One of the most appreciated keynotes at the ongoing Japanese MySQL Users Conference was by Yukihiro “Matz” Matsumoto, the creator of the Ruby language.

Me and Matz at MySQL UC Japan Day 1 2007-09-11

Matz was preceded by an impressive set of keynoters, moderated by MySQL K.K. President Larry Stefonic, also Senior Vice President of Asia Pacific at MySQL AB :

• His Excellency Mr. Stefan Noreén, Ambassador of Sweden to Japan
• Mårten Mickos, CEO, MySQL AB
• Masahiko Yoshida-san, Director, Hewlett-Packard Japan, Ltd.
• Kenji Mukai-san, Vice President, General Manager, IT Architecture Solutions Unit, Sumisho Computer Systems Corporation
• Hirokazu Seto-san, Senior Manager, Alliance & Solutions, Marketing & Operations, Dell Inc.

Matz carries the title of Fellow at Network Applied Communication Laboratory Ltd. For the predominantly business oriented audience, Matz described the history of Free Software, of Open Source, and of Ruby, mentioning the mandatory names: Richard Stallman, Eric Raymond, Linus Torvalds, and, for Ruby on Rails, David Heinemeier Hansson. With Linus, Matz shares the original motivation for starting their respective now-famous Free Software project: Fun!

The presentation was a great success and even Matz’s jokes were translated into English, creating a time-delayed wave of laughter in the non-Japanese part of the audience. I wonder whether my own afternoon session in English will be equally well treated, when translated into Japanese.