Seth Nickell

Well… Just got done talking at SCALE. It just made me wish even more that I wasn’t missing a day of the summit. Ah well, its important to respect your commitments, right? Felt isolated, didn’t know anybody. Talk went well, I feel, though of course I was speaking on a pretty controversial topic (or at least my premise was controversial). *shrug* Anyway, it sucked to get off the plane, find no-one there (my bad, I stupidly assumed I would be met) pay for a shuttle to the convention center… Hang around not knowing anybody for 4 hours (on 4 hrs sleep, mind you), give a stressful talk wherein half the questions were either complaints about things I can’t change or age-old annoying rants (some very good comments/questions too tho), and then watch everybody leave the expo and make my back to the airport alone….(actually, on the bus to the airport now

oh, one thing positive that came out of this was I learned how invaluable having wireless internet connectivity is for getting info in strange situations. Id be at my wits end now w/o a cell phone (and inet was icing on the cake).

the past is behind me…. New York Ho (hm, make that “ny bound”)

Chema cared so much about…everything that I knew him to be involved with. I can only assume this passion extended to every aspect of his life. And it wasn’t just projects, Chema really concerned himself with people. I was always really excited about any opportunity to hang out with Chema in person.

I remember one point very early on when the usability project was having real trouble. I was getting frustrated and impatient, and there was a lot of conflict on mailing lists. I guess Chema noticed too, because he popped on IRC and grabbed me to talk things over. What really struck me was he wanted to figure out not just how to make GNOME usability more effective, but also how to make sure I wasn’t getting fried.

Every discussion I’ve had with Chema got me excited, whether about social organization of online communities, or how GST fits into the overall desktop design. That dude had the most infectious energy, and will be very tangibly missed.

So in case you haven’t telepathically inferred the life details I’ve neglected blogging about, I’m a visiting researcher at PARC (the artist formely known as Xerox PARC) for the time being. I know, I know: “Hey ya damn hippie, go get a real job”. “Shoophlah!”, I say, “Research does wonders for the soul. Oh you greenback grubbing capitalists, my academic heart sheds crocodile tears for you, ensnared by tales of pleasure, power, and fame into its endless pursuit. Just because a week of my labours costs The Man less than a day of yours doesn’t mean that….Look here, I don’t have time for this, I need to be working on my grant proposal.”

Aaaaanyway, this is all well and good. But for the first time in a long time I’m working under s33kretive conditions wherein I can’t talk about how I spend a sizable chunk of my time. What a strange symptom of the information economy (I would say “information age” save that I fear the outpouring of mob justice that would most assuredly stem from the utterance of such a clich&Aelig;?. Um, where was I?).

Millions of people are asked to compartmentalize a major piece of their time, of their life: their work. Knowledge of our own activities becomes intricately intertwined with the secrets of the corporation, and so itself becomes the property of the corporation. It is no longer mine to blog about, it is owned by PARC. Now it is one thing to have a few secrets… even secrets you hold for employer’s sake. But it is a strange thing indeed to not even be able to disclose the topic (let alone the details) of the cause of so much pre-occupation on your part…

So instead of ramblings, you get meta-ramblings. Ramblings about why I cannot ramble. Be content, dear child, with the bread crumbs.