Merry Christmas from OpenTech - and Some of our friends are hiring
Have a good Christmas all. Details of OpenTech 2012 will be appearing soon.
So ‘tis about to be the season to change jobs, and some of our friends are hiring.
Past OpenTech supporters carbon charity 10:10 and the Government Digital Service are both currently hiring - you might like working for them.
On a similar note, if you’re looking to hire next year, we’ll be looking for event sponsorship in the new year, and £4k is pretty cheap for what you get.
LinkedGov needs your help!
We’d love your help to get our alpha out the door. We’re working to produce the first version of our cleaning and linking processes (bring on the games!) so that we can launch the open source community around LinkedGov.
We are looking for two developers for 20 days each (paid, full time), to start pretty much immediately:
1. Data-based dev
Essential skills:
- Java
- Javascript
- RDF and XML
- XSLT or x-query or SPARQL
- Working knowledge of Google Refine
2. Front end dev
Essential skills:
Highly desired:
3. For both roles
It would be great if you:
- Have previous experience with government data
- Are familiar with LinkedGov’s project
- Are willing to contribute to the specs / architecture / ideas / brainstorming around LinkedGov (as and when it’s needed)
- Are willing to work on site at LinkedGov HQ in Old Street, London
Send us an email at jointheteam@linkedgov.org. We’d love to hear from you by Monday 1 August.
Barefoot into Cyberspace: Adventures in search of techno-Utopia
Becky Hogge’s new book Barefoot into Cyberspace:Adventures in search of techno-Utopia launched today. An inside account of radical hacker culture and the forces that shape it, the book contains unique interviews with Rop Gonggrijp, Julian Assange, Daniel Schmitt, Ethan Zuckerman, Cory Doctorow, Phil Booth and “information wants to be free” legend Stewart Brand. Becky is the former executive director of UK digital rights campaigners the Open Rights Group and a regular guest and compere at OpenTech events. You can buy the book in print, on Kindle, or download a CC-licensed version from barefootintocyberspace.com.
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The Full Circle magazine podcast show of feedback and interviews from OpenTech 2011.
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SEO Kung Fu Spotlight
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Tim Ireland
Previously, to shine a light in dark corners, you needed to cooperation of a publisher or broadcaster or someone working for them. Now you can do it onyour own, but it is foolish to expect that you can reach the same number(s) of people as these outdated behemoths, or even that you need to. Besides, they lie about their numbers, just as those who copy them do. Keeping an MP honest, for example, starts with an audience of one. This will be an entertaining talk on political impacts. The Commercial version is one you can pay Tim for: http://www.bloggerheads.com/seo-seminar/
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Police State UK: open source citizen journalism
Helen Lambert & Denny
Police State UK is a news and opinion website covering UK civil liberties (politics, policing, and the sometimes worrying relationship between them). The website runs on an open source content management system called YAWNS, written in Perl and running on Linux and Apache. We have an open content policy, encouraging readers to contribute articles. Although most of the content is written by us, we have had some excellent contributions from others ? including articles from serving politicians and practising lawyers. We also run a successful Twitter account - probably more successful than the website itself in fact, with over 4,000 followers and counting; it’s been growing faster ever since the Tories got in power. Recent events have seen us publishing a lot of articles on the right to protest, but we’ve also covered subjects such as ID cards, DNA retention, RIPA, CCTV and more ? our areas of interest are broad, and we’re particularly interested in how many of these issues seem to come back to similar attitudes on the part of the state. We report what’s happening in Parliament, on the streets, and in posh Westminster policy seminars. We’re still not sure how we got on that invite list.
http://policestate.co.uk
Bill Thompson discusses whether the Hacker Ethic and Commons-Based Peer Production can make a better world. Are we more like Gutenberg or Genghis Khan? http://www.billt.eu
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Naomi McAuliffe discusses the challenges and opportunities with visionOntv’s Kayte Fairfax.
