October 14, 2004
Episode Three, A Retrospective
The third installment of Ghent has now passed into history, and once again history will look upon it kindly. We all know sequels tend to a let down, but the Cocoon getTogether is definitely the exception rather then the rule. With each passing year, things only get better, the excitement only grows.
Thanks must go the organizers and sponsors of the event and especially the hosts Steven Noels, Marc Portier and Bruno Dumon. These guys, the Outerthought crew, are just wonderful people. Enough said.
The hackerton on Monday was a great success with a reported 47 bugs closed. This year’s open format was much appreciated by the participants. All the presentations on Tuesday were fantastic, a pleasant surprise came in the form of the last talk “Supporting non-Latin character sets with Cocoon” – by Torsten schlacbach. I found it particularly fascinating.
Extracurricular activities are an important part of the getTogether because a good project is more than about code its also about sense of community. With out a healthy community an open source project will simply languish. Needless to say, we all out did ourselves this year, the photos will lay testament to that.
Unfortunately I have not found the time to really contribute to Cocoon over the last year, but the Cocoon getTegther really installs a sense of motivation, it almost impossible not to catch Cocoon fever once again. In some ways it was a humbling experience to be surrounded by so many talented and motivated people. Cocoon seems to attract many individuals with multi dimensional talent, people who are simultaneously great coders artists/musicians and linguists.
Now the focus shifts to Frankfurt, we plan to hold a Cocoon stammtisch some time soon Stay posted.
More photos here.
Posted by michaelm at October 14, 2004 12:10 PM | TrackBack