[apologies for the tumblr DNS problems for the last few days — should be sorted now]

Hey All,

OpenTech is nearly upon us. We’ve just sent an email to everyone who has pre-registered, and will close pre-registration at 5pm today. So if you’ve not already got your ticket, http://www.opentech.org.uk/2013/registration . There will be some tickets available on the door, although I’m not sure how many. Watch @opentechuk on Saturday morning for how many and when they run out. Please try and have a five pound note for your entry donation (or the ID that gets you in for free) , especially if you’re aiming to get there early. It makes life so much easier for the people on the door (and the bar opens from 11, so there’s little reason to be too early).

If you’re working on something interesting, visionOnTV will be in the bar all day with their live TV/webcasting rig. If you’re interested in a short informal chat, drop Marc an email (marc@visionon.tv) and arrange a time to chat about what it is you work on. VisionOntv is an independent Internet TV station reporting on social change campaigns and projects and curates unique channels of content with more than 15000 films.

Also on Saturday, is Eurovision. Ewan can’t speak this year, as he’s commentating Eurovision; so your iPod shuffles are safe (ish), but he and speaker Terence Eden have been working on an app for the Eurovision Song Contest Alternative Commentary. iPhone and iPad users can drown out Graham Norton and listen to the sweet, sweet sound of Ewan instead. Includes live voting (just for fun) and all the official videos etc. Works anywhere in the world where you can get data.

See you on Saturday

Sam and David

  @smithsam  @dwm

Hey All,

the latest draft of the schedule is now up. We’re almost there:

http://www.opentech.org.uk/2013/schedule

Those who have already reserved a ticket all received an email

from us earlier today.

If you tweet about the sessions that are most of interest to you,

 we’ll keep an eye out on what’s looking popular, and possibly do

 some room swapping. Please include @opentechuk, and take a look

 at our mentions column for what your friends are going to. We 

 appreciate you spreading the word.

45 talks across 3 tracks over 7 hours, which hope to challenge, 

inspire or talk about something that makes you want to get involved.

OpenTech 2013 includes RaspberryPis, FPGAs, law, creativity, trains,

GDS, EMF, pictures, privacy, diversity, and a fort, and with plenty 

of time to talk in the bar after sessions which challenge, inspire 

or talk about something that makes you want to help how you can. 

You (and friends) are strongly advised to pre-register: 

     http://www.opentech.org.uk/2013/registration

Besides the sessions which will challenge or inspire, there’s plenty 

of time to talk in the bar with friends both old and new.

Notable things:

  - Places to Get Excited…

  - … and Places to Make Things

  - EMFcamp

  - Privacy

  - Open Rights Group

  - running your house on GitHub

  - show me the money - openSpending and openCorporates

  - Design for the common case

  - hardware decisions in the Raspberry Pi

  - Domain Logic for Direct Action

  - Big Data for Good

Other things on the day

    - VisionOn.TV will be bringing their popup studio, and

      be doing interviews and a bunch of other things with

      speakers and attendees doing interesting things.

      Further details, including how to get a slot, see

      http://visionon.tv/opentech

    - Thomas Stewart will be doing a PGP keysigning event

      at lunchtime

    - NHS Hackday is running NHS Hackday in the same building 

      a week later. If you’re not sure what it is, they’ll be

      around all day.  http://www.nhshackday.com

As ever, while there is technically some wifi in the

building, as soon as we all show up, there will no longer be

any working wifi in the building. So listen to the speakers

(or your mates in the bar) rather than compulsively

refreshing twitter errors, wondering if you should have gone

to a different session based on the tweets sent over 3G.

Pre-register your tickets here: http://www.opentech.org.uk/2013/registration.

See you soon

 your friendly opentech organisers 

Pre-Registration of Tickets for OpenTech are now open

http://www.opentech.org.uk/2013/

At OpenTech, we have

  * EMFcamp

  * Bletchley Park - Sue Black and friends

  * Open Rights Group

  * running your house on GitHub

  * show me the money - openSpending and openCorporates

  * Design for the common case*

  * hardware decisions in the Raspberry Pi

  * Using data companies hold about you (midata)

  * Silent Club

  * Big Data for Good*

  * Privacy

  * Election 2015

  * Places to Get Excited…

  * … and Places to Make Things*

We’re looking for more talks on 

  * Design (we have a session, need more talks)  

  * Coding 2013

  * Internet of Sensors

  * Diversifying views & experiences

  * What should a 2013 not-for-profit look like?

  * other topics (including those with a * in the first list)…

Other news

Our friends at EPIK, who do coding for kids in Kent, are looking for data and resources of interest ot the traveller community. If you know anything, or are nearby and want to help, please see the EIPK wiki:

http://epik.org.uk/epikwiki/index.php/EPIK_Youth_coders

We’ll be looking for helpers on the day. If you fancy helping OpenTech for a couple of hours, in return for free entry and some thanks, drop us an email: opentech@ukuug.org

We’re still looking for talks, so if you’re interested in something that you think others might like, get in touch  and we can have an informal chat about it. We’re happy to listen to fun things… http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=tgbNymZ7vqY

Pre-Registration of Tickets for OpenTech are now open:

http://www.opentech.org.uk/2013/

OpenTech 2013

18th May 2013

if you want to join our mailing list, you can do so here

Read More

we shall return :) 

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.

radcoco:

Welcome to the land of radical code, e-winning and learners who brunch!

Inspired by the frustration of five ultra-busy yet curious geek ladies who love Arduinos and carry around books on Python yet never have time to get started, and based on the example of non-hierarchical, self-powered free schools rooted in anarchist education methodologies, we launched this collective at the Mozilla Festival in order to empower geek-minded women in London to learn programming together and engage with friendly coders of all genders with a love for machine languages.

We are currently looking for:

• coders of all self-identifications who have a language they love and want to share it in a guest lecturer capacity with us;
• interested folk (especially ladies) who want to self-learn code in an autonomous and collaborative environment;
• free and democratic education schools who want to share their programmes and resources with us!

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:

• HTML/CSS
• Javascript

Highly desired:

• UX design experience

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.

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.

The Full Circle magazine podcast show of feedback and interviews from OpenTech 2011.