Danese Inside
So, my friend Danese
Cooper
is going to Intel. (Some info on this little move here, here, here,
here,
here,
here,
here,
here, here,
here,
here, here,
here,
here,
here,
here,
here,
here, here,
here,
here,
here.)
Cool. I now know someone at Intel. It's a really big place over there,
but I haven't run into anyone at Intel over the years. So that's good.
Sure, it's sad for those of us here at Sun who know her well (and who
get her), but it's
probably a wonderful opportunity. Go for it, Danese. You've earned it,
and you deserve it. Whatever it is. :)
I met Danese pretty much as soon as I
walked through the door here at Sun five
years ago. Open source seemed much more interesting than doing product
stuff, so I dove right in. I was in Software PR at the time
(read:
painful), and we were all getting
ready for JavaOne or something. Things were frantic. I remember one
time I was in some
marketing meeting
trying to keep up with the noise and the spin and all
the executive gyrations
and wondering what the hell I did coming to this nut house of a company
in
California. It was very different on the east coast where I came from.
Anyway, in walks this redhead -- late, of course -- with a cell phone
glued to her
ear. She was talking low, holding a big bag, and wearing
some sort of brightly colored flowing gown or something. She hugged
people, too. How odd, I thought. Ok, this is California and I'm from
New York. But we are
at
work, aren't we? So she then plops herself down and jumps right into
the
conversation in the room -- simultaneously monitoring and contributing
to
the
conversation on the cell phone, of course. Who she was talking to I
have no clue, but the exchange didn't seem related to the substance
of this
particular meeting. Or maybe it was. Perhaps it was all one big
conversation to her. On the surface, I
thought that this chick is loopy. But down
deep my gut told me that this was someone very special, and I should
pay
very close attention. I somehow knew I shouldn't miss this. Whatever it
was. Ok, so the meeting
went on and on. And on. It was one of those weekly "launch" meetings
before a big show. Then at one point while she was engaging in a
rapid-fire conversation of some importance with some senior guys, she
reached into her big bag -- still talking as she bent over to dig deep.
What was she looking for? I figured she'd take out a document or
something important to help make her point, right? Nope. Instead, she
pulls out some long needles and yarn and
starts knitting. Knitting? Who does this? What else
does she have in that bag, anyway? Where am I? The conversation never
skipped a beat, though. Solid, direct, focused -- and fascinating --
content flowing like a
river out of her mouth to the rhythm of the swish-swish-swish sound of
two metal needles wrestling with thread. Welcome
to California, Jim. Welcome to Sun. Welcome to Danese.
Yah, I could talk about all the open source projects she has worked on at Sun -- the licenses, the communities, the press and analyst and customer and developer briefings, the executive meetings, the multi-level back channel dealings, the times she got me out of serious trouble, the times she got me into serious trouble, the work advice, the personal advice, the never ending flow of ideas she offers free of charge, and all that. But all you really need to know about Danese is that she knits in meetings, she hugs people, she talks honestly, she knows interesting characters all over the place, and she'll help you whenever you need it no matter where she happens to be on the surface of the planet.
Have fun at Intel, babe! But don't change your cell phone number. :)
I met Danese pretty much as soon as I
walked through the door here at Sun five
years ago. Open source seemed much more interesting than doing product
stuff, so I dove right in. I was in Software PR at the time
(read:
painful), and we were all getting
ready for JavaOne or something. Things were frantic. I remember one
time I was in some
marketing meeting
trying to keep up with the noise and the spin and all
the executive gyrations
and wondering what the hell I did coming to this nut house of a company
in
California. It was very different on the east coast where I came from.
Anyway, in walks this redhead -- late, of course -- with a cell phone
glued to her
ear. She was talking low, holding a big bag, and wearing
some sort of brightly colored flowing gown or something. She hugged
people, too. How odd, I thought. Ok, this is California and I'm from
New York. But we are
at
work, aren't we? So she then plops herself down and jumps right into
the
conversation in the room -- simultaneously monitoring and contributing
to
the
conversation on the cell phone, of course. Who she was talking to I
have no clue, but the exchange didn't seem related to the substance
of this
particular meeting. Or maybe it was. Perhaps it was all one big
conversation to her. On the surface, I
thought that this chick is loopy. But down
deep my gut told me that this was someone very special, and I should
pay
very close attention. I somehow knew I shouldn't miss this. Whatever it
was. Ok, so the meeting
went on and on. And on. It was one of those weekly "launch" meetings
before a big show. Then at one point while she was engaging in a
rapid-fire conversation of some importance with some senior guys, she
reached into her big bag -- still talking as she bent over to dig deep.
What was she looking for? I figured she'd take out a document or
something important to help make her point, right? Nope. Instead, she
pulls out some long needles and yarn and
starts knitting. Knitting? Who does this? What else
does she have in that bag, anyway? Where am I? The conversation never
skipped a beat, though. Solid, direct, focused -- and fascinating --
content flowing like a
river out of her mouth to the rhythm of the swish-swish-swish sound of
two metal needles wrestling with thread. Welcome
to California, Jim. Welcome to Sun. Welcome to Danese.Yah, I could talk about all the open source projects she has worked on at Sun -- the licenses, the communities, the press and analyst and customer and developer briefings, the executive meetings, the multi-level back channel dealings, the times she got me out of serious trouble, the times she got me into serious trouble, the work advice, the personal advice, the never ending flow of ideas she offers free of charge, and all that. But all you really need to know about Danese is that she knits in meetings, she hugs people, she talks honestly, she knows interesting characters all over the place, and she'll help you whenever you need it no matter where she happens to be on the surface of the planet.
Have fun at Intel, babe! But don't change your cell phone number. :)
Posted by 66.31.4.139 on March 20, 2005 at 10:25 PM JST #
Its a good question. I think part of the answer lies in what Eric Raymond told me years ago...(my paraphrase) "Sun should be the closest friend of open source. They started with SunOS, which was BSD but along the way they broke covenant with the open source community. We [the Open Source community] simply hold them to a higher standard. We expect more from Sun."
Fair or not, I think that's about half of the issue. The other half is apparent inconsistency. IBM isn't doing more or better by the open source community, but they aren't as transparent, either. No proprietary company comes gracefully to open source. I admire Sun for continuing to course correct and learn about open source. Its easy to exploit and harder to try to actually show up.
As I was leaving Sun, I had a parting conversation with Jonathan Schwartz where he told me again that he wants to build even stronger bonds with the Open Source community. I believe that eventually all of Sun's software will be built on open source core.
Posted by Danese Cooper on March 21, 2005 at 12:37 PM JST #
Posted by Danese Cooper on March 21, 2005 at 12:42 PM JST #