Global Village

One of the things I most enjoy about participating in the Free Software movement, and something that is uniquely facilitated by the internet, is the global scope of conversation. Just today a fellow from the Estonian Literary Museum sent me an email enquiring about my NeoMail modification. It took literally no time at all for me to answer his question in the affirmative, but in that time my world has been greatly expanded! I’d never heard of the Estonian Literary Museum before, but now I know that

The Estonian Literary Museum (ELM) is a national scientific and research institution administered by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Estonia. Its task is to collect, preserve, study, and display the national cultural heritage of Estonia.

Cool!

Fifteen years ago I worked in a grocery store. One of the people who frequented this store had a bumper sticker on their car that said in white block letters on a green background “Where in the world is Estonia?” It was a question I asked myself aloud every time I saw that bumper sticker. The email today immediately brought that question back to the forefront of my thoughts!
Wikipedia: Estonia
Estonia - Official State Web Center
CIA World Factbook: Estonia

In a similar vein, my parents spent the last ten days in Croatia, my mom attending a conference there. It’s an area of the world that I never thought about too much, but now I’m very interested in travelling there based on my parents’ description and photos. This morning on the Debian Non-Profit mailing list I read about an institute in Croatia offering a residence program for Open Source developers!

The mailing lists to which I subscribe are filled with smart people from all over the world. It’s such a terrific experience to be part of such a global village.