event

When I'm planning an Oxford Geek Night, there's often a pressure to get drinks sponsorship: from the venue, from attendees and even from speakers. The first serious long-term drinks sponsors ended up so popular, that many events after they'd stopped sponsoring us, people were still asking me if they were going to provide a bar tab at the next one.

But a regular OGN attendee recently pulled me up on a brief burst of "BEER!" rhetoric by suggesting that, especially for someone teetotal, stressing free alcohol all the time could be alienating. He wasn't asking for a dry venue; he was just pointing out that, if you don't drink alcohol, then an event which stresses free drink (essentially alcoholic, given the venue is a pub, and the tab is at the upstairs bar where they don't do e.g. coffee) might just seem weird, and not something that was meant for you to attend.

There's a long, ranty but in many ways quite reasonable article about how free alcohol is bending the industry's social events out of shape. Certainly when you assemble all of the free-beer boasting in one place, it starts to look like web event marketing is run by someone with a serious problem.

It's fair to say in response, of course, that the culture of drinking in the UK is more accepted and indulged in to larger amounts, than in the USA; Europeans simply do drink more. And that part of the psychological damage of heavy drinking arises from social ostracization, in the same way as the tendency to drink in the first place comes from social acceptance. Moreover, while one should always listen to minority groups, because their more vocal members help to show when something more important is going wrong, then at the same time I've had more comments that any sponsorship is corporatizing the event, than I've had comments that we're stressing the drinking angle too much. Is that - thin end of the wedge aside - a reason to turn down all sponsorship?

I certainly don't want the image of OGNs to go from "Friend of Oxford Geeks" to "Fun Bobby". But my personal feeling - admittedly, as someone who does drink alcohol, at least occasionally - is that, as long as we stress the "sponsorship" in "drinks sponsorship", and avoid simply bellowing "BEER," then we at least tone down the alcoholic nature of it.

But I wonder what other people think. Leave a comment, or contact me on Twitter, if you've an opinion.

(By the way: we haven't had such sponsorship in ages, which arguably makes my worries moot. And do you know what? Every OGN is a dry OGN for me: having to ferry equipment around means I can never conscience having an alcoholic drink. It's not a lifestyle choice, though, which I imagine makes a difference.)

Oxford Geek Night 26 happens in ten days' time. As tends to be the case these days, when I'm not panicking, I'm really looking forward to it.

We've got two fascinating keynotes as always. Simon Whitaker popped over to Reading recently to storm the Geek Nights there, and is back in Oxfordshire to discuss the lessons he learned, when he tried teaching coding to schoolchildren. Also, documentary maker and writer Michael Story will be explaining how the media can lie to us, and why they do it.

We've also got all the other usual stuff: four exciting microslots from fellow Oxford(shire) geeks; and a nearly full roster for our sixty-second, fast-paced open-mic slots in The Pitch. And there's free entry thanks to regular sponsors Torchbox, and a free drink per geek (while stocks last) thanks to OGN26 sponsors Historic Futures.

Stick a week on Thursday in your diary, then. And for more information about OGN26, and regular but infrequent updates afterwards, you should subscribe to the newsgroup or follow @oxfordgeeks on Twitter.

(Sorry for only going on about OGNs these days. With two site launches in the past two months, I've not had a chance since the last one to blog about anything much here: although I'm writing a few things elsewhere that might get a big reveal later!)

It's already been over two months since the last Oxford Geek Night. Because everyone was away for holidays and then for the conference season, and if you also add a dash of minor illness into the mixture, we've been holding off organising the next OGN until we were ready to get back into the swing of it.

Now, the wait is over. Oxford Geek Nights #19 will be on Wednesday, 1 December 2010. Put it in your diaries now! (We're also planning OGN20 for some time in late January or early February 2011: exact date to be confirmed soon.)

Because we've had chance to catch our breath, two major things have happened. The first is that we've already got two brilliant keynote talks confirmed for OGN19. Leila Johnston, self-styled punk broadcaster, co-presenter of the Shift Run Stop podcast and published author, will be talking about Making things fast. We also have David Caruana and Florian Müller from Alfresco to talk about the OASIS standard on making content management systems interoperable. That means an international standard on how CMS-authored sites can talk to each other.

The second major change to Oxford Geek Nights is that Wes West and Jonny Grum are joining me as co-planners and helping to share the burden. That should mean that OGN tech will be more reliable and OGN planning more robust, and each night itself should hang together that little bit more, because we can all pitch in where necessary. Thanks to Wes and Jonny for joining the existing team of Nick Burch (wifi), Neal Todd (video) and me.

Incidentally, as always: we need microslot volunteers! Do you think you could speak to a roomful of geeks for five minutes on some topic close to your heart? If so, submit your microslot proposal at http://bit.ly/ogn-microslot . See? We've even got a new dedicated microslot URL. We're so technically advanced these days that we're practically robots from the future.

Incidentally, we'd like to thank everyone who submitted feedback recently: we got an unprecedented response, with dozens and dozens of intelligent responses. Just what you'd expect from Oxford's smart, engaged geek crowd. But because of time pressures we've not yet been able to plough through all of that data; so we've decided to prioritize planning OGN19, but hope to incorporate some of your thoughts into the OGNs soon.

OGN19, then. December 1. Leave your chocolate advent calendars at home and come along to the Jericho Tavern.

The next Oxford Geek Night is on Wednesday 21 July, in less than two weeks' time. I for one am really looking forward to it.

We managed out of sheer luck and cheek to bagsy a fantastic speaker for OGN18, the ever-Interesting Russell Davies. Russell was the organizer of the 2007 and 2008 Interesting conferences, and is involved in lots of fantastic projects, including Speechification and Newspaper Club. He's also a writer for Wired, a speaker at many conferences including Lift 2010, and what one might frivolously call a futorologist or pundit. He's going to talk about his experiences turning internets into print, and what he's learned from doing it as part of projects like the Newspaper Club.

Along with our keynote speaker we've got half a dozen of the absolute best of local microslot volunteers. There's talks on topics as far ranging as "designing backwards", linked data, graphing 19th-century social networks, genomics, CSS and Rotacoo's Spotify #fridaymix tape. A few new faces and a few established (and deservedly so) local faces. As always we'll be putting video up on the site afterwards, so there'll be a permanent record of our high-quality speakers.

Finally, we hope to have space for the Pitches - our sixty-second open mic slots that anyone can volunteer for, even on the night - and a book raffle. All told it should be a great excuse to saunter over to the Jericho Tavern in the July sun / sudden downpour (delete as applicable.) Hope to see all the other Oxford geeks there.

The lineup for OGN12 has been finalized, and we've got another special feature. This time round, our two keynotes have been replaced with an extended superkeynote about messaging technologies---the web, social media, small communications and instant messaging---called The webs are made of messages. This exciting half-hour talk will be presented by three keynote speakers: Alexis Richardson, CEO of Rabbit Technologies; Matt Biddulph, CTO of Dopplr; and Blaine Cook, from BT Osmosoft. Matt's making a welcome return to OGN after keynoting at OGN3.

We've also got a full roster of microslots, which is great news. These are five-minute "lightning" talks that anyone can volunteer for, meant to be a mix of subjects to complement the main keynotes. As usual Oxfordshire's geeks have done us proud with a gloriously mixed bag of talks. Simon Hawkins will discuss Aldi generators and EC2, and Wes West will reveal ALL about sex and the web. Phew! More information on our microslotters is available on the OGN website, and you can still volunteer for a microslot for OGN13 on July 15. They're easy to do: pick something that excites you, or a project you've worked on that you think might be of interest; then talk to a friendly audience for just five minutes with a handful of slides. Submit your microslot and we'll see you on the night.

Finally, OGN12 sees the return of... The Pitch. Sixty seconds to pitch whatever you want: an event, a service, a vacancy, going to the pub, saying hello, or even your mad beatboxing skills. Let us know in advance if you want to pitch something, or just sign up on the night. You will be attending, after all, won't you? Sign up on the Upcoming event if you are, so we know we'll have company.

Today I had a whale of a time at BarCamp Apache Oxford. The social event last night—coffee, beer, curry and then more beer—meant that the majority of BarCampers got to know each other really well before the event. As Ross said early on today, it was clear from the mix of people last night that things were going to go fine, with everyone being very accommodating of each other's talks.

I managed to acquire a hangover despite leaving early last night. It's my age; that and the length of the bus journey to Oxford and back. Still, I made it through the day, thanks in no small part to Prem's funding and Amir's organizing of lots and lots (and lots) of food.

The sessions were all really interesting, and the atmosphere informal—far more so than on the other BarCamp I've been on, in fact—to the extent where you felt that people were in presentations because they were happy to be there, not out of a sense of misplaced duty. That also meant that, as people started to trickle away during my own (shared) session, I didn't particularly take it personally: I convinced myself that they had just turned up to the talk on a false premise based on a misunderstanding of the talk title. And, you know. Blinked back the tears.

I have to go to bed and catch up on my sleep, but I'll try to write up my notes at a (much) later date. In the mean time, there's a reverse timeline of the event on Twitter (the new backchannelling: you could hear the tumbleweed on the IRC channel), photos on Flickr, useful links on Delicious, and blogposts might filter through onto Technorati. Feed your brains.

Well done to everyone involved for planning and executing such a successful, remarkably hands-off event, and the first everBarCamp Oxford in what will hopefully be a long line of such events.

I was a bit worried there might have been a riot at Oxford Geek Night 11: our drinks funding hadn't been renewed. But by the time Torchbox had got the venue, PA and me available for planning the whole thing, Pearson had already delivered a really smashing set of ten books for the raffle (Python Web Development with Django and Don't Make Me Think among others). Then, completely out of the blue, keynoter Mike Kus from Carsonified brought two enormous blue bags of schwag, including a stack of T-shirts, and some of the beautiful Carsonified journals he'd been responsible for getting together for FOWA '08.

I'd like to think that our keynoters weren't eclipsed by any sort of tawdry display of schwag lust, and it would be more or less correct, but only thanks to the speakers and their talks. Natalie Downe's return to Oxford Geek Nights, the events she actually began some two years ago, was welcomed uproariously, with a talk to inspire us all to treat the implementation of CSS with more respect. Mike Kus' talk followed this and built on it a little, making the case for letting really groundbreaking design lead on the otherwise implementation-obsessed web. The feedback I heard was that his was probably the most beautiful and visually striking talk we've ever had. Anyway, between the two of them they've undoubtedly shook up some of all of our preconceptions. (Not too much, I hope: I don't want to have to go back and restyle all of my websites....)

After this, and before the microslot talks, we had a new feature---The Pitch---where people were given no more than sixty seconds to tell the audience whatever they wanted to say, and not necessarily what they wanted to hear. We had announcements of events, software, vacancies and even Earth Hour. Every "pitcher" won themselves a Carsonified journal, and that probably contributed to make it a surprise success; hopefully it brought the community together a bit. Ben Walker even phoned in his pitch: in the 21st-century equivalent, by recording it beforehand like the Oscar-winning prima donna we've always suspected him to be. The Pitch was followed by the microslots, which were all really interesting as usual---I won't go through all six here---and should be up on the website imminently.

All in all, a great OGN as usual, with a great atmosphere, lots of chatting and plenty of giveaways. We're hoping to get more sponsorship lined up for the next OGN, alongside Torchbox's usual largesse. So watch this space for more information about OGN12.

Oxford Geek Night 11 is tomorrow, starting at the earlier time of 8pm. The PA chap is booked---for those of you who mentioned sound problems in the past---and the venue paid for by my bosses at Torchbox, so as far as the most important organization is concerned we're ready to go.

We've also got more books than we know what to do with from Pearson: you've got a roughly 1 in 14 chances of walking home with a book if you come along and dump a business card in our raffle. And I think it's fair to say that this month's selection is very fine indeed.

However, my own preparation of the fiddly bits and pieces is decidedly on the late side. We've finally got an animal in place for OGN11, though, despite my worst efforts: thanks to Wes for sorting it out. But I'm still working out how to get printouts done, who has sent me their slides, what cables I need and where the hell I put the Blu-tack after OGN10. And I still haven't got a new OGN/Oxford Geeks website sorted, which I more or less wanted to surprise people with.

Still. Geek Nights always end up far more fun than I could ever plan for, mostly because all the geeks bring the fun with them, and that's nothing to do with me. So don't think my own tardiness will do anything except send one single, solitary person (me) into a complete tailspin if anything starts to unravel. OGN11 will carry on; people will drink and chat; the speakers will speak; and the projector will almost certainly, more or less, project.

Frankly, if the mic's in place, and the lights are up, you can always start without me. Save me a seat, though.

The next few weeks look like they're going to be incredibly busy. Right now my greatest worries are of course about Oxford Geek Night 11 on Wednesday 25 March. All the speakers are lined up---Natalie and Mike are presumably both gearing up to give two great keynotes on CSS systems and graphic design on the web respectively, or maybe they're just enjoying their Sundays---and I've got most of the tech ready, with network cables hanging round my shoulders and blinking lights where there should be blinking lights.

OGN11, though, is starting half an hour earlier---the crowd has spoken, and it was suggested by a couple of people after OGN10 too---which could lead to some confusion this time round. That's right: OGN11 keynotes start at 8pm. But as I've still yet to get the venue to take our money, then they don't actually know about the change of time yet. I'm sure it will all work out fine.

One thing which actually does seem to be working out fine: the local BarCamp is almost full. BarCamp Oxford is on April 4--5, and we've got a tentative upper limit of 50 people. The venue---the elegant University Club---is booked, and catering is pretty much there, so all we've got to do is pile a stack of projectors into the club and wait for everyone to turn up at the evening meal on the Saturday.

Similarly, Oxfringe 2009 is going great guns, and the programme is now finalized. It's huge this year, with John Hegley headlining the festival on Saturday 11 April. I have to start working out just how much we can get round to seeing, and then, you know, buying tickets.

But before any of that, tonight is the People's Premiere of Age of Stupid, a simultaneous showing of the film in some thirty cinemas across the UK. As Torchbox built their site (and I built the first version, back when it was called Crude) then I can't give an unbiased opinion, but the crew preview we went to convinced me that it was probably the most important documentary of this century, and probably of our future years on the planet: however many of those there turn out to be. We've got tickets to see the Oxford node of this twenty-first century, distributed mass screening. That particular cinema has entirely sold out, but if you're near a showing with free seats, then for heaven's sake---for your own sake---go along.

BarCamp Oxford is happening on April 4-5 this year! Like other BarCamps, this will be a loosely organized "unconference", where every attendee is a participant and the sequence of events is decided by consensus: as the BarCamp site declares, "no spectators, only participants."

I'm really pleased that this has got off the ground. There's funding for a great venue---the Oxford University Club---and hopefully more will be forthcoming. The attendee list is nearly half full, and it was only announced late last week. Stick your name down if you'd like to join in the fun.

The current plan is for Saturday April 4 to start late and sociable, with a meal somewhere in Oxford (yet to be decided). For Saturday night, there's a list of crash space on the wiki page for out-of-towners. Then on Sunday the whole day will be at the University Club. It's a great place for talks, workshops and just general unhurried chat. In the evening there'll probably be a pub trip to round things off. If I can still stand, there will definitely be a pub trip.

(Want to sponsor BarCamp Oxford? If so, then email <info@oss-watch.ac.uk>: the organizers would love to hear from you.)