OSSG News

News about the OSSG’s activities

Recent downtime

 in OSSG News by (updated 5339 days ago)

The server on which this site resided hitherto recently suffered hardware failure and the site was therefore restored from backup on a new server at a different location. Between the time required for the restoration process itself and the DNS updates necessary to make the restored site visible we suffered several days downtime. Apologies for any inconvenience caused.

Looking on the bright side, we took the opportunity to update the WordPress software which runs the site and the new server is considerably better specified than the old machine so the site should be more responsive.

Unfortunately, the restoration process required a reset of all MailMan passswords, so if you wish to unsubscribe or change your preferences you will need to request a password reminder from MailMan.

The World of Ubuntu and Open Source – Leeds 20/10/09

 in Business / OSSG Events / OSSG News by (updated 5340 days ago)

Matthew Barker, Corporate Services, Canonical Ltd will give a talk for the Open Source Specialist Group (OSSG) and the BCS West Yorkshire Branch on Tuesday 20th October 2009 from 1830 hours at The Met Hotel, King Street, Leeds, LS1 2HQ.

As open-source software has grown in sophistication, it has quickly become a viable alternative to the major proprietary operating systems. This presentation will give an update on the current capabilities of open source along with an insight into future developments. Matthew will discuss the issues and myths around its use in commercial and public-sector organisations, whilst also providing pointers for personal use.

The talk will include:

  • Overview of Ubuntu
  • Usage in the contexts of: Commercial-enterprise, Public Sector, Personal
  • Open Source Applications
  • Open Source Capabilities
  • The road map

Matthew Barker joined Canonical in 2006, taking responsibility for the OEM channel in South Asia. Having successfully built partnerships with hardware manufacturers like HCL, Wipro and eSys, he moved into the Canonical Corporate Services Team in 2008 focussing on driving the adoption of Ubuntu in enterprise. He has overseen deployments with organisations like the NHS, York University and Handelsbanken. He has experience across all the significant vertical markets and of “the how and why” open source is being adopted.

Founded in late 2004, Canonical is the commercial sponsor of the Ubuntu project with the mission to help individuals and organisations take full advantage of open-source technologies by:

  • Delivering the world’s best free-software platform
  • Ensuring its availability to everyone
  • Supporting it with high-quality professional service offerings
  • Encouraging the continued growth and development of the free-software community

Canonical believes the open-source community creates better software. The community enables an increase development capacity many times over.

Ubuntu is a community-developed and supported project. Since its launch in October 2004, Ubuntu has become one of the most highly regarded Linux distributions with millions of users around the world. Every six months the world’s best free and open-source software is selected, tested, brought together, and made freely available on common technology platforms.

To book a place to attend this event please email your name to wybranchbcs@googlemail.com

Tea, Coffee, and Biscuits from 1745 hours

UKUUG & O’Reilly – Advanced DNS Administration Using Bind9 Tutorial – London 13/10/09

 in External Events / OSSG Events / OSSG News by (updated 3066 days ago)

UKUUG & O’Reilly presents:

Advanced DNS Administration Using Bind9 – a one-day tutorial

Tuesday 13th October, 2009

Tutor: Jim Reid

Venue: Imperial Hotel, Russell Square, London WC1B 5BB

see: http://www.ukuug.org/events/dnstutorial09/

for full course details, delegate fees and on-line booking form

Note – Early booking is recommended as this tutorial will be very popular

This event is organised by: UKUUG Ltd., UKUUG is the UK’s Open Systems User Group, for people who care about open IT standards and the systems that implement them. UKUUG promotes education and understanding through its newsletter, regular briefings and conferences. It is independent of any industry groupings and not-for-profit. It values intelligence, thoughtfulness and long-term thinking rather than immediacy and froth.

O’Reilly, the publishers of the iconic animal books spreads the knowledge of innovators through its books & services. The company has a long term history of advocacy, meme-making & evangelism.

UKUUG & O’Reilly – Perl Tutorials – London 24-26 November 2009

 in External Events / OSSG Events / OSSG News by (updated 3066 days ago)

UKUUG & O’Reilly presents:

Beginning Perl – 24th November 2009

Intermediate Perl – 25th November 2009

Advanced Perl Techniques – 26th November 2009

Tutor: Dave Cross

Venue: Imperial Hotel, Russell Square, London WC1B 5BB

see: http://www.ukuug.org/events/perl09/

for full course details, delegate fees and on-line booking form

This event is organised by: UKUUG Ltd., UKUUG is the UK’s Open Systems User Group, for people who care about open IT standards and the systems that implement them. UKUUG promotes education and understanding through its newsletter, regular briefings and conferences. It is independent of any industry groupings and not-for-profit. It values intelligence, thoughtfulness and long-term thinking rather than immediacy and froth.

O’Reilly is the publisher of the iconic animal books and spreads the knowledge of innovators through its books & services. The company has a long term history of advocacy, meme-making & evangelism.

Google Calendar and the OSSG blog

 in OSSG News by

A user reported that the iCal feed provided by the OSSG blog caused Google Calendar to repeatedly send event reminders for old events. After some digging I am still not sure why Google Calendar behaves in this way; I think the timestamps on the feed items may change under some circumstances, making Google Calendar think the events are “new” and thus send and email.

In an attempt to resolve this issue I have upgraded the software that provides the iCal feed and restricted the posts shown by default in the feed to those after a date 1 month in the past. Hopefully the software upgrade will prevent the issue occurring in the future, if you still experience problems please let me know. I’ve subscribed my own Google Calendar to the OSSG feed now, so I shall share the pain if there is an issue

I’ve also changed the default feed type on the blog from the venerable vCal type to iCal and introduced a CAPTCHA and confirmation step for user registrations. This will hopefully reduce the incidence of spam-bot registration.

Implementing Open Source at the London Borough of Camden – London 14/05/09

 in OSSG Events / OSSG News by (updated 5474 days ago)

Alasdair Mangham, Head of Information Systems and Development, London Borough of Camden will explain the rationale behind implementing Open Source at the London Borough of Camden on 14th May 2009 from 1830 hours for the Open Source Specialist Group (OSSG) at the BCS Central London Offices, First Floor, The Davidson Building, 5 Southampton Street, London WC2E 7HA.

To book a place to attend this event please email your name to the events coordinator

For further information please contact Mark Elkins at mark_elkins@bcs.org

Free buffet and refreshments available.

Open Source CMS for Social Networking Workshop – London 30/04/09

 in Knowledge / OSSG Events / OSSG News by (updated 5470 days ago)

The Open Source Specialist Group (OSSG) will be holding a one day workshop on Open Source Content Management Systems (CMS) for Social Networking from 1030 on Thursday 30th April 2009 at the BCS Central London Offices, First Floor, The Davidson Building, 5 Southampton Street, London WC2E 7HA.

It is envisaged that the workshop will compare some of the leading Open Source CMS such as Drupal, Joomla, and Plone for social networking purposes. However the scope of the workshop has been deliberately left open so as to allow for discussion of other Open Source CMS and other relevant matters.

Workshop participants include:

Miles Berry, Head, Alton Convent Prep | www.altonconvent.org.uk/prep and Website manager, Open Source Schools | opensourceschools.org.uk

Robert Castelo, Director Code Positive Limited who has organized various events in London for Drupal (http://www.drupal.org) open source CMS will give an introduct to Drupal focusing on social networking.

Adrian Delemore, Co-ordinator for the  Justice In Health Network (JIHN)

Anne Matthews, Project Manager, Open Source Schools | opensourceschools.org.uk

Alan Milligan, Convenor, Open Source SIG, NSW chapter of the Australian Computer Society, has been running a Plone ECM practice for the best part of a decade and will be giving a presentation on Plone and social networking.

Adrian Walmsley, BCS Vice President, Member Services

To book a place and/or request further information please contact Mark Elkins at mark_elkins@bcs.org

There will be no fee to participate in this event and a free buffet and refreshments will be available during the day.

OpenStreetMap and CloudMade – Open Licensed Geo Data – London 27/04/09

 in Business / OSSG Events / OSSG News by (updated 5494 days ago)

Cloudmade will give a talk about the OpenStreetMap project, how open licensed geo-data is being created in an open community, and how it can be used, on 27th April 2009 from 1800 hours for the Open Source Specialist Group (OSSG) and the Geospatial Specialist Group at the BCS Central London Offices, First Floor, The Davidson Building, 5 Southampton Street, London WC2E 7HA.

To book a place to attend this event through OSSG please email your name to the events coordinator

For further information please contact Mark Elkins at mark_elkins@bcs.org

Free buffet and refreshments available.