What happens when you hold a mozilla add-ons developer conference in a terrestrial space-station built by a non-profit organization run by hackers? You get the MAOW Berlin. I'll let my flickr photos and the MAOW mashup page speak for themselves.

The one-day Berlin hackfest was great fun and was an awesome display of the passion and drive of open source communities. Two inspirational keynotes kicked off the day (special hat tip to Rey Bango and Chris Beard) followed by some really solid sessions throughout the afternoon and well into the evening. All this in the amazing c-base space-station that, sailed smoothly into virtual orbit from start to finish (save for a few very minor intergalactic bumps along the way).

This is the 3rd MAOW we organize and we're still experimenting. We're trying to get a more eclectic set of sessions every time and improve the session format to encourage audience participation, ranging from the ultra-geek hack session to the "add-ons for REAL beginners" tutorial. Of course there are a few things we will definitely improve next time, namely, making the schedule a bit less dense. Many people voiced some concern that we had squeezed in too many sessions and the sessions were a little too short, so we'll make sure to make it a bit lighter next time, and leave a little bit more room for some freestyle hacking :)

So, here are a few of my own takeaways from this quite unique Saturday:

  • developing an extension is REALLY not that complicated. Seriously. This is coming from a guy who barely knew what XUL was 6 months ago. I'm more confident than ever that I will successfully develop my first extension before my self-imposed deadline :)
  • there are some AMAZING and incredibly CREATIVE hackers out there doing some great stuff but they're not getting the visibility they deserve. If you're one of them or you know one, make noise, spread the word, organize a MAOW in your town !!
  • I estimate roughly 90% of attendees were Linux users. How cool is that?
  • no matter how off the mark you are in guessing the number of people who will actually be attending your event and how much space you have (or lack of), somehow, everything falls into place at the last second and the venue you've chosen ends up being just right size. Divine intervention...
  • developing an add-on is first and foremost about having FUN and there's nothing more rewarding than to get people to download and use your add-on. Still, developing Mozilla add-ons can also make a lot of business sense, provided you find the right model and you stay true to Mozilla's values . My colleague Patrick just wrote a most interesting blog post on the matter.
  • if ever you plan on organizing an event at the c-base raumstation (space-station), Nielc is your man. "Zen" is his middle name :)

Can the next MAOW be better? Yes ! Will the next MAOW be better? Yes ! We already have strong city contenders for the next one, scheduled for some time in June, but my little pinky tells me it's going to be in Italy. Of course, that can change. We're still open to suggestions, so if you're an add-on space cadet and want to organize a MAOW in a space-station near you, drop me a line !