Keynotes, microslots and sponsorship all confirmed (plus other geek events)

[J-P Stacey]

Hi all,

Oxford Geek Night 15 is on Wednesday 25 November, in about two and a
half weeks' time.

http://oxford.geeknights.net/2009/nov-25th/

We've got some great news about OGN15 below, along with announcements
of other events.


== Keynotes for OGN15 ==

Our two keynotes will be Fintan Galvin, managing director of IO1 Ltd,
and Jeni Tennison, independent consultant.

Fintan's going to be talking about how the new developments in RDF and
the Semantic Web, and their mainstream adoption, are changing much of
how we discover information. This has knock-on effects on search
engines and hence on SEO. Enter Drupal, a CMS and content application
framework, the next version of which is going to include RDF
capabilities in core.

Jeni has years of experience in RDF and semantic technologies,
including hardcore XML hacking with XSLT, but she'll be talking
specifically about linked data and data.gov.uk. The UK government has
just unveiled their new experiment in open data to beta testers,
modelled on the US' data.gov and built on lots of exciting
technologies including the aforementioned Drupal and Amazon EC2. It's
a bold step in both governance and technology and Jeni will be
discussing the issues involved.


== Microslots for OGN15 ==

We've got all the microslots we need for OGN15! As with OGN14, we're
aiming for fewer microslots and more time to chat with your fellow
geeks. But! You can still volunteer for OGN16, provisionally in late
February 2010. It's not as far away as you think. Volunteer your
microslot ideas here:

<https://natbat.wufoo.com/entries/oxford-geek-night-microslot-
proposal/>

We do need volunteers for The Pitch, our 60-second open mic slot. Want
to advertise a product, service, vacancy or just yourself? Want to get
something off your chest, or ask for help? That's what the Pitch is
for. One minute per speaker, rapid-fire, compered by your slightly
confused and easily distracted host. Email me if you're interested, or
sign up on the night.


== Sponsorship for OGN15 ==

You'll have already heard that the Guardian Open Platform are
sponsoring drinks again at OGN15: thanks to them for that. But we've
also had sponsorship approved by Apress, who'll be providing books for
the book raffle. Give us your business card on the night for a chance
to enter. You might even win a certain Python 3 book that was finally
released this month.... Thanks also as always to Torchbox, who sponsor
resources, time and the venue.

== Other events ==

=== BCS Oxfordshire ===

The British Computing Society in Oxfordshire are hosting their
Christmas Lecture on December 3rd. Professor Fred Piper will be
talking about "Cryptography: from black art to popular science" in
Rewley House on Wellington Square. <http://www.oxon.bcs.org/2009/09/03/
christmas-lecture/>

The BCS also have a whole new website at <http://www.oxon.bcs.org/>,
well worth a look.

=== myvcorp ===

Those of you who saw Anastasios' talk on myvcorp at OGN14 - kind of
LinkedIn meets Facebook meets Amazon Mechanical Turk for creating your
own ad-hoc company without the usual back-office overheads - might be
interested to see that it's now in an early stage beta. Visit <http://
www.myvcorp.com/> for more information and see the Oxford Geeks
mailing list for updates <http://groups.google.com/group/oxfordgeeks>


That's it for now. See you on the 25th!

All the best,
J-P