From: Alex Chaffee <alex@earthweb.com>
Subject: Applets of Color
Date: Tue, 27 Feb 1996 10:55:49 -0500 (EST)

So last night on short notice I went, at the invitation of the head of
the Hot Java Users Group, to speak on a panel at an Internet
conference in the Sheraton. She had told me this was a normal users'
group meeting, just come on for 10 or 15 minutes and talk about
Gamelan and Java to a not very technical audience.

It turned out that I was the featured panelist on the "Artists of
Color on the Web" Panel. I kid you not. There was a dancer/webmaster,
a bookseller, a music agent, a translator... and a cool Shockwave
demo... and a guy from Sun Integration saying "we're hiring"... and
me. I showed off Gamelan and some cool applets (Dave surfed expertly
off-stage) and fielded questions about Java. After the panel's Q&A
session -- where all but two of the questions were directed to me --
the large woman artist of color next to me leaned back and said to no
one in particular, "So why did I come sit up here?" I felt oddly
guilty about the pleasure I'd taken in being the center of attention.

At one point I was asked, "How is Gamelan funded?" My reply: "We make
our living off our consulting and site design and technology. We hope
to make Gamelan pay for itself by selling ad space, but we basically
provide it as a service to the community." Then, for the first time in
my brief career as a public speaker, I heard the warm patter of
spontaneous applause.

 - Alex


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright © 1996 Alexander D. Chaffee (alex@stinky.com). All rights reserved. 
See more at http://www.stinky.com/almanac/