Out of the way

I'm at The Gathering, an event where 5000 mostly norwegian folks (maybe 500 come from overseas), mostly 15-21, get together with their computers and geek on...

Actually a big part of what people do is gaming. Fair enough, there are a lot of people who like gaming. But Opera came here as a sponsor playing an active part. Some people came and ran games competitions. We came and ran a competition for making widgets. Which are not that much of a stretch, but are cool. And put up a heavy-duty games machine for the best one that gets done this weekend.

I've slept for two nights on a shelf, been up to see the sunrise, given a talk about standards and an online tutorial from 2am, eaten only junk food for two days, written a few widgets (most are rubbish for playing around, but I like my SVG clock), given away t-shirts and squeeze-balls, cleaned up around something close to a shanty-town (but in a real shanty-town there are people who care more about keeping it clean), and even been outside a couple of times.

A few people here have done some really cool stuff (apart from the crew who put the event on - they have actually done a really great job. The only thing I can fault them on is the food available here - not a piece of fruit to be seen without walking a mile). Some neat widgets, people doing standard geek stuff (world record for making a picture, playing huge multi-player games, sleeping on their keyboards, sitting until teir eyes are falling out of their heads and they are seeing triple), lots of people being helpful in almost anything you can think of, and Arne.

Arne is a tradition. Maybe it started in 2001 when Arne forgot his lunch, and his mum came in to give it to him walking around yelling "Arne", since it is hard to find someone if you don't get teh systems that are used to organise places. Maybe it was because he was underage and being told off for something. (That's not hard in Norway). Maybe it was because he had run off with some other girl, and his poor distraught girlfriend was wailing for him, back in '97. (But I don't think so. It isn't that kind of gig. There are maybe 15% women here, which is high, and they are generally girlfriends, but they are generally unlikely to have to chase their boyfriends down).

So somehow or other, as is the way, the gathring got a tradition. Calling for Arne. Which happens throughout the day and more particularly the night, as 5000 people call out. There are t-shirts. There are official announcements about him.

One day I'll come to the gathering, in a decade or two, saying "Hi, I want to get in free. I deserve to, I am Arne".

In the meantime it's fun. And there are nice people here. If I hae to work overtime, it isn't a bad way to do it.