Berlin
Tantek hosted the first W3C Advisory Board F2F of its new term—my first as a participant—at Mozilla’s Berlin office during . Both the AB and the TAG invite former participants whose terms have just ended to attend the first F2F of the new term, so that the incoming folk can benefit from their wisdom and advice. There are a lot of us newcomers on the AB this term, and I’m really grateful to our outgoing colleagues for all their help over the last couple of months. Special thanks to 李安琪 and Wendy for their thoughtful chairing during this transition period, and to Tantek for hosting all of us.
A bunch of us were there in person: 李安琪, Brent, Chris, Dan, 丁蔚, Elena, Hidde, 五十嵐さん, 太田さん, Tantek, and Wendy. Amy, Avneesh, Elika, Max, and 徐嵩 couldn’t be here in person, and were missed, but each called in for specific topics & sessions.
There’s a lot that needs doing at the first F2F of a new term—in addition to simply getting to know each other, new chairs and priority projects get selected. 李安琪 and Dan became our new chairs; I think they’ll do a great job. Brent will chair the Process CG, which we’ve asked to focus only on the most essential bug fixes for Process 2026. We decided to hold off appointing new AB-Board liaisons until we have a chance to meet with the Board to talk about how to best work together going forward.
Personally, I plan to spend this term with a laser focus on improving W3C’s effectiveness as a Member-led standards body, and I look forward to meaningfully progressing our work with that in mind.
This was my first proper visit to Berlin. I’ve technically been once before—on a day trip with Erin back in 2012—but that was only for a few hours. The city is lovely, and I enjoyed my visit very much.
I stayed at the Indigo, right across the street from the East Side Gallery, a preserved stretch of the Berlin Wall that’s been turned into an art exhibit. I strolled along it a few times, and took many photos:
Anne’s based in Berlin, so we did our weekly one-on-one in person. We met up at a café in Kotti, went on a meandering walk along the Landwehrkanal and past Checkpoint Charlie, and eventually wound up having Vietnamese for dinner somewhere in Kreuzberg.
Saturday was Christopher Street Day, Berlin’s annual Pride celebration, which I wrote up separately.
On Sunday I met Berrak and her adorable doggie for the first time. We went to a biergarten in the Mauerpark and wandered from there up through Prenzlauer Berg.
Wendy and I caught the All Ireland Senior Football Championship and the UEFA Women’s Euro at The Lír in Tiergarten-Mitte later that afternoon. Kerry became All Ireland champions for the 39th time! :)
I had dinner with Anne and his family that night, which was so so nice. I hadn’t seen his partner in ages, and this was my first time meeting their kids. Afterwards I went out for pints with June; we hadn’t seen each other in years and had a wonderful time catching up.
On Tuesday we wrapped up a bit early so we could do a team-building event in Mitte, which was lots of fun. It was at a sort of arcade that had all sorts of hybrid physical & video games. Then Tantek took us all out to a very traditional German restaurant. Most of us went out for cocktails after dinner, and then 李安琪 and I went dancing at FLINTA* night at Möbel-Olfe in Kotti. I stayed out very, very late, and had a ton of fun. A very Berlin evening, one to remember.
After the meeting wrapped on Thursday, most of the AB went to see Ellen Allien perform at Berlin Beats, put on by the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, at the old Hamburger Bahnhof.