I have made it to Porto Alegre for the Debconf4 where I gave a talk on ethics and Debian.

Unlike pretty much every academic conference that I have been to, I enjoyed this. First, I was given time to talk. In academic conferences we are given 20 minutes at the most. What can one possibly say in 20 minutes except that one cannot possibly say anything of worth in 20 minutes especially when the people on the panel and in the room don’ necessarily work in your area of expertise.

I was prety stressed over the talk. As an anthropologist, giving a talk to the people you study is something like your biggest fear in the world. I mean there you are telling folks something about them (and often about things they still know a lot more about). The question always is something along the lines of “Are my ideas total fabrications?” and “Will I be able to pull it off?”

Anway, it all worked well, the Q and A period was fascinating and I got a room full of Debian geeks to laugh. Mission accomplished…. And now time for a real vacation!