My Grandchild is a Pig

Now ordinarily, that would be a terrible thing to say about one’s grandchild, but in the absence of any human grandchildren (at this time), it’s true.

We had a great Thanksgiving with my older son, Andrew, at his home in Seattle. Andrew, indeed, has a pet pig, named Wilbur, which, in a sense, makes me the grandpa of a pig.

Like any other proud grandfather of a pig, I can take pride in Winston Churchill’s words, ” A cat looks down upon a man, and a dog looks up to a man, but a pig will look a man in the eye and see his equal.” Here is Wilbur and me doing just that -

Milestones

When I started this blog I indicated that it was because I believe in the technology and the manner in which the tool can be used for communication. Despite the rarity of my posts, I still believe in that purpose. So, I’ll continue to put here thoughts that don’t seem to have another forum in my activities.

I spent last weekend in Dallas, Texas.  My wife, Nancy, received The Margaret Byrd Rawson Lifetime Achievement Award from The International Dyslexia Association. I’m really proud of her because this is a big deal! What made the event even more special is that our sons, in-laws, nieces and nephews and SOs attended as well. It was sort of a mini-family reunion and it was great!

This was the first time that I had spent any appreciable time in Dallas except for flying through, so I took some time to visit the JFK assassination site. This was a milestone for me since JFK was one of my early idols. His 1960 presidential campaign was the first I ever paid any attention to; in 1961 a high school friend and I went to his inauguration (this was our Christmas present from our parents); and in 1963 college friends and I went to his funeral on that historic weekend. So visiting Dealy Plaza, the Texas Schoolbook Depository, and the grassy knoll brought it full circle. Like so many other things in our past, the whole area seems so small when compared to its historical significance.

Another one of my heroes, Norman Mailer, died this weekend. I’ve loved his books and writings, and admired his free spirit. I’ll admit that every fall when the Nobel Prizes for Literature were announced that I felt disappointment when Mailer didn’t win. He took chances and spoke his mind and I’m sure is “mixing it up” wherever he happens to be now.

Web History Day at WWW2007

(This is a copy of an entry to the WWW2007 blog)

Web History Events: 10 Year Anniversary

In 1997, the Web History Day and Exhibit was one of the most popular programs of the 6th International World Wide Web Conference (WWW6) in Santa Clara, California. This year, ten years after the original event, at the 16th Web Conference (WWW2007) in Banff, Canada, a reprise of this program will occur.  The conference will host multiple Web History-related events and a weeklong Web History Exhibit area for the benefit of conference attendees and where attending pioneers can donate historical materials and add recollections.

The 1997 event brought together many of the major pioneers of the early Web and hypermedia for the very first time, from Douglas Engelbart, Tim Berners-Lee, Brewster Kahle and Ted Nelson to authors of early browsers – Viola, Mosaic, Netscape, Cello, Internet Explorer, Midas and more (http://1997.webhistory.org/historyday). The hands on exhibit featured pioneering software and sites, from the first browser/editor running on its original NeXt cube to the White House site and HotWired. The program was co-organized by Web pioneer Kevin Hughes and Web historian Marc Weber with help from pioneer Jean-François Groff, at the invitation of conference organizer Bebo White.

At WWW2007, the Web History events will focus on the history of E-Commerce, with speakers from Marty Tenenbaum of CommerceNet to blogger Robert Scoble. Featured also will be a history of the conference series which began in 1994 at CERN. It will also bring attendees together with leaders of the museum and archiving communities, who are becoming increasingly convinced of the importance of collecting artifacts from the early days of the Web and documenting the historical evolution of Web technology. The preliminary event program can be seen at  http://www2007.org/webhistory.php.

The organizers of this year’s Web History Day include many of the same persons involved with the original program—Marc Weber, Bebo White, Kevin Hughes, and Jean-François Groff– with some additions.  In the past year Marc Weber and Bill Pickett have co-founded The Web History Center, www.webhistory.org, which has absorbed Weber and Hughes’s older Web History Project and adds key pioneers like Robert Cailliau and Marty Tenenbaum to its Advisory Board.

You are invited to look at the Web History Center Web site. The Center’s goal is to attract attention to the need to save records and memories of the origins and development of the Web, and to put individuals and organizations that have such materials in contact with archives and museums (twelve such institutions have joined as members of the Center) who are interested in preserving and making these materials available to researchers and educators.

Concurrently, the Center is creating a digital library that will ultimately become a definitive resource on the history of the Web. This library will allow anyone with an Internet connection (students, researchers, entrepreneurs) to view original documents, videos, and images.
The Center is working with Bebo White to bring together and find an archival home for the records of the International World Wide Web Conference Committee (IW3C2).  The history of the Web Conference series closely parallels the evolution of Web technology and the activities of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). White is a member of the Web History Center’s Advisory Board and serves as liaison with the IW3C2 and the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC), home of the first Web site in the United States.  Anyone having materials relevant to any of the above categories are invited to contact White, Weber, or Pickett.

For the Web History event at WWW2007, we are especially interested in items from past conferences that can be included in the exhibit—the original sites, posters, T-shirts, pins, badges, printed collateral, and more. As a part of the conference program, the WHC is sponsoring a weeklong exhibit and hosting a light buffet reception on Tuesday night to open the event and introduce key speakers. Wednesday’s plenary address by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, co-organized by the WHC and WWW2007, will provide an opportunity for him to reflect on both past and future. Finally, all day Wednesday, the main Web History track will feature speakers on the history of E-Commerce, the conference series, and ways of preserving and making public the Web’s history—both past and ongoing. Please join us!

Gout

I was browsing the newspaper this morning and I happened to notice the obituary of Dr. Tsai-Fan Yu of New York City. Now I didn’t know Dr. Yu, but apparently I owe her a great deal of gratitude. Dr. Yu was one of the world’s foremost specialists on gout and pioneered the use of most of the medications used for gout today. I have suffered from gout for almost 30 years and so I say, “Thank you Dr. Yu!”

There is no need to go into details about gout except to say that it is extremely painful when it attacks and it is, to my knowledge, one of the only ailments that many in the general public find amusing. Often when I tell someone that I have gout, the response is wisecracks about high and decadent living. Associations are made with Henry VIII gorging himself with fine foods and wine with his leg propped up on a “gout stool.” I remember once seeing an article warning employers that gout is often just an excuse for alcoholism. One of the best ways to alienate yourself with a gout sufferer is to make gout jokes unless, that is, you are so insensitive that you would joke about any condition that causes suffering. Dr. Yu probably got a lot of jokes when she introduced herself as a “gout specialist.”

So, once again, “Thank you Dr. Yu for your work and dedication. You make the lives of millions of gout sufferers around the world more tolerable.”

Boojum Buddies

Approximately four years ago, a good buddy of mine (Ron McGinnis) and I started visiting Baja California. We usually go about once a year and spend our time off-roading in Ron’s 4WD vehicle (originally a Hummer H2 and for the past two trips, a Hummer H1). This trip has become an important part of my calendar that I look forward to - a chance to relax in the company of a great friend in one of the most beautiful and unique places I have ever been to. We now call ourselves the “Boojum Buddies” after the strange boojum (cirio) trees that are found only in Baja. We even have a domain name and Web site (www.boojumbuddies.com) that we plan someday to use to introduce people to Baja (a good retirement task).

Last week was our 2007 Baja trip and it brought, amongst the usual experiences, a real epiphany. Mike’s Sky Ranch is a popular stop in Northern Baja for dirt bikers, ATV drivers, and other off-roaders. You really need to have such vehicles to even get there. While at Mike’s there was a group of experienced bikers who expressed amazement that Ron and I had been to some locales without backup or other vehicles. Sure, we had been places that if we broke down, it would pose a major problem. It made me think of James Kim of CNET who got lost with his family in Oregon (James ultimately died and his family was rescued) and Jim Gray of Microsoft (with whom I have/had a slight acquaintance) who is still missing on his sailboat. Several days later while Ron and I were visiting cave paintings near Catavina, I slipped on a rock and broke my foot (though I didn’t know it until I got back to San Francisco). We were close to town (and I didn’t require any immediate medical attention), but it could have been much worse. The broken foot (now in a cast) has forced me to cancel upcoming classes in Pakistan and Hong Kong since my physician has forbidden me to travel.

It’s clear to me now that with its beauties, Baja also has its dangers. The wildness of Baja is enticing to us fragile visitors. We plan to return to Baja, but will certainly now rethink where we go, the supplies we take, and the communications networks we establish with our families while we’re gone. We owe that to each other since we’re Boojum Buddies.

Scoble and SLAC

Several times in the last few weeks Robert Scoble (one of the world’s foremost bloggers), Shel Israel (Scoble’s co-author of “Naked Conversations”), and Thomas Hawk (world class photographer) have visited me at SLAC. It’s always a blast to talk with them and show them around. Robert has shot a lot of video there for his PodTech series. For a preview of some of their visits, take a look at <http://scobleizer.com/?s=bebo>

ACM SIGWEB - Vice Chair

I am a nominee in the upcoming election for the position of Vice Chair of ACM SIGWEB. For any of you that are members of that Special Interest Group, I would appreciate your support.

The following is the statement that I submitted:

“It would be an honor and a privilege to serve as Vice Chair of ACM SIGWEB.  For more than a decade I have been involved with the evolution and application of Web technology in the areas of research, education, standardization, and design and implementation. The diverse needs and interests of these communities illustrate the importance of strong collaboration between them. If elected as Vice Chair, I will do my best to initiate and sustain such collaboration. Conferences such as the International WWW Conference series, the International Web Engineering Conference series, the Hypertext Conference series, and the various developer/designer conferences can provide venues for this collaboration. My ongoing involvement in these conference series would serve to make me a valuable point of contact for cooperation with SIGWEB.

Thank you for your consideration.”

“And the doctor said give ‘em jug band music”

Yesterday the California Jug Band Association (http://www.jugfest.org) sponsored the first annual Santa Cruz Jug Band Festival (also known as the Santa Cruz Jug Band Jamboree).  The venue was Don Quixote’s in Felton CA (http://www.donquixotesmusic.com), possibly the best venue that many of the bands have played in. It was a fantastic event featuring five jug bands:

• Gayle Lynn and the Hired Hands
• The Barking Spiders (featuring Robert Armstrong and Keith Cary)
• The Babar Jug Band
• The Tarantulas Jug Band (http://www.demtarantulas.com)
• The Dirty Butter Jug Band

This will become an annual event held on the Sunday after the Super Bowl.

The Web and Open Source

In the very beginning when Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau were shaping the Web, it was always a priority that the technology would remain freely accessible and based on open standards. The CERN server and the NCSA server and browser (Mosaic) were great early examples of open source software. Since then, Web development has led to some of the most successful and well-known open source projects including Apache, Mozilla/Firefox, PHP, Zope, and numerous others. These projects demonstrate that open source isn’t just about a software license, but about human interaction and individual motivation. It’s about sharing ideas and technology implementations. Open standards efforts within the Web research and development community will insure that open source software will continue to play a major role in the evolution of Web-based technologies.

If the role of open source and its impact on the Web interests you, I invite you to join us at a workshop during the WWW2006 conference in Edinburgh, Scotlland in May 2006. Please refer to the conference Web site (www.www2006.org) or the workshop Web site (www.stanford.edu/~bebo/www2006/) for details.

 

Source of My Name

One question that I get frequently asked (and it seems so more lately) is the source of my name. My new blog seems like the perfect place to make this global explanation.

 My given name is Howard, a name that I do not dislike, though have never been called it. Only the DMV, IRS, etc. regularly refer to me by that name (as well they should) and it is, appropriately, on my passport. It is rather nice to have two names in that it provides a “name filter” when someone telephones. If they ask for Howard, it’s likely that they don’t know me and are probably a telemarketer. My bank has no problem in that they will readily accept checks made out either to Howard or Bebo. My United Airlines Mileage Plus card has both names lest I lose any frequent flyer miles.

I was born and raised in the South (North Carolina) where having nicknames is pretty much the norm (e.g., Bubba). I have a sister who is two and a half years older than me and the story goes that when I was about six months old she tried to call be “Big Boy.” It came out Bebo and that’s it.

And then there was that ninth grade teacher I had who announced that I could not go through life with a name like Bebo so she would refer to me only as Howard. I agreed, but she gave up when I never responded to her in class. I was not doing that on purpose or in any way being rebellious. I guess that she was wrong about me going through life with Bebo since the rest is history…