It was several years ago this time, over the winter holiday break, that I first met Dave Winer.  He came well-introduced
and with an extraordinary record of accomplishment behind (and, as it
turned out, ahead) of him.  We met in the unheated Berkman
conference room in a dark building, with all the sane academics
burrowed away somewhere warm and outside of abandoned Cambridge. 
Dave’s fellowship gave rise to some of the most substantial projects
the Berkman Center has ever undertaken, including an ever-growing focus
on the rise of citizens’ media (blogging, podcasting, RSS, OPML, and
the like) and the impact of Internet on democracy, which led me to Dave
in the first place.  Fittingly, on this Monday holiday, I’m seeing
Dave again here in Cambridge.  Always a watershed.  Or, more
likely, a blizzard (like last year at WebCred, when I last had lunch
with him here).