager just outside a small town in western North Dakota after a recent snow storm.

WEATHER BULLETIN

Up here in the Northern Plains we just recovered from a Historic event — may I even say a “Weather Event” of “Biblical Proportions” — with a historic blizzard of up to 44″ inches of snow and winds to 90 MPH that broke trees in half, knocked down utility poles, stranded hundreds of motorists in lethal snow banks, closed ALL roads, isolated scores of communities and cut power to 10′s of thousands.

FYI:

George Bush did not come….
FEMA did nothing….
No one howled for the government…
No one blamed the government.
No one even uttered an expletive on TV…
Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton did not visit.
Our Mayor’s did not blame Bush or anyone else.
Our Governor did not blame Bush or anyone else either.
CNN, ABC, CBS, FOX, or NBC did not visit – or report on this category 5 snow storm.
Nobody demanded $2,000 debit cards…..
No one asked for a FEMA Trailer House….
No one looted…
Nobody – I mean Nobody demanded the government do something.
Nobody expected the government to do anything either.
No Larry King, No Bill O’Rielly, No Oprah, No Chris Mathews and No Geraldo Rivera.
No Shaun Penn, No Barbara Striesand, No Hollywood types to be found.
And
Nope, we just melted the snow for water.
Sent out caravans of SUV’s to pluck people out of snow engulfed cars.
The truck drivers pulled people out of snow banks and didn’t ask for a penny.
Local restaurants made food and the police and fire departments delivered it to the snow bound families.
Families took in the stranded people – total strangers.
We Fired up wood stoves.
Broke out coal oil lanterns or Coleman lanterns.
We put on an extra layers of clothes because up here it is “Work or Die”.
We did not wait for some affirmative action government to get us out of a mess created by being immobilized by a welfare program that trades votes for sittin’ at home’ checks.
Even though a Category “5″ blizzard of this scale has never fallen this early…we know it can happen and how to deal with it ourselves.
“In my many travels, I have noticed that once one gets north of about 48 degrees North Latitude, 90% most of the world’s social problems evaporate.”
It does seem that way, at least to me.. I hope this gets passed on.
Maybe,, SOME people will get the message,, The world Does not owe you a living….

—–My Response—–

No, I did not enjoy this.

Anyone who compares a blizzard, regardless of the magnitude, to a Category 4 or 5 hurricane simply doesn’t know what a hurricane is. Let’s not even take into account the tragic flooding of unprecedented proportions that hit a city the size of New Orleans. Not even Fargo/Moorehead, which seems to require FEMA assistance every seven years is remotely close to the size or splendor of New Orleans. Nope, not even the entire population along the banks of the Red River, which seems to require FEMA assistance every so often, which is rewarded with assistance from FEMA and the federal government every so often without delay, without question, without the rest of the United States suggesting that maybe they shouldn’t rebuild their dinky little towns along a river which, generally speaking, flood the towns every seven years.

The city of New Orleans alone has a population of 1.2 Million people. That’s just New Orleans. If you count the impacted cities you’re well over 2 Million people. Now, there are estimates that about 60% of the population evacuated. So, let’s say that approximately 1.2 Million people of the 2 Million (probably less) were trapped in the impacted area out of power, under water, out of water, starving, begging for help from the government that they have invested their tax dollars in. No one came for over a week. Thousands died as a result of this. North Dakota has a total population of 642,200 people. That’s the entire state. Tens of thousands without power? Gee…wow. Try over 1.2 million people without power, water, food. Melt snow? Gee, that’s great. There was no water for these people in New Orleans. Interestingly enough, FEMA had truck loads of bottled water they didn’t truck in. Why? Ask FEMA. It took them more than a week. Why didn’t these people leave? Well, like I said they were trapped. The military and police blocked the bridges and did NOT allow them out of New Orleans. Unless, in many cases, you were white. I’ll not even address the absurdity of ‘looting’ other than to say that this was sparse and in almost all cases was out of necessity for survival.

The first time I visited to New Orleans was in 1984. I was 9 years old and my family and I were there for the World’s Fair. I fell in love with the city and the great state of Louisiana. The culture, the music, the people, the spirit of the city…words can’t describe it. My wife and I, before we were married would again visit New Orleans to enjoy the great food and incredible music. In 1999 we were married in New Orleans’ French Quarter. Some day, I would like to live in the New Orleans of my memory. However, I fear the New Orleans of my memory is gone. Of course, neither the author of this email, nor those who resend it have any idea what I’m talking about.

The world does not ‘owe you a living,’ but we are Americans, we are citizens of the greatest and richest country in the world, more importantly we are human beings and we do owe our fellow man a little decency. The fact that these people’s tax dollars fund FEMA and our federal government just as much, if not more (in sheer numbers), than those in North Dakota who receive federal assistance when the Red River floods aside, let’s show them a little human decency and care for their lives and well being.

“In my many travels, I have noticed that once one gets north of about 48 degrees North Latitude, 90% most of the world’s social problems evaporate.” Well, this person clearly hasn’t traveled far from their “small town in western North Dakota.” I have, and I know better. The social problems found in the north are the same as those in the south. I don’t care if THIS gets passed along. Whether someone gets the message or not, I don’t care. It’s not my purpose to ‘teach’ others my perspective about how I or they or we are better than someone else because we live in some place rather than another or because we have a different color skin. On a final note, it’s pretty clear to me that this has some pretty racist overtones.

No, I did not enjoy this.

~ Aaron

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