I’ve just spent the last weekend at FoE conference in Loughborough—three days of workshops, speeches, networking sessions and drinking. I enjoyed it far more than last year, and I think I’m starting to be a sufficiently familiar face for people to recognise me. It was great to catch up with people I hadn’t seen since last year and meet some new faces. At one or two points I was even in grave danger of actually both looking and being relaxed, which is most unlike me! I think the former might have been down to wearing jeans and a t-shirt and brushing my hair to the side though.
The workshop which I ran (‘Free Software, then Free the World’ – title courtesy of Graeme) also seemed to go down well. More people turned up than I initially expected, including two members of staff. As a result of the discussions, I seem to have accidentally volunteered to set up a network within FoE for local activists who are interested in IT —oops! I think this will really benefit local groups though and there are already people who are enthusiastic about getting involved. I had some useful conversations during and after conference which were particularly interesting as well…
Research wise, my thesis is coming along slowly—the introduction chapter is almost finalised and the other chapters are slowly starting to take shape as well. My supervisor is away at the moment, but I’m hoping to launch my second experiment as soon as he gets back next week. Once that’s done, my research is more or less complete, and I’ll be writing up in earnest. I’ve also applied to be a demonstrator again this semester, as this will hopefully provide me with a small source of income and a longer period of continuous employment with the University on my CV.
Finally, I got the membership secretary position I wanted, which will hopefully lead to a company secretary position too. There’s also a voluntary board position which I’m thinking of applying for (I’m not sure if I’ll get it or not though—like the FoE one I expect I’ll be too inexperienced) and I have a number of project/business ideas which I’m hoping to have more time to work on once my thesis is complete. For now though, it’s back to the grindstone…