50th Anniversary of Smalltalk

As He often does, God spoke to me very early this morning while I was in bed. Not in a dream but in a dream-like state…

For the past year, I’ve been struggling to find a way to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Smalltalk in 2022. I even published an article asking for suggestions but I got no feedback at all. Apparently, there is a worldwide lack of imagination, even among Smalltalkers.

Early this morning, the idea struck: for 2022, we should conduct a…

Camp Smalltalk Supreme

or CSS.

It would be a week-long affair held on the campus of Ryerson University.

It would consist of a series of Smalltalk workshops conducted by Ryerson, Simberon, and TSUG. (And whomever else we can rope in.)

It would consist of presentations by Smalltalk companies, researchers, and devotees.

We would invite Alan Kay, Dan Ingalls, and Adele Goldberg (call them the PARC Team) to give keynote speeches. We would invite the media to interview them.

The PARC Team would attend a Question and Answer session whereby the public could ask questions about Smalltalk’s history, philosophy, and social and technological impact.

We would hold a day-long hackathon with a $1,000 prize for the most outstanding Smalltalk creation. (Or maybe do something along the lines of Battlesnake.)

We would give away Smalltalk keychains to all attendees (up to 1,000).

In lieu of a free T-shirt giveaway, we would sell up to a thousand Smalltalk T-shirts at the ridiculously low price of $5 a pop.

We would hold a Smalltalk art auction with artwork donated by Smalltalkers around the globe. The proceeds would go toward COVID-19 relief.

Here’s the kind of artwork I would imagine:

We would hold a celebration banquet (at a Chinese restaurant?). 

Between Ryerson’s PR department and my exceptional video creation skills, we would have a fantastic online presence: a multimedia history of Smalltalk!

I would try to secure funding through:

• corporate sponsorship
• GoFundMe
• the money I saved in JRMPC from not flying in the Alberta team and not holding the banquet
• I’d even kick in a thousand dollars of my own money

Alas, this is all just a dream (or trance-like state in the wee hours of the morning). I rather doubt I can get anyone to buy in to my divine fantasy.

But such divine fantasies are the reason why there is even a JRMPC today.