On Friday we got to see (at least on screen), the fruit of our labour: the Introduction to Mallard book. Print copies will follow. This week’s book sprint was a remarkable collaborative writing experience, and I can’t wait to recommend it to other projects I know.

It’s been terrific working with Aruna, Sindhu, Kat and Dave, as well as honourary team members Heidi and Amanda. Thanks to our Google Open Source hosts Mary, Stephanie, Carol and Cat for getting us here, keeping an eye on us and stuffing us with abundant and frequent delicious food. Thanks again to Allen Gunn for inspiring us and to Adam Hyde for getting a book out of us and to Google for Doc Camp.

It was great to visit Amphitheatre Parkway again, now Google’s main campus. I was last here nearly 14 years ago when it was Silicon Graphics, the birthplace of my first home computer. I didn’t stop to look for waterfowl on my last trip, but this time couldn’t help noticing.

I had the privilege of traveling to and touring around Montreal (an off-map adventure) with Zeeshan and attending the first day of the summit. Thanks to James, Tristan and Savoir-faire Linux for hosting us, and to Ryan for organizing, and Hubert for sharing his extensive knowledge of Montreal and maple syrup. Thanks also for the hospitality of a new friend who put me up for Saturday night before an early flight to…

Google Doc Camp, where five members of the Docs Team will spend an
intensive 4+ days under the coaching of Allen Gunn and FLOSS Manuals’
Adam Hyde creating a book about Mallard. The first day was an amazing
“unconference” where we got input from the two other teams (and gave
them ours) to distill the goals of our week’s effort.