Standing on the Toes of Giants at Mozilla24
In 2002, a short while after I started at MySQL, I saw Lawrence Lessig present at OSCON. The presentation was extraordinarily good and Lessig is a tremendously passionate, genuine and compelling orator.
I immediately revised my presentation style. I stole what ideas and style I could. While I was mostly presenting about MySQL and PHP at the time, the ideas served me well (though the style has at times fit me about as well as a young child fits their parent's clothes.)
Five years have passed since then, and I have given a hundred or more presentations. Never have I presented as well as Lessig that night, but I still keep trying. In a few days, I am going to have to try a lot harder.
Early this August, I helped Mozillian Mary Colvig out as she worked to coordinate content and participation for the upcoming Mozilla24 event. At the time, we hoped to be a part of Software Freedom Day. I volunteered up my Age of Literate Machines talk and busily started debugging the alpha versions which I presented previously.
It turned out that San Francisco State already had a local version of Software Freedom Day in the works, so we just dovetailed into that. Even better for me, they were running their local Software Freedom Day a few days earlier to accommodate some logistical issue on campus, so I could still attend Mozilla24.
Beyond getting ready, I didn't think too much about this. I planned to go to San Francisco, give a talk to a nice group of students and then attend the so-likely-to-be-very-awesome Mozilla24 a few days later. I should have read Mary's email with more care.
What I didn't realize was that Mary has slotted me into the Mozilla24 schedule immediately after Lessig's presentation on Web n.0.
I was stunned when I figured this out early this morning. I'm going to go polish my presentation now. I only have 93 hours to get it just right. Like the good book says, "Don't Panic"
To find out more about Mozilla24, visit the website and read website and read Mary Colvig's Countdown to Mozilla24 post.
Link Summary
- http://mysql.com
- http://www.oreillynet...002/08/15/lessig.html
- http://php.net
- http://www.mozilla24.com/en-US/about/
- http://softwarefreedomday.org
- http://softwarefreedo...ms/northamerica/CA%29
- http://www.mozilla24....-US/programs/stanford
- http://lessig.org/info/bio/
- http://en.wikipedia.o...uide_to_the_Galaxy%29
- mozilla24.com/en-US
- http://blog.mozilla.c...t-down-to-mozilla-24/
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Posted on Tuesday, September 11th, 2007 at 14:10
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September 11th, 2007 at 15:35
All I can say is, "I hear you." Now excuse me while I go back to my presentation…
September 11th, 2007 at 16:13
You'll be great, Zak. Software Freedom for all is in your blood and in your soul.
September 12th, 2007 at 11:17
I've not seen Lessig yet, but I enjoyed the two presentations I heard from you. Even while listening the third time (eLiberatica, Video from eZConf, Froscon) to the same subject, it was still interesting.
September 12th, 2007 at 17:14
Tch tch, I think you'll find that it is more correctly quoted as, "DON'T PANIC".
Who says big boys don't need their mothers? Here I am, ready to advise on the truly monumental issues.
Yer lovin' eh'-nunh
September 16th, 2007 at 13:16
Zak,
I watched your presentation per live video stream together with my wife (you know that she's absolutely non-techie). It was 21:00 prime time in Germany and we believe that you should get your own Saturday night show!
Concerning stealing from Lessig, I guess he will deliberately agree with me: in the digital age, the copy is just as good as the original…
Sandro
October 1st, 2007 at 1:04
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