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So if you read my first SxSW post you know that I was pretty disgusted by the How to Rawk SxSW presentation, which had on it’s panel the esteemed Tantek Celik (the creator of Microformats and the box model hack, Chief Technologist at Technorati, and general web standards celebrity).

Last night, after meeting some new friends (Trey, Dave, and Paul) I was at one of the many SxSW parties when I was informed that Tantek was upstairs. I quickly took the opportunity to go up there and bust his balls a bit. I announce to my friends that this is my intention, and my business partner particularly was a bit freaked out. Several of them urged me to reconsider. I, however, insisted that I could give Tantek a bunch of grief and let him know how much I thought the Rawk panel was lame, and yet do so charmingly, and leave the discussion with him liking me.

Now, I’ll need Tantek himself to confirm, but I believe I accomplished just that. I approached him directly and asked if I could have a few minutes of his time – and I let him know that it was to give him some criticism. He affably agreed and I began with a thorough, yet honest, history of me finding him cool – which set him up to be receptive to my less flattering thoughts. I then proceeded to let him know why I had been so disappointed in the Flickr/Twitter/Dodgeball-fest that I had witnessed the night before.

To Tantek’s credit, he was very cool. He was charming, gracious, friendly, and may I say quite cute in person. ;~) It was impossible for me to continue to hold a grudge against him. It was a pleasant exchange, which ended with him offering me a Microformats T-Shirt! I saw him at a later party and went to quickly change into the t-shirt so that I could go thank him for it, but he was gone when I got back. In case he manages to find this little post – thanks for the shirt, Tantek! (And for being such a great sport.)

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 11th, 2007 at 3:53 pm and is filed under Fun, Personal, SxSW. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.