Phew – it is all done and nobody died! just kidding……
DigitalFossil 2012 took place from Sunday through Wednesday, and saw me running around the labyrinth called Museum für Naturkunde Berlin like someone possessed. I had excellent help for the actual execution, especially for the registration desk, the tech help in the lecture hall and the coffee breaks, in the form of five bright and diligent students. Additionally, the secretary of the collection department helped organize and run the coffee machine, so that all attendants had ample good coffee. Many thanks to all of them!
The presentations and workshops were utterly cool! I missed the vast majority, as I was busy organizing things or running to and fro between the various lecture halls and my office, but those I attended were interesting and fun, and everybody else told me they liked the vast majority of presentations. Many thanks to all the speakers! You done well 🙂
Many people asked me when and where the next instalment will take place. Ask me again in a year or so; right now the effect of 2-hours-sleep nights and the total exhaustion resulting from running up and down stairs all day is still too fresh. “Maybe in two or three years, and maybe in Berlin or elsewhere”, that’s as far as I will go today.
Overall, I found that I was exactly right: a conference explicitly on digitizing was overdue, and the interest was greater than expected. Some talks were attended by almost 100 people! The collection management issue, going from USB disc storage to proper archiving and accessibility, was also on everyone’s mind. I guess I do deserve a pat on my back after all 🙂
I also got a very nice birthday&thanks-for-organizing present from Linda Deck and Ralph Chapman (Daniela got one, too, but because it was my birthday I got to choose): Plate VI from Marsh, O.C. 1878. Principal characters of American Jurassic dinosaurs. Part I. American Journal of Science and Arts 16:411-416.
(I’ll scan and post it later, can’t find it on the net)
dinosaurpalaeo 
“it is all done and nobody died! just kidding……”
Someone DID die!? Congratulations, Heinrich… t’was fantastic!
my sanity died 😉
The plate is online here:
http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/113467#page/435/mode/1up
Hm, that looks different – I must have been given a plate from a different Marsh paper (runs off to research this)
Many thanks for the link, very helpful!