Back from alt-i-lab 2004 and back from California. Lots to say about the conference and my first exposure to the inner workings of IMS. Fascinating insights into the standards and specifications world including the true nature of specification adoption after talking to people both inside IMS and out. Notes from the conference later. I had the unexpected but considerable pleasure of meeting some of the people I most admire from the weblogging world, notably Raymond Yee, Scott Leslie and David Wiley. I hadn't expected to meet any webloggers at this meeting let alone three such distinguished exponents. Raymond, Scott and David are really nice people and I thoroughly enjoyed the time I spent with them. It's a real treat to meet people from the weblogging world in the flesh and for me it de-emphasizes weblogs and weblogging per se and instead emphasizes the people behind the blogs. Scott and I along with Mark Stiles had a great evening out at a Middle Eastern restaurant in Redwood City and even the trip to Shooters bar afterwards was an experience (Mark has a great photo that I'll try to get a copy of). In the meantime, the accompanying photo is courtesy of David's camera, thanks David and looking forward to spending more time next conference.
The real highlight of my time in California though has to be my post-conference road trip around San Diego courtesy of Jack Mancilla. It was an incredible experience and I took lots of great photos. I am so indebted to Jack for being such a good host. I'm just getting the pictures web-ready so I'll post them soon along with notes from the trip.