I'm off to the GDC!

So 2007 is shaping up to be the year of Online Community Conference revivals. I managed to sneak in to Community Next in February, thanks to a friend who was unable to go. Coming up in a few weeks is the Community 2.0 Conference, then there is Virtual Worlds 2007 at the end of March (it's community related and I have a past history of working in a virtual world). June Brings us the Online Community Camp and October will see the return of the Online Community Summit.

I will be bailing on the first two since I am using up a week's vacation once again to volunteer to work at the Game Developers Conference. Since 1999, I spend one week a year in a fast, intense customer service job that pays no money. Why would I do such a thing when I am not in the game industry and I'm not bucking for a job in the game industry?

I started because I was tangentially in the game industry when I was working on virtual worlds. In fact, by volunteering my first year, I got in to their job fair for free and scored a contract working with There.com before they lifted the veil to the public. I return every year because the program is a fantastic example of a service-oriented structure that really lives up to all the old theories about inverted pyramids. Add to the fact that this organization functions with 250-300 stranger (about 30% are veterans of previous years) suddenly coming together and working like a dream for a week and it's worth being in the mix and learning how it all comes together. And then there is the chance to spend a week seriously getting my geek on with several hundred folks.

And then like many group gatherings such as sports leagues, Renaissance Faire/Burning Man, message boards or multiplayer games, relationships form and people return because they know friends will be there. And if there are ways to keep the connections going outside the event through newsletters, mailing lists, gatherings or converging on social networking sites then communities form. If course I have to bring it back to communities.

This week, Erin Hoffman wrote a piece describing the GDC volunteer program. It does a much better job of describing the program and reasons why it's valuable to the game industry and to the people who attend.

Woke up at 3AM for the second night in a row

I finally decided to just get up and caught a look at myself in the mirror. I felt like hell, but figured I may as well make fun of myself and have a laugh. Sure beats laying in bed grinding my teeth.

I've never had my own animated GIF. I figured it was about time.

Trauer um Soul-König James Brown

This is how I found out that James Brown has died. On the front page of the Münchner Merkur that I saw on the free newspaper stand in the airport. I'm actually broken up.

This is probably because I saw the news (without sound) and figured out that Gerald Ford died. That was expected, but honestly, I hadn't been paying attention to the health of James Brown. Literally, I didn't even know he was sick.

It is less that I really loved the music or the man, but more that my best friend from high school really loved him. Part of me being all teary is that I can't call him right away and go get blind drunk on Hennessy with him.

For the moment a shot of whiskey will have to suffice (and boy did that surprise the kid behind the bar - a beer *and* a whiskey. Sweet Gibralter, y'd think I asked for the blood of a virgin.

So here's a toast to James Brown and here's a toast to Dirk, my friend. I missed meeting up with him in my hometown over Thanksgiving and coupled with a month away from familiar things and friend to shoot the shit with, I miss him.
(Oh, and the Munich Airport has free wireless that's better than my dorms' anyday.)

Christmas Memories

Not mine, mind you. But here's a gallery of children who are scared of Santa.


Praise be to Respectful Insolance for posting this originally. It was a lot funnier than the series of "I insist on saying Merry Christmas and I don't care who is offended" emails from folks I know who are one of the following: a non-practicing Christian, a non-practising Bhuddist and an Atheist.

My name is Skawt

The other night some of the young folks (early 20's every one of them) were having a little party in the common room on our floor. Since the dormitory where we live is all concrete walls and ceilings and the floors are tiled, it's like living in an experimental speaker system at the Bose factory. Knowing I would not be able to sleep, I dropped in. Over the salsa music the Argentinean students were, one girl asks me my name.

"Scott Moore", I reply. She gave me a puzzled look and I thought perhaps the music was too loud or I was being too quiet. "SCOTT MOORE", I repeat. Again a puzzled look, but with a head shake meaning, "I am sorry traveler of the stars, but these vocal sounds you are making don't even sound like language to me". Exasperated, I simply say, "Ich heisse Scott". Here eyes light up and she says, "Oh! Skoht!", but with a very, very short "oh" like everyone else in Germany pronounces my name.

This reminded me of being in Germany last year when I met an old follow in a pub and upon hearing my name pronounced very distinctly, "Scott. Moore. I. haff. never. heard. this. name. before!" Sigh. My name is so common in English, you can't actually google me unless you add "phoom" or "online community" and there's still another Scott Moore who blogs about online community.

So, on a sleepless night, I mulled this over. Is my accent *that* bad? I repeated my name to myself over and over. Then I thanked the fates that I didn't have a roommate who would surely be cowering in a corner wondering why the hairy mad-man was whispering his own name. Then I realized that I pronounce my name with a longer "ah"ish kind of "o" as in dog. Not dohg, but dawg. How very American of me.

Sometimes it's easier to accept what is around you than struggle against it. So from now until I leave, I will be "Skoht", but my friends can call me Skawt.

How to surf in a landlocked German city in the Winter

Last weekend, as I left the Bavarian National Museum and headed toward the Englisher Garten to eventually get somem Gluhwein to warm me up, I spotted a crowd watching local surfers. In Germany. In December. In the cold (about 40 degrees F) . In the middle of a city in the middle of a land-locked state.

(Click the image to see the video)

If you do a google search on surfing the isar you will find longer videos and better pictures.

Class Picture

Back Row: Don from Chicago (now living in Germany), Me, Joseph from Canada
Middle Row: Suhail from the United Arab Emirates, Aies (sp?) from Greece, Frau Schwalb our teacher, Dan from Rumania
Sitting: Sarena from Italy, Ines from Spain, Roberta from Italy, Sarah fromm the UEA.
Not pictured are Thomas from Spain and Stephano from Switzerland.