You can pre-register your ticket now at www.ukuug.org/events/opentech2008/registration to allow you to jump the queue and pay your fiver on the door. The last two times we did this, we sold out in advance, so you are strongly advised to pre-register.

With 3 concurrent sessions, The line-up features:
* Open Rights Group - 2 years, 344 days on
* mySociety - WhatDoTheyKnow.com launch, and other goodies
* Overthrowing Government on a Budget, Keeping Track of
the CIA’s Rendition Flights, Tracking Arms Dealers
with Python and Bits of String
* Ben Laurie and friends on network security
* Danny O’Brien’s Living on the Edge
* AMEE, and Open Source Solar Heating
* Saving money and reducing carbon through Green IT
* Getting people involved with online media

Totalling 60 talks across 3 sessions covering 9 hours, there’s plenty in the programme for everyone including Rembrandt, Pr0n and Robot Monkeys, and all that’s just in one session!

Venue: ULU, Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HY

The full schedule is at www.ukuug.org/events/opentech2008

Agenda:

• Positioning the issues;
• Current legal issues;
• Source code auditing in practice;
• Case study; and
• Discussion, case study answers, Q&A

18.00-18.30: coffee/tea and registration
18.30-20.00: speaker presentations, case study and Q&A
20.00-21.00: networking and light refreshments

Speaker profiles:

Richard Kemp, Kemp Little LLP: Richard is senior partner at Kemp Little and one of the UK’s top technology and communications lawyers. He has a particular reputation for developing commercial and innovative legal solutions to the business challenges of technology development, application, implementation and regulation.

Mark Henley, Kemp Little LLP: Mark is a technology lawyer in Kemp Little’s Commercial Practice. He has worked on a wide range of ICT projects in both the private and public sectors, from some of the world’s largest PFI and PPP procurements to Internet start-ups. Mark regularly lectures and writes about the legal issues associated with OSS and has advised on a wide range of related matters - from analysing the use of GNU/Linux in embedded systems to assessing investment opportunities in businesses dependent on OSS.

Speaker: Richard Kemp and Mark Henley, Kemp Little LLP
Date: 03 June 2008, from 18:30 to 20:00
Venue: Kemp Little LLP, Cheapside House, 138 Cheapside, London EC2V 6BJ

For further information please visit:

http://www.kemplittle.com/event.html?action=view_event_new&id=2068

Eddie Bleasdale has been working in the area of Unix and now Linux / Free Software since the early 1980’s. He was responsible for the development of a range of Unix computers that were manufactured by BT. For the European Commission he was responsible for the development of the Open Source Migration Guidelines. See: http://www.netproject.com/docs/migoss/v1.0/

This presentation will address the issues using technology to enable Social Inclusion. It will consider the following questions: How can the UK Government / the European Commission achieve their objectives of providing care in the community? Can this be achieved using existing mainstream technology? Does the Free / Open Source community offer both the technology and the support to provide the public with secure, reliable computing that, with use, gains the trust of the users?

This is a Joint meeting between OSSG and BCS Lincolnshire.

Venue: EMMTEC Building at the University of Lincoln, Brayford Pool, Lincoln LN6 7TS. For directions click here

Talk commences at 1900 hours with light refreshments from 1830 hours.

For further details about this event please complete the BCS Lincolnshire contacts form

Adrian Delemore runs JIHN, which is concerned with health policy issues from a patient, family carer, service user perspective. JIHN is looking at how an online community in health may be brought into being to further a strong and informed patient voice on health policy issues.

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

Map & directions: http://www.epsg.org.uk/locations/bcsss-guide.html

Time: 1800 to 2030 hours

Free buffet and refreshments including wine available.

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

Anyone wishing to apply for the post of OSSG Secretary needs to contact Mark Elkins at mark_elkins@bcs.org at least 10 working days prior to the date of the AGM.

The advertised event What would be needed to set up an open source community in health? is due to commence immediately after the business of the AGM has been concluded.

Map & directions: http://www.epsg.org.uk/locations/bcsss-guide.html

Free buffet and refreshments including wine available.

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

Participants will include:

Aidan McGuire of Blue Fountain Systems Ltd http://www.bluefountain.com/ Supply2Gov Award Winner 2007, BCS Award Winner 2006.

Dave Crossland currently undertaking the MA Typeface Design programme at the University of Reading and plans to pioneer a “free software foundry” business when he graduates.

Cornelia Boldyreff Ph.D., FBCS Professor of Software Engineering, Department of Computing and Informatics, Lincoln University and OSSG Events Co-ordinator.

Andrew Back MIEEE MBCS CITP of BT Osmosoft http://www.osmosoft.com an Open Source innovation unit within BT. Andrew is an Open Systems Engineer and a Member of OSSG.

Peter Merchant Programme Leader, BSc Business Information Systems Management, Bournemouth University.

Mike Trotman of Datalucid Limited who is a member of UKUUG, BCS, and the Association of Survey Computing (ASC) Committee.

Mark Elkins MSc MBCS who is studying for a PhD at Solent University and is the Treasurer of OSSG.

Other participants are expected from the BBC and RedHat.

Venue: BCS Central London Offices, First Floor, The Davidson Building, 5 Southampton Street, London WC2E 7HA

Map & directions: http://www.epsg.org.uk/locations/bcsss-guide.html

Time: 1100 to 1730 hours

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

Free buffet lunch and refreshments including wine available.

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

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Open Source, one of the most exciting developments in computing in recent years is redefining the way software is written, sold and used. Typically created collaboratively across the internet, open source software is freely available for anyone to download, install and deploy. Open source companies generate revenue by providing extra services: customisation, training and support. Overall, this generally leads to a lower total cost of ownership for users, but just as important are the benefits of increased flexibility, security and control. The presentation will explore this intriguing new world, and look at ways open source can be used by any company for competitive advantage. Our two speakers are:

Chris Kenyon, Director of Business Development , Canonical Limited

Chris Kenyon joined Canonical, the company behind the Ubuntu project in 2006. He leads the global team that handles Canonical’s relationships with Intel, Dell, SUN Microsystems and many others. Based in London and previously responsible for corporate strategy at Global Beach Automotive he is a graduate of Atlantic College and Edinburgh University.

Ubuntu is the world’s fastest growing operating system and is used by over 6 million users in 200+ countries including Google, San Francisco Airport and over 40% of school pupils in Spain. Ubuntu’s 10,000s of community volunteers, combined with these partnership, enable it to compete as a world-class operating system application suite that is free to use, share and distribute.

Glyn Moody, Journalist and Consultant

Glyn Moody, a journalist and consultant will take the commentator role at the event. He has been writing and lecturing on computers and technology for over 25 years, the internet for 13 years and open source software for 12 years. He is the author of the book “Rebel Code”, the first and so far only in-depth history of the subject and also writes a blog on open source and related areas at opendotdotdot.blogspot.com. He has an MA and PhD in Mathematics from Cambridge University and is based in London.

Glyn will be talking about the Why, How and What of Open Source: why it works, how people can give it away and still make money and what it all means for business.

Full details on the IOD website or to download the booking form click here

The event will take place on 31st March, 1st & 2nd April in Birmingham.

3 parallel tutorials will be held on Monday 31st March.

T1. An Introduction to Python, Tutor: John Pinner (Clockwork Software Systems)

Abstract: For people who may have some programming knowledge in other
languages and want to fast track into Python. You will get to know the
Python interpreter and look at Python’s introspective features, moving onto data types, sequences and dictionaries and finally functions and modules.

T2. A Perl Teach in, Tutor: Dave Cross (Magnum Solutions)

Abstract: This tutorial covers some of the more advanced Perl topics
that may be missing from your Perl programming knowledge. Topics include: CPAN tools, templating, ORM, testing, benchmarking and object oriented Perl.

T3. Building the Network You Need with PF, Tutor: Peter N. M. Hansteen

Abstract: This tutorial focuses on building the high performance, low maintenance network you need. We shall explore the whys and hows and cover all bases from the basic one machine configuration and basic local area networks, all the way up to configurations with traffic shaping and load balancing with “self healing” networks and countermeasures against common problems such as DoS attempts and spamming. A basic understanding of TCP/IP and some Unix knowledge is assumed.

A two day conference (with parallel streams) will take place on Tuesday
1st & Wednesday 2nd April.

All Conference delegates receive a free place at the Conference Dinner (Tues 1st April).

In addition the UKUUG is hosting the UK’s first PostgreSQL User Conference on Wednesday 2nd April at the same venue.

All the information, including abstracts, bios, and an online booking form can be found at:

http://spring2008.ukuug.org/

Further details for this event can be found at www.unicom.co.uk/socialtools. To claim the discount, enter “OSSG discount” in the comments field when making your booking.

Abstract
What do you know about the quality of the software you are using? A well-known conjecture in software engineering is that external quality characteristics are correlated to internal quality characteristics and thus the measurement of source code provides useful data for the assessment of its quality. Uniquely, open source software allows us to examine the actual code and perform white box testing and analysis of it. In most open source projects we can also access their version control system, mailing lists and issue databases. The SQO-OSS project is building a BSD-lisenced tool that exploits the availability of publicly accessible software data to evaluate the quality of various OSS projects.

Biography
Gergios Gousios is a researcher at the Athens University of Economics and Business. He holds a Diploma in Information and Communication Systems Engineering from the University of the Aegean and an MSc with distinction in Advanced Computer Science from the University of Manchester. He has contributed code to various open source projects and worked as independent software consultant. Currently, he is pursuing his interest in the area of virtual machines at the Athens University of Economics and Business and also managing the SQO-OSS project. His interests include operating systems, virtual machines, software architectures and software quality.

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

Free buffet and refreshments including wine available from around 1800 hours.

For further information please contact Paul Adams at chair@ossg.bcs.org

Map & directions: http://www.epsg.org.uk/locations/bcsss-guide.html

Tuesday 19th February topics include:

• Clustering with GFS2 shared-storage file system - RedHat
• An introduction to High Availability
• How companies achieve High Availability
• Secure Network Filesystems with OpenAFS - Simon Wilkinson
• Storage at 1billion km per hour - CERN

Wednesday 20th February topics include:

• Reliable backups without tapes
• Orchestrating your Data Center
• Backup and Recovery with Bacula (by it’s lead developer and founder)
• Backup integration with filesystem snapshot capability
• plus a session of lightning talks of experiences adn tips by attendees

Send abstracts or questions to fab@ukuug.org.

Early Bird rate (until 23rd Jan):

• UKUUG and OSSG members: £94 inc. VAT for either day, or £164.50 for both days.
• Non-members: £111.62 inc. VAT for either day, or £199.75 for both.

Booking: online or read our information booklet and PDF for printing .

Each seminar will start at 9:45 and finish at approximately 17:00. Delegates are invited for a complimentary ‘beer’ in the hotel bar area at the end of each day

For further information please visit : http://www.ukuug.org/events/seminars/fab/

Synopsis

Defence software systems have traditionally been proprietary, closed systems. However, the government is increasingly keen to utilise open systems as a means to reduce vendor lock-in and improve reusability. This talk will take a broad look at open systems for government projects, including the forces that are driving the move to open systems, comparing open system and open source routes to meet the customer’s objectives, the characteristics that make a system open, and how to achieve those characteristics in practice. Examples are drawn from recent experience within BAE Systems.

Presenter

Peter Hammond started out as a materials scientist, before changing career direction and joining BAE Systems in the late 1990s. Since then he has worked on a number of defence related systems, large and small, with particular interests in component architectures, real-time systems, and agile methods.

Venue

Bournemouth University, Talbot Campus

Directions

The lecture theatres are near Poole House — a six storey building containing main reception. Walk past the bookshop, students union shop on the left and Barclays bank on the right. Through the doors and down the steps. The lecture theatres are on the left. There are signs to the lecture theatre, and also ‘BCS meeting this way’ signs.

Time

7.00 for 7.30 p.m. start

The discussion will include these topics:

* how digital fonts are designed and what are the technical, linguistic and aesthetic issues involved

* business and licensing models for fonts; and the problems of serving minority language communities and specialist  scientific/technical communities caused by the standard business model

* the opportunities and problems of “free-of-cost” and ”free-as-in-freedom” (open source) fonts

* the relation of open source collective/peer production to the aesthetic challenges of designing a harmonious new font

* a vision of how multilingual computing with Unicode and OpenType can assist the literacy and economic development of developing nations and linguistically diverse cultures

The evening will include a demonstration of relevant tools including FontForge, and some of the existing font projects like DejaVu and Gentium.

After the first hour and break, there will be extensive opportunities to discuss the issues and software presented, the business models that support free software and how they might apply to font software, and how you can get involved in the font community in such areas as software engineering, desktop user interface design, web-app development, and of course designing new fonts!

Dave Crossland:
is currently studying in the MA Typeface Design programme in the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication at the University of Reading. He has worked for over 5 years as a GNU/Linux systems administrator, and runs a small IT consultancy in his hometown of Bournemouth. He has used Debian since 1999, and believes strongly in the principles of freedom and community that underpin the software freedom movement.

Conrad Taylor:
has been working as a typographic designer and industrial design educator for 30 years, and has a particular interest in multi-script typesetting issues. He is currently the Chair of the BCS Electronic Publishing Specialist Group.

To book a place at this event please email your name to the OSSG events coordinator: events@ossg.bcs.org

Free buffet and refreshments including wine available from around 1800 hours.

For further information please contact Paul Adams at chair@ossg.bcs.org

Map & directions: http://www.epsg.org.uk/locations/bcsss-guide.html

The KDE 4.0 release is one of the most anticipated software events in the Free software desktop world today.

This talk, which in true OSSG style is open to all to attend, will take us on a tour of what KDE 4 will bring to your desktop with technologies such as Plasma, Solid, Phonon, SVG and more as well as take a look at some of the new and updated applications that will be arriving with KDE 4.0 including the Okular universal reader and the groupware Akonadi system.

We will wrap up with an overview of the community behind and around KDE at how you too can get involved in a variety of ways, ranging from software development to documentation to quality assurance to translating to promotion, and help KDE 4 be the best desktop the world has seen in the process.

Adriaan de Groot is a Canadian by birth and a Dutchman by training. He lives in the Netherlands and works in Greece with his German colleagues. As a researcher in (Free) Software Quality, he travels in Europe trying to spread the word on quality checking tools and Free Software.

Adriaan’s first Open Source project started in 1989 when visual editors on serial consoles were all the rage. He contributed bits and pieces to other projects until settling down with the KDE project where he works on synchronizing PalmOS-based handhelds with the desktop; he also works on FreeBSD and OpenSolaris portability. Free Software takes up most of his work day.

Adriaan is a member of the board of directors of KDE e.V. and a member of the board of directors of the NLUUG.

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

Free buffet and refreshments including wine available from around 1800 hours.

For further information please contact Paul Adams at chair@ossg.bcs.org

The format will be more that of a workshop/tutorial, and will be designed to encourage ‘hands-on’ experience of using several GNU/Linux distros (in particular Ubuntu, Debian, and Knoppix. It will also allow for exchange of information and ideas, and try to answer questions and queries about GNU/Linux, especially for those who have little or no experience. If you have a laptop with a Linux installation, please feel free to bring it along to help demonstrate, or raise questions (although we cannot guarantee to answer all questions).

Light refreshments will be available from 1830 hours before the start time of 1900 hours in the EMMTEC Building at the University of Lincoln, Brayford Pool, Lincoln LN6 7TS unless otherwise indicated. For directions click here.

For more information please visit: http://lincolnshire.bcs.org/diary.

PostgreSQL Web Projects: From Start to Finish - Simon Riggs

Tuning Tips for Linux and AIX to run a Database - Nigel Griffiths

Introducing Oracle Application Express: Database application
development for the web in no time flat - Julian Lane

DB2 on Linux for Web Development - John Pickford

iPlayer Server-Side: The Evolution of an XML Tool-Chain - Matthew Browning

The above is scheduled to take place on the 16th October 2007 starting at 0930 hours with a planned to finish time of 1700 hours. Venue is The Imperial Hotel, Russell Square, London WC1B 5BB

For further details please visit: http://www.ukuug.org/events/seminars/databases

Written in object-oriented Perl, RT is a high-level, portable, platform independent system that eases collaboration within organizations and makes it easy for them to take care of their customers.

RT manages key tasks such as the identification, prioritization, assignment, resolution and notification required by enterprise-critical applications including project management, help desk, NOC ticketing, CRM and software development.

RT is used by Fortune 100 companies, government agencies, educational institutions, and development organisations worldwide.

RT is the leading open-source issue-tracking system. Designed to make it easy for your organisation to track any sort of “task”. Various organisations, ranging in size from large corporations to the smallest non-profit use RT across a wide range of business cases. Frequent uses include the tracking of software defects, customer service inquiries, internal workflow, project management, network operations and even youth counselling. RT is powerful, flexible and built from the ground up to adapt to your organization and needs.

This comprehensive session will cover:

• RT’s system architecture
• A guided tour of the RT source code
• Extension mechanisms you can use to customize RT
• How to tie RT into your existing authentication infrastructure
• Bulding your own tools that talk to the RT backend
• Automating common procedures
• Customizing RT’s workflow to match your own
• How to write custom reports based on RT’s data

Jesse Vincent — tutor: (President, Best Practical Solutions LLC)Jesse Vincent is the author of RT and the founder of Best Practical Solutions, LLC, a company dedicated to open source tools to help people and organizations keep track of what needs doing, when it gets done, and who does it. Before founding Best Practical, Vincent worked as the systems lead for a now-defunct dotcom and as a software designer at Microsoft.

Please note UKUUG state that places are limited and early booking is essential. Booking deadline is 8th October 2007.

For further details please visit: http://www.ukuug.org/events/rt/

Finally, Michael will shamelessly plug whatever project is interesting today, and attempt to wildly extrapolate the near future, for people’s amusement - to rob Gascoigne: “I never predict anything, and I never will!”.

Michael is a Christian and enthusiastic believer in Free software. He very much enjoys working for Novell where as a member of the Desktop research team he has worked on desktop infrastructure and applications, particularly the CORBA, Bonobo, Nautilus and accessibility, amongst other interesting things. He now works full time leading the OpenOffice.org team. Prior to this he worked for Quantel gaining expertise in real time AV editing and playback achieved with high performance focused hardware / software solutions.

You do not have to attend the AGM or be a member of UKUUG to attend the talk.

For further details please visit:http://www.ukuug.org/events/agm2007/

Map/Location

The meeting is in Lecture Theatre 2 of University College London’s Cruciform Building, which is on the west side of Gower Street, opposite UCL’s main site (Multimap, Streetmap).

Time - 1800 hours for 1830 start.

Free buffet and refreshments including wine.

Please email your name to the events coordinator to book a place at this event.

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

Update 27th July 2007 - Here are the BCS OS Licence Slides used at the event held on 24th July 2007.