O'ReillyGMT - Tech News from 4 timezones either side of the Greenwich Meridian

Songforsomeone.com - Bespoke Songs For Your Loved One

Song For Someone is a Start-Up that takes template-based websites to the extreme. In this case, the templates are songs of a range of musical styles that customers can order to be customised to create a song for their Significant Other. The customer fills in a form giving details of the prospective subject of the song - name, sex, where they met, a few likes and dislikes etc. The new facts are threaded seamlessly into the song template, recorded and sent out as a CD.

Song For Someone is the new one-of-a-kind musical gift experience offering you the chance to capture your feelings towards a friend or loved one within a lovingly crafted one-off piece of music, complete with customised lyrics and personalised CD sleeve design. From the details that you provide us with via our online questionnaire, we will carefully craft a unique and natural set of lyrics, set to the music of your choosing, to create a very special personalised song containing both actual personal information as well your own closest feelings towards that special someone.

The templates and the final song are put together by Jim Littlewood, a London-based musician who has been battling these last few years to get his band Sweetheart signed. He has taken a plethora of temp jobs to fund his music-making, spending his days in low-level white collar jobs and his evenings writing or gigging. Song For Someone is his way to generate an income that allows him to make music at the same time.

At first I thought this idea couldn't scale - that it could only get so big before Jim wouldn't have time to record the vocals to complete the song, that he might have to sacrifice the time he used to put aside for Sweetheart in order to fulfill orders, which for Jim would be defeating the object. But there are hundreds of quality singers and studio engineers who would love to have a daytime gig like this which could pay them enough to be able to focus on their own stuff in the evenings, or give them a start in the industry. Some For Someone already employs a female singer should the customer's spec require a woman's voice, rather than a man's. In that sense, the site is infinitely scaleable.

Social Media Lab, Universita IULM, Milan, 27th November 2007

This week, it was my pleasure to be able to speak at Social Media Lab, (on Facebook), a one-day conference at the Universita IULM, in the South-west of Milan. Professor Francesco D'Orazio assembled the event to kick-start a Milanese social scene based around technology and in particular Web 2.0 and Social Networking, having seen the galvanising effect on innovation that regular social events in London has brought about. Francesco put together a formidable panel of speakers drawn from the UK and Italy, covering a wide range of topics centred around the opportunities that Web 2.0 provides, speaking before an audience of approximately sixty attendees drawn half from the University and half from the Milanese blog scene. Christian Alhert, of Minibar fame, who put Francesco in touch with me in the first place, talked about Web 2.0 business models. Francesco discussed the history of Social Networking. I spoke about the fundamental memes behind Web 2.0. Other speakers covered Moodle and Social Networking as it applies to Academia.

The line-up was as follows:

Craig Smith, O’Reilly Media
Cos’e’ il Web 2.0

Christian Ahlert, Open Business / Minibar UK
The More you Give, the More You Get: modelli di business dell’impresa 2.0

Francesco D’Orazio, IULM / MYRL / ZZUB
Breve storia dei social network: dai sei gradi di separazione ai quindici miliardi di Facebook

Gianandrea Giacoma, Psicologo, Ricercatore nell'Osservatorio PKM360, Dip. Univ. Cattolica "Elementi Teorici per la progettazione dei social network. Dinamiche psicologiche e sociali motore dei Social Network"
http://ibridazioni.com

Stefano Mizzella, Dottorando in Società dell'Informazione, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, Bicocca
University 2.0: user-generated-content e social networking per l’innovazione nel contesto accademico http://bicromi.it

Mario Pireddu, Dipartimento di Progettazione Educativa e Didattica dell'Università di Roma Tre
Moodle e la dimensione sociale dell'apprendimento

Michele Finotto, Unilife
Social network per le universita’ italiane

Judging by the enthusiasm of the audience, the event was a thorough success. The audience were keen and asked plenty of questions, and another Social Media Lab is being planned for early next year. Christian also intends to take Minibar to Milan sometime in late Winter/early Spring.

In the evening Francesco took Christian, his colleague - also called Christian - and I to dinner with Antonio Bonanno and Giorgio Montersino of the Milanese Start-Up, Digital Natives. Digital Natives build bespoke CMS tools for Italian companies, using PHP. Giorgio and Antonio are both graduates of the University and they talk Social Networking from the time they meet up to the time they depart, (other than when they're helping me order food from an all-Italian menu). Beside his teaching gig, Francesco is building Myrl, a social network for the Metaverse, which is in super-stealth incredibly secret private beta mode, but which promises to be particularly interesting when it opens itself up to the public. Between them, they are putting their time, reputation and enthusiasm on the line in order to put their understanding of the theory of Web 2.0 into practice.

All in all, Social Media Labs was a lovely event. Francesco was an able and knowledgeable host and moderator. Of all the lessons to be learnt from the event, the main one is that Web 2.0 is alive and well in Milan, and there is a real passion to take these technologies out for a spin to see what they can do.

Minibar Tonight, London Friday 16th November 2007

MiniBar takes place tonight (Friday 16th November 2007) at 6.30pm. I was asked for a quote about Minibar earlier today. This is what I said:

Minibar has claimed a vital place in the infrastructure of London’s geek underworld. Half get-together, half showcase, it provides a test facility for new start-ups and technological dreamers to present their projects – often for the first time – to a knowledgeable, critical but not unkind crowd. Assembled and MC-ed with wit and perception by Christian ‘What’s Your Business Model’ Alhert, Minibar is a magnificent hubbub of endeavour that can only go from strength to strength.

Having said that, I can't be there tonight. If you're going, have a great evening and I'll see you next time.

Minibar - 16th November 2007

November MiniBar takes place on Friday 16th November 2007, 6.30pm at:
Corbet Place
Truman Brewery
E1 6NH

With presentations from:

- Buildersite.co.uk (a SeedCamp winner)
- RentMineOnline (TBC - SeedCamp winner)
- LBI (web agency moving to Truman Brewery)
- Myrl.com
- Michael Smith, Mind Candy

The MiniBar Mantra

MiniBar is a social evening in East London which offers people a chance to snaffle some free beer while discussing p2p, Creative Commons, web applications, social networking and general Web 2.0 (3.0) mayhem & fandango.

Project Sahara - Meeting November 1st 2007, Sheffield

If you're within striking distance of Sheffield tonight, (1st November 2007), one of the most interesting and indeed potentially far-reaching projects I've heard about of late - Project Sahara - is meeting to discuss its future.

Sahara is a move to provide a platform and infrastructure to help start-ups take their projects to the next level. It is the brainchild of Lee Strafford - who built, ran and sold plusnet - and friends, and the aim is to provide solid business advice, sympathetic surroundings in the heart of Academic institutions and expert mentoring, in order to help new tech businesses avoid the pitfalls that account for the majority of start-ups, and to incubate rapid application development from the first idea right through to the creation of a fully-formed, fully-functioning, industry standard iteration. Focusing at first on three of the centres of industry in the North - Sheffield, Leeds and Manchester - Sahara will bring together the techies, the entrepreneurs and the Universities on either side of the Pennines, and, instead of working independently as traditionally they would have done, getting them to work for their mutual benefit to create and market innovation, pooling their skill sets and facilities to set-up a world class hub of knowledge and enterprise in a region famed for innovation - this was, after all, the heartland of the industrial revolution. Also, interestingly, the online conversation goes on within Facebook, which shows how that particular network can be adopted for legitimate business purposes:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=5608288897

Date:  Thursday, November 1, 2007
Time:  6:45pm - 9:00pm
Location:  The Forum Cafe Bar, Devonshire Street, Sheffield

Sahara are planning a meeting in Manchester soon, and a team-up at BarCamp Leeds on the 17th November. This is one worth getting involved in!

Irish Java Technology Conference - 7th Nov 2007

IrishDev.com are holding a 3-day Java conference beginning on the 7th of November 2007 in the centre of Dublin:

IJTC is an event by the Irish Java community for the Irish Java community and will bring many experts and internationally renowned speakers together to discuss latest trends and emerging technologies.

With over 20 expert technology sessions to choose from, covering a breadth of Java technologies, this is yet another tech conference you can't afford to miss!

•     When? Begins Wednesday 7th November, Ends Friday 9th.
•     Where? Cineworld Complex Parnell Street, Dublin 1...plus various festival locations   
•     Cost? 189 Euros - discounts available for D-JUG members and corporate blocks
  

Minibar Podcast - BBC Backstage

Matthew Cashmore of BBC Backstage audio-recorded Minibar last week (19th October 2007), and has made it available as a podcast via Blip TV. This particular Minibar featured the projects which had benefited from Seedcamp funding, so it was very interesting hearing how that affected their businesses:

Download mp3

Kevin Fleming Talks About Asterisk - Profoss 2007

Profoss on 9th & 10th October at the Thon Hotel, Brussels Centre focused on Asterisk and VoIP. The Profoss philosphy is:

Profoss' objective is to spread information about the use of alternative solutions to proprietary and closed products. We focus on organising technical events, each dedicated to one subject, where professional IT people can get the information they need to include the project presented in their daily toolbox.

This time around, Kevin Fleming of Digium spoke about Asterisk, and O'Reilly's Josette Garcia was in the audience to record it. We split the audio into two for ease of download. Part 1:

Download mp3, Download ogg
Part 2:

Download mp3, Download ogg

Get Asterisk: The Future of Telephony 2e with 35% off (plus free p&p if you're in the UK) with the code GMT11 from the UK shopping cart.

Minibar Tonight - London, October 19th 2007

MiniBar October Celebrates SeedCamp

There's another Minibar tonight at:
Corbet Place
Truman Brewery
E1 6NH

Following the success of SeedCamp, where 6 companies won 50k Euros funding and three months of intensive mentoring we will have the winners presenting their start ups. Free Beer will be provided as well. On October 19th we will have presentations by:

* Buildersite (UK)
* RentMineOnline (The Netherlands)
* TableFinder (Sweden)
* Zemanta (Slovenia)
* Kublax (UK)

The MiniBar Mantra

MiniBar is a social evening in East London which offers people a chance to snaffle some free beer while discussing p2p, Creative Commons, web applications, social networking and general Web 2.0 (3.0) mayhem & fandango.

Facebook Application Platform - an O'Reilly Radar Report

Our colleagues over on O'Reilly Radar have put together a report on the Facebook Application Platform:

Facebook bet that opening its Application Platform would spur growth and build buzz, giving it an edge in the white-hot social network popularity contest. Four months and nearly 5000 applications later, it looks like that bet is paying off. Is Facebook the next platform for profits, too?

Find out what it takes to launch a successful Facebook application, understand the new rules of the application development game in a Web 2.0 world, and get the scoop on the most popular Facebook apps in this new report from Tim O'Reilly and the O'Reilly Radar team.

O'Reilly UK User Group Newsletter

The latest edition of the O'Reilly UK User Group Newsletter is now online. Jam-packed full of information with new book information, links to key articles on the O'Reilly Network, GMT and Scenius, event listing and reviews, and put together by our very own Josette Garcia.

David Pogue on One Laptop Per Child

The magnificent David Pogue gave a great video breakdown of what exactly is wonderful about the laptops in the One Laptop Per Child Initiative. Unfortunately, the Give One Get One scheme is not available to people outside North America, but if you are in North America, it sounds well worth participating in.

Advert for Makers Faire, Austin Texas

Absolutely wonderful video advertising Makers Faire, which is due to take place in Austin, Texas on October 20th/21st, 2007.

Some genuinely mad things on there, like the rubber band-driven car and the giant game of Mousetrap. Looks fantastic.

Hack.Lu Conference - Luxembourg, 18th/20th October 2007

Alexandre Dulaunoy of Hack.lu got in touch to tell us about the Hack.lu conference taking place in Luxembourg/Kirchberg between the 18th and 20th October, 2007:

A three day conference in the center of Europe for bridging ethics and security in computer science.

Hack.lu 2007 is an open convention/conference where people can discuss about computer security, privacy, information technology and its cultural/technical implication on society. The aim of the convention is to: make a bridge of the various actors in the computer security world.

The HackCamp unconference will take place within the bigger conference on the 18th. Looks good!

Minibar - London, 19th October 2007

Minibar is different this month, because a) it's the one-year anniversary of the first Minibar and b) it's a Seed Camp Special:

Following the success of SeedCamp, where 6 companies won 50k Euros funding and three months of intensive mentoring, the winners will present their start-ups:

* Buildersite (UK)
* RentMineOnline (The Netherlands)
* TableFinder (Sweden)
* Zemanta (Slovenia)
* Kublax (UK)

When:

Friday, October 19, 2007, 6:00 PM 2007

Where:

Corbet Place - Truman Brewery
E1 6NH
London
02077706100
Info Map/Directions

Head First SQL

We heard a great quote about Lynn Beighley's Head First SQL.

Dawn Griffiths, the author of the soon-to-be-published Head First Statistics, wrote this glowing report about Head First SQL.

I took Head First SQL into my place of work today to show a few people, and I thought you'd like to hear the reaction.

The first person I showed it to was immediately hooked. She hadn't seen a Head First book before and loved the approach (I didn't think I'd ever get it back). She said every page looked interesting, and she wanted to just keep reading. She commented on the NDQ [No Dumb Questions] element in particular, and how reassuring she found it. She said it looked like a technical book she'd actually read. Seeing the book has made her feel like learning, and she now wants to look at other Head First books as well.

I then passed the book onto someone who wants to learn more about table design and SQL. She started looking through it, and she was amazed by how friendly the book looks. She kept saying "this is just what I need", and she's going to rush off and buy a copy as soon as she can.

Another friend told me he had to virtually prise it out of her fingers so he could look at it. He'd never seen a Head First book before either. He works in IT but not programming, and he said that it looked like the sort of book he could learn from without being intimidated, and it made him want to learn.

So far, the Head Firsts have leapt to the top of pretty much every computing sub-category they've been published in. While they are fun and light-hearted, they don't treat the reader like an idiot, and the feedback we've got from people using them out in the wild is uniformly glowing. I'm a big fan, and I'm going to work my way through Head Rush Ajax as soon as I can find the time.

Reminder: 35% Discount for GMT Readers

Buy Head First SQL through GMT to get an online discount of 35% plus free UK p&p.
Click this link to go through to the Head First SQL page on the O'Reilly site, add to the UK shopping cart, and input the code GMT11 where indicated.

SameDayBooks - Staff Needed

A friend of ours from his Waterstones.com days, Kieron Smith, wrote with news that his new company, SameDayBooks, are looking for technical staff:

If you have a moment, I'd appreciate your help. Please take a look and forward these jobs on to anyone you think would be interested in the positions, or anyone else who could help me find a great candidate.

(a) LAMP Developer role
(b) Marketing Director
(c) Web Designer

These are all working on projects in the new e-commerce arm of Argent Vive PLC this is a start-up e-commerce operation so offers tremendous opportunities to make a mark and be a part of something new.

All roles are based in our offices above one of our bookshops in Chertsey, Surrey (inside the M25) offer a generous discount on books and other products as we expand.

Many thanks for your help!

-Kieron

The job descriptions are below the fold: all applicants should apply to Kieron, and not to us - apply to us here at O'ReillyGMT and frankly you've failed the aptitude test!

Kieron is a great guy and SameDayBooks are a fine company, and this looks like it could well blossom into something very exciting, so if you are applying, I wish you all the best!

Future of Web Apps - October 2007

For the next couple of days, (3rd/4th October), we're running a bookstall at the Future of Web Apps Expo at the eXcel Centre in London. It's a fantastic line-up of presenters, including O'Reilly authors Paul Graham, who wrote Hackers and Painters, and Steve Souders, who wrote High Performance Web Sites, but unfortunately we won't be able to see any of them because we're manning the stand. We're offering 35% off list price for the duration of FOWA, should you be of a mind to buy some books.

I'm here all day Wednesday, and Josette is here all day Thursday. Pop by and say hello.

Minibar Tonight (September 28th 2007)

If you're in the London area tonight, don't forget September Minibar is taking place this evening.

Location: Corbet Place, Truman Brewery, E1 6NH, London (Info, Map/Directions)
Time: 6pm

I'm looking forward to all the presentations:

   * Spreadshirt   
   * School of Everything 
   * Miomi

but particularly Manolis Kaleidis with his hyperlinked book - he's been pencilled in for the last two minibars but for one reason or another he's had to drop out. Hopefully he'll make it tonight.

I'll be there, along with Josette and Simon from the O'Reilly UK office. Come by and say hello!

Scenius - Paul Robinson and Andrew Disley on Manchester and the North-West

Over on Scenius, Manchester's Paul Robinson and Orrell's Andrew Disley wax lyrical about Manchester and the North-West. To quote Paul:

I get the feeling we're all determined to make people talk to each other and make interesting things happen. We're supported in part by MDDA and Manchester Digital which gives us focus and means we get cross-pollination. Suddenly a guy who runs an event for VCs is talking to a Unix sys admin and trying to work out if those two groups can overlap somehow.

It's early days, but it's getting interesting ...

... The Northern Quarter is very bohemian, and the city itself is full of relatively cheap office space. The cost of living is comparatively low for a cosmopolitan city, and VCs are starting to take interest. The Universities run R&D outfits and incubators and because the city itself is so small everybody kind of has a way of knowing everybody else - useful when you need ideas and contacts.

Minibar, London - Friday September 28th 2007

Is it the whole world or just me that is gearing up for the September Minibar? It's at the usual place - Corbet Place, Truman Brewery, E1 6NH, London (Info, Map/Directions) - and at the usual time - 6pm - and this time the presenters include Manolis Kaleidis of hyperlinked book fame and:

   * Spreadshirt   
   * School of Everything 
   * Miomi

The MiniBar Mantra

MiniBar is a social evening in East London which offers people a chance to snaffle some free beer while discussing p2p, Creative Commons, web applications, social networking and general Web 2.0 (3.0) mayhem & fandango.

Following O'Reilly's successful Ignite events in Seattle we have now tightened our start-up presentations. When you present you?ll have 3 minutes each and the clock is counting down.

Here you can find people who will help you making your next project work. The event is what we call 'useful fun'. Usually there are 250+ of London's - and beyond - finest web entrepreneurs, designers, programmers, tech journalists, bloggers, VC's, and technology freaks.

   

New Music Strategies Manifesto

One of my far-too-many side-projects outside work is a band called The Scaremongers that I've put together with the poet Simon Armitage. Twenty-five years ago when I was in bands, the route to success was fairly well defined: practice in someone's bedroom, do some local gigs, record a demo in a local studio, send the demos on cassette to major, London-based record labels and hope they picked you up. It rarely worked, but it's what pretty much everyone did - when it did work, the band had invariably added the two extra steps of having their demo pressed onto vinyl and had got it reviewed by The NME, but we were never clever enough to realise that at the time. Obviously, everything has changed these days, and I've spent my weekends these last few months trying to work out exactly how to go about making and promoting music in this modern climate of disruptive technology.

I'll document what The Scaremongers have been up to on here at some juncture, (when I find a way to write about it that doesn't read like opportunistic self-promotion), but the site I've learned most from is Andrew Dubber's New Music Strategies. Dubber is a New Zealander who teaches a music industry degree in the Media Department at UCE Birmingham, and he has a very clear head as to how the music industry - or, as he points out, the music industries, plural - are being affected by technology and how they are having to change. He published The 20 Things You Must Know About Music Online, which makes perfect sense to me, and is well worth a read.

As a taster for those of you who haven't come across his writing, The New Music Strategies Manifesto is a good place to start, full of sound insights such as:

09. What’s good for consumers is good for business.
This is just true of business, fullstop. You want capitalism? Then play by its rules. Nobody ever made money by stopping people from doing what they want to do. You make money by helping people do what they want to do — and by adding value to that process.

Dig into his site and there is plenty of detail and lucidity to back up the soundbites. If you're interested in the way technology has affected the making and marketing of music, it's well worth signing up for his feed.

Geoff Bird on Travelling Salespeople

Beside running this blog, 3/5ths of my time I work as a salesmonkey for O'Reilly, visiting bookshops and the head offices of major bookchains around the UK and Ireland, and trying to ensure they have the books that people need when they need them. One of my former publishers' rep counterparts, the writer, broadcaster and radio producer Geoff Bird, has just written an article for the Guardian about his time on the road, and the whole subculture that goes with it:

Of course the most famous salesman of all is Arthur Miller's suicide case, Willy Loman. Countless A-level and undergraduate essays have surely been written arguing that Death of a Salesman amounts to one of the great critiques of capitalism's power to destroy individual lives. Fair enough. To Miller himself, however, it was a great deal more than that. When the actor Warren Mitchell played the part, he asked the playwright what it was that Loman carried around in his sample cases. Miller's simple reply was, "Dreams, Warren, dreams." This, famously, is a man to whom attention must be paid.

OpenStreetMap Mapping Party - Leeds, 15th-16th September 2007

You can easily get the impression that the techies in Leeds never sit still: hot on the heels of OpenCoffee, and as a precursor to GeekUp Leeds on the 19th comes the Leeds Mapping Party, an OpenStreetMap event taking place over Saturday and Sunday, 15th-16th September.

In case you haven't come across it, OpenStreetMap is:

OpenStreetMap is a project aimed squarely at creating and providing free geographic data such as street maps to anyone who wants them. The project was started because most maps you think of as free actually have legal or technical restrictions on their use, holding back people from using them in creative, productive or unexpected ways.

The timetable:

Saturday

9:45am	Starbucks Albion Street (on corner by Next, Virgin and Boots)	link
1:00pm	The Lounge pub on Merrion Street (free wifi, nice food)	link
5:00pm - 8:00pm	Victoria Hotel, Great George Street	link
8:30pm	Curry at Aagrah St. Peters Sq, LS9 8AH	link

Sunday

10:30am	Old Broadcasting House, Leeds Metropolitan University - opposite the Fenton		link
1:00pm	Old Broadcasting House, Leeds Metropolitan University - Lunch Meeting
4pm - 5pm	Old Broadcasting House, Leeds Metropolitan University - Final Meet

You can add your name below here, to the Upcoming event page, http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/236736/ or even the Facebook event page,http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=3447425687 or simply turn up, but it would be good if you could sign up so we can get a good idea of numbers, for biscuits.

Chipwrapper - Toolset for UK News Sources Search

A few months ago, we linked to Martin Belam's site, currybetdotnet, where he had written a comprehensive round-up of the Web 2.0 activities of the web sites of the major UK newspapers. Martin has just launched a new site called Chipwrapper, a set of tools to search the sites of major UK media outlets."The main part of the service is a Google Custom Search Engine. This allows you to search Google's index, but only see results from the major newspapers and news sources in the UK." Tools include a Chipwrapper OpenSearch plugin for Internet Explorer 7, and a Chipwrapper custom button for the Google Toolbar.

On currybetdotnet, he explains what it's all about and how he's done it:

The headline buzz is built by using a Yahoo! Pipe which takes the top ten headlines from the 11 main UK news sources - BBC, Daily Express, Daily Mail, Daily Mirror, Guardian, Independent, ITN, Sky News, The Sun, The Telegraph and The Times.

A script then analyses those headlines, and makes a league table of popular words, with the dull ones like 'we', 'they', 'and', 'of' etc stripped out. The top 7 of these appear on the Chipwrapper homepage and link through to the Chipwrapper search results for that word.

The whole list is also available as an RSS feed. This refreshes every hour, and contains each word that occurred in 3 or more headlines and the number of times that it appeared.

Build stuff yourself

One of the defining ideas of Chipwrapper has been to build it using free (as in costs nothing) software and Web 2.0 tools and services. In fact, aside from the domain registration costs, and a bit of Bytemark hosting costs, it hasn't cost me anything apart from time.

I have dreams of Chipwrapper widgets and gadgets and map mash-ups well beyond my capabilities though, which is why there is a 'Make stuff' page.

This lists all of the contributory pipes, feeds, XML and bits'n'bobs that make up the service so that people can hopefully build new tools based upon it. I hope I'll be able to list those on Chipwrapper in return.

To qualify Chipwrapper's customisability, Martin has launched a Rugby Union version for the start of the Rugby Union World Cup.

(Via Pete Ashton)

Women in Technology on O'Reilly FYI

My counterparts in the States on the O'Reilly FYI blog have begun a new series called Women in Technology, starting with an article written by Leslie Hawthorne, once Google's Geek Herder and now working at the Open Source Programs Office:

I've never thought of my role in the technical community as being the result of or in any way inextricably tied to my femininity. If anything, in an effort to be the change I wish to see in the world, I've distanced myself from questions of gender roles in my work. If we are all (to be) equal, it seems counter-intuitive to look at my work as informed by my being a woman. I do and I make, I listen and I advise, I lead and I follow, and none of these things are the exclusive purview of women. While others might, I would not argue that either sex has a particular aptitude for any of these things. Still, when I look at what I do and what I make, I far more often than not find women playing a similar role and doing similar tasks: building communities, creating space for creativity and connection to manifest, taking care of mundane and arcane details so that others can focus on executing to a grander vision.

Minibar, London - Tonight! (31st August 2007)

Tonight (31st August 2007) just off Brick Lane in London, another Minibar takes place, this time featuring the launch of Tioti. There's (free) FREE BEER plus presentations from:

* Paul Cleghorn - co-founder Tapeitofftheinternet.com
* Richard Pope of Moo.com will present their cool technology and bring some stickers!

It's always a fine, illuminating and fun event, with good people and fine drinks. It's from 6pm onwards - the presentations start at about 7pm. I'll be there and I'd be glad if you stopped me to say hello!

SCALE 6x - Women in Open Source: Call For Papers

Last week in her interview on Scenius, Deb Bassett expressed her disappointment that women still find technology unappealling as a vocation, for a host of different reasons:

I don’t see things changing that much, which is a shame as it's a really interesting and creative industry to work in... it seemed a natural progression for me to head into computing and I have found the computing industry really welcoming as a whole.

Of course, you are aware that you are a minority, and there are both advantages and disadvantages to this. Jeni Tennison has written a fabulous article which is the first article I've read that really hits the nail on the head for me: Getting Women into Computing. Edd Dumbill wrote a follow-up to Jeni's article - of particular interest to me is the point made about self-efficacy - as Edd says, a complete revelation, and something I've never quite been able to put into words.

Over in California, a similar need to quantify common issues and to work together to find solutions has lead to the 2nd Women in Open Source Conference:

The Linux Expo of Southern California is proud to announce their second Women in Open Source Conference. The conference will be held on February 8th, 2008 in conjunction with the 6th Annual So Cal Linux Expo.

Continuing our efforts to encourage women of all ages to be a part of the free and open source community, we invite you to showcase your work on Free and Open Source projects. Join us in sharing your accomplishments, success stories, and advancements.

Past attendees at this event have included women in technology, teachers, and parents of young girls.

Widespread acceptance of the Linux Expo and participation by the user community have established SCALE as the premiere Open Source conference in the Southwest. 2008 marks the sixth year that SCALE has been engaging and inspiring the open source community. Our event is uniquely community-based and attracts a wide variety of sponsors, non-profit groups, user groups, and attendees.

The Call For Papers for the Women In Open Source conference can be found here:
http://socallinuxexpo.org/scale6x/documents/scale6x-wios-cfp.pdf

No Fluff Just Stuff, London - Wednesday 29th August 2007

The first ever No Fluff Just Stuff outside The States begins today (Wednesday 29th August 2007) in London and runs till Friday. The event takes place at:

London Marriott Hotel Grosvenor Square
Grosvenor Square
London
W1K 6JP
View Map

My colleague Simon Chappell is running an O'Reilly/Pragmatic Programmer bookstore today, I'll be taking over tomorrow and the great Josette Garcia will be there on Friday. Come by and say hello.

Featured sessions include:

Give it a REST   Brian Sletten
NetKernel : XML Processing for the 21st Century   Brian Sletten
Introducing the Semantic Web   Brian Sletten
Domain Driven Development using Naked Objects 3.0   Dan Haywood
RAD JSF with Seam, Facelets, and Ajax4jsf, Part One   David Geary
The Google Web Toolkit, Part One   David Geary
Test Driven Development, Take 2   Erik Doernenburg
Grails: Spring & Hibernate Development Re-invented   Graeme Rocher
The Grails Plug-in System: Plug into productivity   Graeme Rocher
GORM - Object Relational Mapping with Hibernate De-mystified   Graeme Rocher
Advanced Web Application Security Joe Walker
Raising the game: Top ten techniques for secure design   Mark Goodwin
10 Ways to Improve Your Code   Neal Ford
Implementing SOA   Neal Ford
Building DSLs in Static and Dynamic Languages   Neal Ford
Introduction to JRuby   Neal Ford
Building a lightweight ESB with Apache Synapse   Paul Fremantle
Groovy and Java: The Integration Story   Scott Davis
Ajax development with the Yahoo! UI Library and Grails   Scott Davis
JavaFX   Simon Ritter
Enterprise Performance and Scalability   Ted Neward
OSGi: A Well Kept Secret   Venkat Subramaniam
get Fit   Venkat Subramaniam
Spring into Groovy   Venkat Subramaniam

Some Fopps Reopen

Back in June, when Fopp called in the receivers, serious music fans of the UK wandered around in a daze, bewildered that their favourite chain had gone to the wall. On Sunday in Glasgow, those same serious music fans were walking around in a daze because the Union St branch had opened up for business again, offering the same unbelievable selection of music, books and films at the same unbelieveable prices. I was one of those music fans, almost trembling at the miracle of this resurrection, brought into being because HMV bought 7 of the 105 stores that Fopp once ran and allowed the same management teams to run them. As I paid for my bumper haul, (CDs by Young Marble Giants, Jackson Browne, The Auteurs, Janis Joplin and Kirsty McColl, and Talledega Nights and Marie Antoinette on DVD - £42 - bargain!), I said to the woman behind the counter, 'If I promise not to buy from iTunes Music Store again, will you promise not to close again?' She replied she was just happy to have a job again!

The Rose St branch in Edinburgh is also open, as is the shop in Cambridge. Nottingham, Manchester and Byers Road, Glasgow are due to re-open, and hopefully Covent Garden, London, though there's a problem with the lease. I know this isn't the same as Fopp in its glory days  - not for the customers and certainly not for the staff - still it's great to know that they are still a going concern. It also shows that in these days of pessimism for the record industry and for the retailing of CDs and DVDs, someone somewhere still believes that if you get the price, selection and location right, you can still make a healthy living selling circular discs full of music and films. While I am sure I will renege on my promise not to buy from iTunes Music Store, I won't forget what it felt like to lose and then regain the only music retail chain that in my opinion thoroughly understands what music means to the music fans of this nation, and I will make an effort to support them whenever I can. And if someone in HMV realised Fopp's worth - not just to the balance sheet but to the popular music ecosystem - why, then there's hope for them, too!