First two week at Eclipse Foundation

I've now been with the Eclipse Foundation for two full weeks and there have been a number of things that have caught me by surprise.

First, and luckily, Wayne hasn't taken his shirt off and plunged into the refridgerator once. Apparently this is just a seasonal behavior.

At the annual kick off meeting I got to meet Bjorn and Ward. They both have reputations as excellent communicators, and Bjorn's proved it to me with a 3 minute lecture on how the Foundation Councils work after I'd spent two days trying to figure it out...

I also got to meet Ralph Mueller, who is helping with the Ecosystem in Europe. I'd link to Ralph's blog, but apparently blogs aren't cool in Germany (sic), so instead I'll link to three random google pictures of people named "Ralph Mueller", none of whom are the one in question. 1, 2, 3. The Eclipse Ecosystem is very strong in Europe and there is a much strong social network of contacts and relationships than I'm used to in the North American software industry. I'm hoping to steal a lot of what has been working well for Ralph and see how it can apply here.

I was introduced to a neat avatar style called "Hackergotchi". Take a look at the Planet Eclipse blog aggregator to see some examples. Not only is it a really neat visual to quickly identify authorship of entries, but it's also an easy way for a guy like me to remove some neck fat.

- Don