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After a slightly longer break between Oxford Geek Nights to make room for Christmas and the rest, I'm pleased to announce the sixteenth Oxford Geek Night will be on Wednesday 17 February, 2010. That's next year! Well, in just under two months' time.

Keynote speakers are confirmed: OGN16 sees the return of microslotter Andrew Katz, lawyer at Moorcrofts Corporate Law and open-source specialist; he'll be joined by Chris Thorpe, founder of Jaggeree. We hope to have more details about the talks soon.

We've already got some microslots lined up for OGN16, but if you're interested in doing a microslot then submit your suggestion here. Microslots are five minutes long and the OGN crowd is very welcoming to anyone who can stand up and talk for that long!

Right. Now that's all finalized, I'm off to have a celebratory sherry and listen to some Christmas songs.

Following last week's great news from the Guardian Open Platform about sponsoring the two remaining Oxford Geek Nights, there's more great news for the Oxford Geek community, as Apress and Friends of ED have also agreed to sponsor OGN14 and OGN15 with books a-plenty.

We try to always have a book raffle at the end of each Oxford Geek Night, where anyone who's stuck a business card in our magic business-card box gets a chance to win one of several books donated by a generous sponsor. So thanks for Apress for stepping up to the crease and fielding a whole over of books in our direction for OGN14: we're guaranteed a great selection of books for local geeks, and another great reason for coming along to OGN14. How can you not?

After much discussion and chewing of metaphorical pencils, the Guardian Open Platform have very kindly confirmed sponsorship for Oxford Geek Nights, for the rest of 2009! That means drinks will be courtesy of the Open Platform at both Oxford Geek Nights 14 and 15, which I think you'll agree is great news. Even better news is that regular sponsors Torchbox and Moo are on board as well, so Oxford Geek Nights will continue to be free events.

Speaking of which, OGN14 is now less than two weeks away, and my rising panic is tempered only by the fact that I'm already panicking about moving house shortly beforehand. But you shouldn't be panicking; instead, put OGN14 in your diary now, or follow it on Upcoming.

Never let it be said we don't listen. You said you wanted OGNs to start half an hour earlier; they now start half an hour earlier. And now you said you wanted more time to chat at OGNs. Lo! and behold: we've lined up only four microslots for Oxford Geek Night 14, to give you more time to say hi to everyone else.

In fact, after I came back from conference and waded through my emails (sorry for anyone who had to wait forever for a response) I realised that we'd ended up having a surplus of microslots. But I've been mean; I've been cruel; I've been sending a lot of slightly frantic emails. And the end result is that we've probably got a couple of potential microslots already lined up for OGN15 in November anyway. See? Nothing gets wasted at an OGN, especially not good, locally grown ideas and talent. The upshot of all of this is that both keynotes and microslots are confirmed for OGN14.

Speaking of local talent, we've still got spaces on The Pitch, which is our sixty-second open-mic session. You can say whatever you like for a full minute: introduce yourself or your company; advertise a vacancy, product or service; discuss a neat idea you had; announce a conference or local meet-up: anything, really. If you're interested email me at jpstacey.info or find @jpstacey on Twitter.

Otherwise: stick OGN14 in your diary for Wednesday 23 September. That's in just over two weeks' time! Turn up, kick back with a beer, and get ready for some extra full-on chatting. Grr!

Friends of Ed and Moo, publisher in tech/design and online printer of gorgeous business cards respectively, have both very kindly agreed to add their sponsorship to the pot for Oxford Geek Night 13 on Wednesday 15 July. That's just over a week away now.

They join Torchbox and the Guardian Open Platform in hopefully making for an excellent OGN13. Should be a lovely evening of food outside and then drinks and chat inside the Jericho Tavern. Time to get Moo cards and posters printed, I think.

Today I got in touch with the venue for Oxford Geek Nights, to confirm rather late in the day that we were definitely on for Oxford Geek Night 13 on Wednesday 15 July. Luckily we are, and we're also now able to book a date for OGN14 which we should hopefully be able to announce on the night of OGN13.

As already announced, the Guardian Open Platform has kindly agreed to sponsor OGN13. Torchbox will with their typically good grace be sponsoring the venue and my time, so that leaves Open Platform free to provide some refreshments. After today's nervous phone conversation, I could do with a drink myself.

Wow. Well, now it's out in the open and I can tell you all. Oxford Geek Night 13 on Wednesday 15 July will be co-sponsored by the Guardian Open Platform.

The Guardian's Open Platform and Datastore work has really put them at the forefront of modern media. They've got a data API, client libraries in PHP, Python, Java etc, and swathes of online documentation, makes them a match made in heaven for Oxfordshire's geeks.

While we're on the subject, the Guardian Datastore is also running a competition to win a Flip Mino HD camcorder. They want ideas or tools from you which can bring their data to life. More details on their site, but maybe one for the next Oxford Geek Jam?

Those of you who subscribe to the Oxford Geek Nights Google group hopefully need no reminder that Oxford Geek Night 13 is on Wednesday 15 July. But, more excitingly, the two keynotes are now confirmed.

Bruce Lawson, Open Web Standards evangelist at Opera, is no stranger to Oxford Geek Nights, and covered new developments in accessibility back in OGN10. This time he'll be discussing the forthcoming new standard for hypertext markup, HTML5, and what effects it will have on web-browsing as we know it.

Andrew Walkingshaw, co-founder of Inkling Software, will present the rise (and further rise) of their service for data visualization and storage, Timetric. He'll also be discussing recent work by the Guardian which has incorporated Timetric visualizations, including a recent article on the relative purity of illegal drugs seizures over time.

We still need microslot talks, though, so if you're interested then do volunteer.

It might be a bank holiday for you, but I'm currently putting the final touches to Oxford Geek Night 12, which is this Wednesday. I need to make sure all the speakers have confirmed (most definitely have); get their draft talks onto a pendrive; print out posters and plan timetables; and retrieve and test all our tech and cables; so that the second projector will work fine, and we've got a laptop for everyone to run their talks on: that sort of thing.

Most importantly, from your point of view, I need to sort out equipment for our improved PA setup (following your feedback, very gratefully received, on earlier OGNs). I also need to find and pack the dozen great books donated by Apress, to be given out to randomly selected attendees in our book raffle. We're also looking into drinks sponsorship, and we might have more news on that by Wednesday. And we also still need volunteers for the Pitch, our sixty-second open-mic slots where you can say absolutely anything you want, as long as it's not obscene or about COBOL.... Well, it depends on how obscene.

Come to OGN12, then. There'll be talks and chat and ideas and fun and geeks and nerds and technology and webs and everything you expect from a Geek Night. And if the worst comes to the worst, then you at least have around a one-in-ten chance of leaving with a book worth up to thirty-five pounds, which is not to be sniffed at.

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.