2026-09-25 15:04:50
Bruce is one of my favorite writers. He packs profoundness. Also honored that he’s an advisor at Automattic, truly one of my idols. His blogs and books rocked my world when I was young.
2026-09-17 09:04:27
OmFest is coming together quite nicely! The new website is beautiful and highlights some of the experiences available throughout the day. I think Om would be very impressed by the attendee list. We’re doing it at the Swedish American Hall, the same venue as the first WordCamp, where Om, of course, spoke about Blogs and Journalism. (The videos have been lost to digirot, unless anyone has some recordings? I’ve been looking everywhere.)
Below is cross-posted from OmFest.co:
September 29th is when Om would have turned 60.
When I first started thinking about how to mark the day, I knew I didn’t want a traditional memorial. Om loved bringing interesting people together, and he loved a festival that taught him something he didn’t already know. His curiosity crossed so many worlds and passions: technology, journalism, photography, investing, watches, pens, coffee, design, music, India, New York, San Francisco.
So we’re bringing these worlds together. On September 29 in San Francisco, we’re throwing OmFest—twelve hours of ideas, objects, food, music, and conversation, organized and anchored around a statement Om once said:
“If you pay enough attention to the present, you can see the future.”
Instead of tributes or keynotes, we’ll host a series of short talks with one simple challenge: teach us something you’re seeing before everyone else sees it. No pitches, no career retrospectives. You don’t even have to talk about Om. What happens to photography when anyone can generate the perfect image with AI? Why do physical objects become more meaningful as our lives become more digital? Are glasses becoming computers? What does handwriting do to the way we think? Different subjects, same goal: everyone leaves knowing something they didn’t know when they arrived.
Between the talks, there will be plenty to stumble upon. Through Om’s Lens: a gallery of Om’s photography. TIME: an exhibit that uses his watch obsession to spark a discussion about craft and collecting. Field Notes: a communal writing table stocked with fine paper, fountain pens, and ink, where you can write something worth remembering—and either keep it or leave it behind to be bound in a book to commemorate the day. And Om’s Shelf: books he read, loved, and recommended. The collection will start full and slowly empty as his favorite reads pass into other hands.
People from Om’s different worlds will drop in throughout the day to share knowledge and facilitate small, hands-on moments: a photography tutorial, a notebook-binding session, a lesson on the mechanics of a watch, an experience with a coffee you’ve never tried, a tea ceremony. And, woven into this experience, will be OM/60: sixty small discoveries about Om, hidden throughout.
The most important part, however, isn’t any of these objects. At check-in, instead of a badge with your company and title, you’ll choose the worlds through which you knew Om: photography, journalism, technology, GigaOm, investing, WordPress, India, coffee, pens and ink, design, music, or simply friends and family.
Then we build a physical map of it. It starts nearly empty. You add yourself, mark how you knew Om and whom he introduced you to, and those people connect to others. By the end of the night, I hope we’ll be able to see what Om spent a lifetime making.
The question I keep asking myself: who will meet because of Om that Om never had the chance to introduce? If OmFest works, his network won’t just be documented that day. It’ll grow.
The day flows and builds. Morning is coffee, breakfast, books, photography, and conversation. The middle is deliberately unstructured—wander, eat, write, talk. In the evening, friends share short stories as we raise a glass to Om on his 60th. Then the bars roll in, the lights go down, the music gets louder, and OmFest becomes DesiParty: his old-school New York nights, Asian Underground, bhangra, electronica. We start with ideas and end with dancing. That feels right.
What we’re building shouldn’t end on September 29. What does registration look like if it’s designed to help strangers talk to each other? How do you design a conference around curiosity instead of status? How do you make something that works for a two-hour visit or a twelve-hour one? How does a room encourage connection without forcing networking?
We’re treating OmFest as an experiment. We’ll document what works—formats, designs, code, templates, check-in, programming—and open source as much of it as we can. Other events can take the best ideas and make them better.
September 29 isn’t the end of OmFest. It’s version 1.0.
People from across Om’s life are building OmFest together. Some are contributing photographs. Someone is making a textile; another is bringing tea and guiding ceremonies. Others are helping with watches, eyewear, books, music, writing, and stories. We haven’t discovered whole parts of Om’s world yet. That’s the point.
If Om introduced you to something, or someone, we’d love to know. If there’s something you think people should experience, see, hear, taste, read, or learn that day, tell us.
And if you just want to come, come. You don’t need to have known Om. You only need to be curious.
2026-09-17 08:45:36
It’s official in SF Standard: Stewart Brand sells his seaworthy Sausalito houseboat to tech CEO. Ahoy!
2026-09-12 00:08:28
I know everyone has been waiting to hear what’s been going on behind the scenes, so I’m just going to lay it out: I’ve made an offer to buy Ryan Phelan and Stewart Brand’s houseboat Mirene.
People say “the two happiest days of a boaters life is when you buy the boat and sell the boat” but I’m not always the best at following advice, so I’m going all-in on this cute little tuggy.
Anybody who’s founded a company and had to find good stewards knows that no one will love a thing quite like the original owner, but sometimes you can find the perfect person to carry the torch. I was happy to take on and upgrade John Mayer’s EarthRoamer for about five years.
Then I passed it on to Dustin Yellin, trading for some of his art. But without a high-maintenance means of conveyance, I’ve felt a hole in my heart and really boxed in and constrained. So from land, to the sea!
SF Standard says “The kitchen table may be where Otis Redding wrote “(Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay.” I hope do a lot of blogging there.
Real artists ship, right? Longevity is all about maintenance, and I’m looking forward to all the lessons Mirene and the ocean will teach as we navigate the weather of the coming years. If the offer is accepted, I have a lot to learn from Ryan and Stewart about what’s next.
2026-09-10 18:18:07
It’s a really big deal that we’re scanning all the plugins now.
2026-09-03 14:50:23
Burning Man really tests my mantra, “There’s no bad weather, only bad clothing.” But it’s true! For one week, it’s the most interesting art and technology playground in the world, creativity unbound. As a photographer, it’s a great place to test out new gear and processes. Here’s a few snaps from the opening days.
The Temple is really special this year, very open, and the Man concept actually came from fellow Automattician, Zander Rose.
