Re: [xml-dev] Balisage 2017

[B Tommie Usdin <btusdin@mulberrytech.com>]

> On Jan 29, 2017, at 4:54 PM, Steve Newcomb <srn@coolheads.com> wrote:
> ...
> I hope Balisage will survive the crisis in one way or another.  It's far too constructive to risk losing it. ...
> 

Thank you, Steve. It seems to me that if we stop talking about the things that are important to us, if we stop making the effort to gather our thoughts and write about the theory and practice of our engineering/art form, if we stop gathering with kindred spirits to learn from each other, we have lost much of what elevates our world from that of the fishes. 

This year is a particularly challenging one for many of us; there is ugliness beyond our control. I have thought about giving up, canceling Balisage, and hiding under my desk until the world is better and have decided that this is not the approach I want to take. Balisage was never about about making money (which is good, because it never has), it is about community. It is about making a place where people who share an underlying approach to information identification, classing, and management can talk about it - in detail, with people who have similar interests.  It is possible that I am fooling myself, but I do believe that by continuing to make a venue for these discussions we are creating just a little bit of light in a darkening world.  

I hope you and others in our community agree. I hope that you are thinking about what you want to talk about at Balisage and the symposium on Up-Transformation and I hope to see you at Balisage in August.