Keeping on top of things

I’m somehow managing to keep on top of Friends of the Earth work in Sam’s absence—probably because it’s a quieter time of the year with so many people being on holiday, although local groups conference is approaching fast (I have to organise getting the group there, as well as planning a workshop which I’m running) […]

OpenTech 2008 – a reflection

I spent last Saturday in London at OpenTech 2008, an event organised by UKUUG “and friends”. There were lots of interesting talks—allowing fifteen minutes per speaker ensured a variety and that no one got bored listening to one voice for too long—across a range of subjects from green IT to accessing “freely available” government data. […]

Perhaps I should move to London

As all the important meetings etc. seem to be there, including in the next month: 30th June: UKUUG Council meeting and venue viewing 2nd July: Association of History and Computing committee meeting and book proposal 5th July: OpenTech 2008 19th July: Campaign Against Climate Change steering group meeting Plus a possible interview at some time […]

A week of activism

I’m not normally a big activist, usually because I’m so busy trying to keep my eye on/organise everything that I don’t get much time to actually take much action as an individual. However, this weekend I managed to lobby my MP over amendments to the Climate Change Bill and all of my MEPs on standards […]

Dropping down to MPhil

For those people who don’t know already, I’ve decided to drop down from my PhD and just do an MPhil this year. I’ve been thinking about this for a while, and there are numerous reasons behind it—though mainly it’s a case of not wanting to do research full time (I enjoy it, but I’m not […]

Good old USA

It’s not often that I praise the United States of America, but one thing which I do like about them is their policy towards making data created by government agencies free of copyright (in most cases) and available for download over the Web. As a result, I can obtain a complete list of geographical names […]

Restaurants in London

Following on my previous post, I’m currently looking for restaurants (or other catering venues) near the centre of London (defined as ‘within walking/short tube distance of Euston’) which can offer a three course meal and wine for over ninety people on a weekday evening. I know there are some Londoners who read my blog, so […]

UKUUG Spring 2009

At the last conference call we had, I somehow managed to be volunteered for the task of running the UKUUG spring conference in 2009. We’re going to be in London this time (usually it’s the same city as the conference organiser, but we’ve used Manchester recently and haven’t had one in London for several years), […]

Richard Stallman talk

Last Thursday, in an event organised with Manchester Free Software and sponsored by the BCS and the IET, we had Richard Stallman give a talk on free software at the University of Manchester. Initially, we hadn’t expected many people to attend the talk, perhaps a hundred or so, and as a result a small room […]