IM2 | OQP

Losing touch. It happens to all of us.

Losing touch with friends, or simply with people we used to hang with, collegues, buddies. Thing is, you have to be two to play the relationship game (you can play mindgames all by yourself though) and sometimes, it’s just a lot of energy spent, you meet new people, have less time, whatever.

Three years ago, I used to attend all the Île sans fil meetings. I was list-mom for a while (not always successfully some might remember), even the webmaster (mostly coordinating the translation effort) for a while. I didn’t have a laptop back then. In fact, I just got one about six months ago, but it’s still not wifi enabled. So my interest waned since I couldn’t really get my hands dirty.

What I really wanted was to work closer to free software and become a better advocate for it. It’s what got me involved with Linux-Québec and now FACIL, pour l’appropriation collective de l’informatique libre. Unfortunately, I left a few people behind, such as Mike.

But enough about me, this is about winning touch, which I’ll try to explain below.

Recently, I’ve been seeing a little more of Mike, and you know what? I missed him. Sure, we still crossed path every couple of months, both knowing that it was only in passing. Nothing to build on. Just before the new year, I saw him at a Université Autrement talk, about sex, of any topic. We’d catch up, ask what the other was up to, but that was it. Good bye, we’ll cross again in a few months.

I think that started to change when he first approached me with his Civic Access idea. It was back when the Semaine québécoise de l’informatique libre was openning. Then Mike easily convinced me to host an île sans fil hotspot (yeah, haven’t gotten around to flick the switch yet (hum, what about a “promise” category that would act as testimony to my procrastination skills?)), which he brought over last week.

He keeps mentionning Jo, which I briefly met at the SAT for MC3, a discussion on the future of the intellectual commons [fr] where Lila from Cogitateurs-Agitateurs was giving a presentation. I should pay more attention, Mike knows what he’s talking about, most of the time. After all 15000 ÎSF users can’t be wrong :) So I’m going to keep an eye on Where we are and Jo’s other projects and adventures and mashups.

Mike and I chatted a bit about Civic Access, ÎSF and a few projects I got going - which I’m not really ready to show off. But I’m paying attention, Mike. He invoked Linus’ Law, “Release early, release often”, explaining how a few posts he wrote are leading to implementations. People are taking his ideas, or ideas he found interesting enough to post about, and actually writing the code to make it work. Of course, it’s rough at first, just a first cut. The edges are getting smoother with each iteration, and that’s what matters.

So I should just release, release, release.

At the moment, you can peek at the waglo tools subdomain the find most of it. I’ll try and explain better with a few posts what each thing does, for now beware it’s all alpha to the bone.

There’s one project I’ve been thinking of doing for maybe a year now, and I’d really appreciate comments and suggestions about it is a database of product ingredients built collaboratively. Any idea on how to make that “sexy” and attract contributions? Please leave your comment at the database of product ingredients post, thanks :)

I’m pretty sure it had nothing to do with it, but I admitted to Mike how insecure I was with my stuff. It’s all very simple when you compare to all the rich stuff that is out there. 30 minutes later, his Linus’ Law reminder convinced me. That’s what Mike does best I think. He can ignite people with a few simple words. He breathes life in projects and does so over long periods.

Île sans fil is going to be 3 this year!

I’m not forgetting the many ninj@s either, without whom the streets wouldn’t be as safe, with the soothing waves of a wifidog hotspot radiating from a café nearby. Everyone who had anything to do at anytime with improving ÎSF should get a free pitcher today, and justly so.

So here we are, with 2006 officially starting (in my book at least) with spring this month, and I’ve got a hotspot in one hand, and a foot in Civic Access in the other which is about to lauch rsn. I expect to take part in the ÎSF meetings hopefully once a month, and who knows where Civic Access is going to lead to.

We’re going to try and build stronger ties between ÎSF and Koumbit, which seems like a natural match. It might sound strange to use the word “great”, but Koumbit had a great board meeting Wednesday.

With Civic Access, Mike is offering me the opportunity to collaborate closely with a lot of bright and strong willed people. Some I knew, most I’m discovering and getting to appreciate more and more.

If I’m the glue, he’s the catalyst. Michael Lenczner has, without a doubt, the Winning Touch.