I head out to Broomfield, Colorado, early tomorrow morning for my annual pilgrimage to Gluecon. It’s a conference I look forward to every year, as much for seeing friends I’ve made in the tech industry as for the great content. This year’s conference now has even deeper meaning.
One of the friends I most look forward to seeing is Kin Lane. He’s one of the smartest humans on the building blocks of today’s modern technology infrastructure. He did time in the White House. Yes, that White House. But, beyond being wickedly smart, he’s unbelievably caring. Like the Grizzly Adams of APIs. His API Evangelist website is, arguably, the single most important website on this topic (a topic of which, without it, there would be no apps on your phone or Uber at your curb or Watson playing Jeopardy).
And, today, it’s for sale. For, perhaps, the most important reason of all: family.
Bidding for API Evangelist starts at $10,000. You have until Friday to put your bids in. If you are a company that has built a business on APIs, this is your opportunity to support one of the people behind the reason for your company’s existence. If you are in marketing or communications, this is the chance to counsel your executives on doing what is right. A drop in your marketing bucket means the life of an extended member of your community.
Kin has put his life on hold to help a member of his family who needs his full attention. It’s not a decision anyone would take lightly, yet, I suspect it was an easy decision for Kin because of the kind of human he is.
UPDATE: Mehdi Medjaoui set up a Generosity page to make it easy for people to contribute.
(Image: Creative Commons via Alan Levine).
Mike Maney 