Daniel’s Blog

Well I’ve released details of the Bristol Knowledge Unconference 2009.

Our main website is: Bristol Knowledge Unconference 2009 : https://www.craftivism.net/wiki/UnCraftivism/Bristol_Knowledge_Unconference_2009

It will take place in the Arnolfini Arts Centre in Bristol on the 12th and 13th December 2009 as part of the “unCraftivism” satellite event which is part of the Craftivism exhibition. unCraftivism is about merging technology and art, and Bristol Knowledge Unconference will be one stream of working during that weekend, other events during the weekend will be done in collaboration with Dorkbot Bristol and the Bristol Robotics Lab.

The Knowledge Unconference will be similar to what it was last year, it’ll be all about Knowledge - although we’re slightly more focused this time and have a subtitle: “The Art of Knowledge”, and will experiment with the mixture of art and science that is knowledge. Last year we were lucky to have over 50 people turn up from diverse areas of expertise such as: Knowledge Management, New Media, Semantic Web, Business, Chemistry and Psychology… and we hope to continue to have a diverse mixture of people to take on the subject of knowledge, with a twist of art.

I hope that you will be able to join us, as this will be a really exciting event.

Feel free to get in touch any time if you have any queries:

Daniel Lewis
* UK Telephone: 07834355516
* International Telephone: +447834355516
* Email and Jabber: danieljohnlewis [at] gmail [dot] com
* Bristol Knowledge Unconference 2009 website: https://www.craftivism.net/wiki/UnCraftivism/Bristol_Knowledge_Unconference_2009
* Twitter: @danieljohnlewis
* Skype: daniel.lewis

Rumours have it, that there will be another Bristol Knowledge Unconference.

The last one was a success… a good turn out, some interesting talks and discussions. So it’s only right to do another one.

This one coming up doesn’t have a date yet, or a location. It will, unlike the previous, have a “theme” which I’ll be trying to get speakers for…. and of course, it’ll be in Bristol somewhere.

So… I need some helpers. Please do get in contact with me if you can:

• help me find a location
• help do some general organisational/administrative assistance
• offer to do a talk about knowledge, set to a specific them
• give some money to pay for food and drink

I will strive to make this Unconference completely free for attendees, which does mean that we require the location to be free (or sponsored) and the food to be supplied (or paid for) by some organisation(s)/people.

So please do get in contact if you can help in any way by sending me an email ( danieljohnlewis at gmail dot com ). Else, I’ll keep you all up to date through my blog.

Thank you,

Daniel Lewis

Here are some predictions for Computing & IT in 2009:

• Hardware
  • More and more Cloud Computing services (and improvements)
  • Personal Supercomputer Hardware (such as NVidia Tesla)
• Software
  • Advancement of ease-of-use in Operating Systems, particularly Linux… which will see more of a take up this year than ever before.
  • Browsers (particularly Mozilla-based and Opera) will start to contain more and more Semantic Web based features.
• Web
  • More people and organisations providing Semantic Web services. Leaders in this field will help greatly, such as the BBC, BT and the UK Government.
  • The original developers and advocates of the Semantic Web, will start to move away from it a little in an attempt to improve the semantics of the Semantic Web. Areas such as Fuzzy Logic, Bayesian Probability, Advanced Description Logic, Intelligent Agents and Artificial Neural Networks will be bridged with the Semantic Web by researchers.
  • Web development will become more and more like desktop application development.
  • Web design will become more focused on providing the data rather than providing pictures, fusing with Information Architecture.

BUT! More importantly, things may seem to slow down in terms of development within the computing field. This won’t be entirely the case, we’ll see more efficiency improvements than feature additions… and these developments will probably help the efficiency of those companies using that software/hardware.

Although I’ve mentioned all of this. Please note that I truly feel that we should move away from a materialistic view to a more societal and/or spiritual point of view. This means that although new things may be released in the future, we should recognise them, but not be tempted by them if they are not necessary updates.

Just a Reminder.

If you haven’t signed up and want to come then please click the “Sign-up-now” link at the bottom of: https://knowledgeunconference.eventwax.com/bristol-knowledge-unconference

Recent email:

Here’s the recent email that I sent out to those on the attendee list:

- Reminder Section -

We are just sending you a reminder that this Friday, the 5th September 2008, the Bristol Knowledge Unconference will be running between 2pm and 6pm at eOffice Bristol on Wine Street in Bristol City Centre. Remember, it’s completely free to attend, we aren’t going to ask for any money.

More details about what, where and when are available on the website: https://knowledgeunconference.eventwax.com/bristol-knowledge-unconference

- Good News Section -

—- Tea, Coffee and Water —-

As some of you know, we were having problems finding tea and coffee machines. Luckily, eOffice have been very kind enough to offer them to us (with water) for free along with the conference room. So that problem has now been resolved.

If you wish to bring snacks in then you are very much free to do so as we won’t be providing snacks this time (maybe next time).

—- Preset slots are now set! —-

When organising the event I decided that we needed to have two definite preset slots in order to kick off the event… these slots shouldn’t be seen as “keynotes”, it is purely to get into the spirit of the event and they will be identical in structure to the four “set-on-the-day” slots.

I am pleased to announce that we’ve got the two preset slots set:
* 1st Preset Talk: “OpenShakespeare and Milton” by Iain Emsley of the eScience department at STFC
* 2nd Preset Talk: “The Fragmentation of Knowledge in the Brain” by Derek Smith, a Senior Lecturer in Informatics and Cognitive Science at the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff

Both preset slots are about different aspects of knowledge storage, the first is a computational aspect and the second is a biological aspect. So it’ll definitely be rather interesting!

—- “Set-on-the-day” slots —

We have four “set-on-the-day” slots available, which means that on the day we turn up and those who can do a 15 minute presentation, will then put their name on a card and unless we’ve got just four (or less) people on cards we’ll take a vote for the presentations that we wish to hear. Any presentations not done will be placed on the list for the next Bristol Knowledge Unconference.

So if you’re happy quickly zipping up a 15 minute presentation about something related to knowledge then please do, it can be techie or scientific or even business related. Just remember that the target audience is a mixture of technologies, scientists, new media specialists and business-oriented people.

Just a reminder, the structure of all talks throughout the day is:
* 15 minute standard presentation
* 5 minute table talk, where people talk at their tables about the subject matter at hand, this tends to generate some more interesting ideas for the….
* 10 minute questions and comments time, in which the presenter gets quizzed

—- Posters —-

I have been asked by someone to put up a poster because they won’t be able to attend this time. If you fancy bringing along a poster to put up promoting your product, service or even job vacancies then please do.

—- Other bits —-

* At the last count we have 60 people on the attendee list, and from all kinds of aspects of knowledge - which is wonderful!
* At the venue there will be: projector, wifi, seats, tables. I will also be bringing two laptops: MacBook (with Mac OS X 10.5, including Firefox 3, Keynote, OpenOffice and Adobe Reader) and a Toshiba Qosmio 17inch Laptop (with Windows Vista Ultimate, including Firefox 3, Internet Explorer 7, OpenOffice and Adobe Reader). Feel free to bring your own laptop and/or other mobile devices.
* If you don’t want to present then that’s absolutely fine, there is no pressure. If you do want to present and don’t get the chance, then there will be more Bristol Knowledge Unconferences in the future, in which you’ll be able to present at.
* Remember: the event is going to be quite sociable, fun and a great place to learn in an informal atmosphere.
* Bring a digital camera along if you can, take some photos and then upload them to your favourite photo sharing site. If you can take movies too then that’s awesome.
* If you have a blog then please do review the event once it’s finished if you can. Your feedback will be greatly appreciated and will go into making the next one even better.

- Contact Section -

As usual, if you have any questions or comments then please do let me know either by email, skype or phone.

- Finally -

I’ll see you there!

Daniel

Greenbelt 2008

Greenbelt festival 2008 was really fantastically good! Michael Franti & Spearhead are an awesome band, as are Aradhna. Plus my church (Foundation Bristol) did a fantastic service where they told the story about the Tower of Babel using some funky music and interesting visuals (it was quite “New Media” style and “Emerging“) (”To Confuse is to Liberate!”). I actually feel more enlightened after the whole weekend, and Beki and I have booked our tickets for Greenbelt 2009 and are even thinking about running our own event!

At the event I bought a didgeridoo and a Peruvian Ocarina. I also learnt how to sing Taize, Iona and Gregorian Chants and Songs.

Linked Data SemanticBible

Development of the Linked Data version of the SemanticBible is going well, and a big thank you to Sean Boisen of semanticbible.com for assisting us with various things. I’ll be working on hooking the ontologies in with various other ontologies around the Linked Data Cloud.

Fishes

It seems like two of my oranda fish are “getting it on”… having lots of little baby fish is going to be quite scary. Not sure what I’ll do with them!

Hospital

I went to hospital this morning for my Dilated Cardiomyopathy (for the first time in Bristol), they took 7 tubes of blood out of me, gave me an ECG. They are also going to book me in for an Echocardiogram appointment and potentially a treadmill, they will also be sending me a week-long heart monitor device. Also, rather unfortunately, I’ve got to double up on my Bisoprolol (a beta-blocker) which means that I’m going to probably experience some periods of fatigue while I get used to the new dosage

Bristol Knowledge Unconference

Bristol Knowledge Unconference organisation is going really really well. I sent out a few emails to people on the registration list this morning, letting them know a bit more about the style and organisation of the event. And I’m formally publicising the following event structure:

All times are pm:-

• 2:00 - 2:15 : Arrival & Whiteboard Scribbling (for the set-on-the-day talks)
• 2:15 - 2:20 : Introduction to the event
• 2:20 - 2:50 : 1st Preset Talk
• 2:50 – 2:55 : Setup
• 2:55 - 3:25 : 2nd Preset Talk
• 3:25 – 3:35 : Break & Whiteboard Scribbling (for the set-on-the-day talks)
• 3:35 - 4:05 : 1st set-on-the-day Talk
• 4:05 – 5:05 : Setup
• 4:05 - 4:35 : 2nd set-on-the-day Talk
• 4:35 – 4:45 : Break
• 4:45 - 5:15 : 3rd set-on-the-day Talk
• 5:15 – 5:20 : Setup
• 5:20 - 5:50 : 4th set-on-the-day Talk
• 5:50 – 6:00 : Clearup
• 6:00 onwards food & drink at the nearby restaurants/pubs

It looks like one of our preset slots might be fixed, so if you’d like to do a preset slot and insure that you have a presentation slot then please do email me.

University

I’ll be starting my masters at the end of September, and I’m really looking forward to it. I’m in conversations with a company who is willing to fund my masters project as part of a larger project (sorry, I can’t say more than that).

Good news for all who are following the “Bristol Knowledge Unconference” (which I have mentioned on here before: “Bristol Knowledge Unconference” and “Bristol Knowledge Unconference: A Small Update“)!

We have set a date and time:

Friday 5th September 2008 between 14:00 and 18:00.

And I can release details of the location too:

eOffice Bristol, 1st Floor Prudential Buildings, 11-19 Wine Street Bristol, BS1 2PH.

See where about’s it is on Google Maps, Yahoo! Maps, Microsoft Live Maps, MapQuest or MultiMap.

We have even setup the event on event-wax, so to sign up please visit:

“Sign Up through Bristol Knowledge Unconference on eventWax”