Coming to you live, quick impressions from our fourth FLOSS Usability Sprint:    (LZC)

• Each of our sprints have had a distinct personality. One thing that strikes me about our participants this time is how well all of them understand and buy into usability. One big reason for that is our projects — we have three repeat projects plus Firefox. It also reflects nicely on a growing shared understanding on what Open Source and usability are, and how we can marry the two together.    (LZD)
• After having gone through three and a half of these sprints, I find that I have inadvertently become a knowledge repository for a ton of great learning about both usability and Open Source. While I love the learning, I can’t help but think that there’s someone in the community with a greater individual stake than I — a usability practitioner or an Open Source developer — who’s missing out on a great personal opportunity to serve that same role and really become a champion and leader of the cause.    (LZE)
• Great space + great people + great process = Group Genius. It never fails.    (LZF)
• People who have never participated in this type of event before don’t realize how exhausting it is. This is not Bar Camp. Yeah, we’re connecting, we’re knowledge-sharing, and we’re having fun. But we’re also working. And it’s really fun watching these folks — after an exhausting week of regular week — crank away on these projects. If work were always this fun, the world would truly be an interesting place. It feels even better knowing that we’re working on tools that will make an impact on the world at large.    (LZG)
• Google‘s very own Leslie Hawthorn is awesome. I know, I know, I’ve gushed about her before. But it needs to be said again and again and again.    (LZH)