Daniel’s Blog

Hi all,

One of my last blog posts was about trying to find a job here in/around Bristol. Well the good news is that I’ve found something to do

From today (Wednesday 10th June 2009), I have a two week contract at nameless. A lovely web design/development agency in the heart of Bristol. They really are a lovely company, who know practically everything about nice user interfaces coupled with strict observance of web standards. It’s going to be good to work as a Content Analyst (a task which is usually assigned to Information Architects) for them for two weeks - particularly as I know some of their staff quite well.

But that’s only a temporary thing. After the two weeks with nameless, I shall be going into permanent full-time work at another web agency in Bristol called Sift Media, which is a publishing company specialising in professional (B2B) online communities (those in Accounting may know of AccountingWEB, those into Knowledge Management may know of KnowledgeBoard…. both of these are projects by Sift Media). I shall be working in the technical team at Sift Media as a Web Developer and probably will offer my various other skills (such as Technical Writing, Knowledge Engineering, Semantic Web etc) when they are needed. Sift Media is part of a larger organisation called The Sift Group, which is a more general web organisation providing the Collaboration and Social Networking platform called Sift Unity.

I’m very excited at being able to work for both nameless and Sift Media, as both are incredibly professionally and socially reputable organisations.

This is the next part of my journey!

Thank you to all of those who have helped me in my job search, and to those who have sent me their best wishes. I really appreciate it.

Cheers,

Daniel

I quickly zipped up a poster for the “Bristol Knowledge Unconference“. It’s available as a PDF by clicking the following link:

Bristol Knowledge Unconference 2008 Poster

Feel free to download the file, print it out and put it up at your workplace (providing it’s appropriate).

Feel free to email me if you have any questions.

Reminder:

• When: Friday 5th September 2008
• Where: eOffice Bristol, Prudential Buildings, Wine Street, Bristol, BS1 2PH
• Cost: Free
• Sign-up: https://knowledgeunconference.eventwax.com/bristol-knowledge-unconference (at the time of writing there are tickets available, get yours now)

Now for an incredibly Formal Blog Post. For equality I thought that I should open this up to as many people as possible, I’ve been pondering about making this blog post for a while, and I have even discussed the project with a few of you. Receiving my introduction pack and registration guide this morning has prompted me to write this post.

Intro

Many of you know that, I will be starting postgraduate study at the University of Bristol from the end of this September (2008). This will be a one-year full-time MSc course with project, the subject area is “Machine Learning and Data Mining“.

I would like to open up my project idea to an organisation in return for sponsorship of the course. I only ask for the cost of the tuition (£3950 GBP, which is currently roughly $7711 USD / €4982 Euros / $8032 Canadian Dollars / $8428 Australian Dollars / 323385 Indian Rupees / 830725 Japanese Yen / 52861 Chinese Yuan / 8102 Swiss Francs). In return the sponsor would have some say in the project itself, in addition to logos and names on all relevant websites and in documentation (negotiable).

I would (potentially) be interested in taking the project further after the project has been completed, this could be in the form of a business idea or another academic project. This is also negotiable.

My Project Proposal

I do already have an idea for a project, and have even written a project proposal which has been approved by the department. However, the content of that project proposal is negotiable and I could even change it completely depending on my interests/skills, the criteria for approval and also the sponsors interests.

The idea I already have will be an entirely new way of turning Free-Text into Linked Data, with the specific use-cases being very humanities (including anthropology and religion) based. But as said before, this is negotiable.

Course Information

The postgraduate course is officially titled “MSc in Advanced Computing (Machine Learning and Data Mining)”, it is a taught course but contains a full academic project. Topics within the course include Logic Programming (using Prolog), Bayesian methods, Natural Language Processing, Genetic Algorithms/programming, Neural Networks, Fuzzy Logic, Reinforcement Learning and some Bioinformatics content.

The official programming languages used at the University of Bristol include: C, Java, Haskell, Prolog, Progol… etc

Systems/Frameworks include: Weka, MatLab

A little about me

If you have just stumbled across this blog post, then you’ll be wondering about who I am. So a brief biographical summary:

I currently work as a Technology Evangelist for OpenLink Software dealing with Semantic Web/Linked Data technologies in addition to data portability, social web and database technologies. In May 2007 I completed my undergraduate degree with a 2:1 honours and a Double A grade for my final year project titled “Adding Semantics to Social Web Tagging Systems”, the undergraduate degree was a “BSc(Hons) in Intelligent Systems and Software Engineering” at Oxford Brookes University. My computer science interests are in the “Evolution of the Web” (so Semantic Web/Linked Data, the Social Web, Web 3.0, WUPnP and the Intelligent Web), Open Source Software and Open Data, Programming Languages and finally Intelligent Systems (mainly Logic Programming, Machine Learning, Data Mining, Agent Technology and Knowledge-Bases). I have experience in many programming/query languages, but some of my favourites include: Ruby, Java, Haskell, Prolog and SPARQL. My interests outside of computer science include: psychology, philosophy, music, religion and esoterica. I am a “Liberal Catholic Anglican” Christian and active/open-to/passionate-for Interfaith/Interreligious dialogue. I am a full member of the British Computer Society (BCS) and the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM). There is more about me on my simple homesite, my blog and my linkedin account, other information (including a CV) can be provided on request.

Important Dates

• Autumn Term: Monday 29th September 2008 to Friday 12th December 2008
• Spring Term: Friday 9th January 2009 to Friday 20th March 2009
• Summer Term: Monday 20th April 2009 to Friday 19th June 2009

I must have details about sponsorship as soon as possible, the final date for setting sponsorship up is Friday 12th September 2008…. and I really don’t want to leave it until then.

Useful (Official) Links

• Machine Learning and Data Mining Unit Descriptions
• University of Bristol and the University of Bristol’s Computer Science Department

If you are interested

If you are interested then please do let me know. I’m available by email or jabber… we can converse by phone or skype… and we can even meet up in/near the wonderful city of Bristol (UK).

• Email: danieljohnlewis [-at-] gmail [-dot-] com
• Jabber/GTalk: [email protected]
• Skype: daniel.lewis
• Phone: +447834355516 (UK specific: 07834355516)
• Current Location: Clifton, Bristol, England, UK (it’s in the South-West, about a 2 hour train journey from London)
• Current Time Zone: British Summer Time (GMT+1)

I will announce

I will announce on my blog when I receive funding. So if you don’t hear, then please do assume that I have not found any yet.

Many many thanks for reading, and I hope to hear from interested people soon.

Cheers,

Daniel

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”

I mentioned a few days ago that I would be setting up a “Bristol Knowledge Unconference“.

I’ve had a few emails about it, and a few blog comments… and I’ve actually been pleasantly surprised about the broad range of people interested in the event. I am still interested in hearing from others!

So heres the plan:

I’ll be visiting various people and organisations this week and next week, to find out what they want from the event and for me to get to know them and them to get to know me (as I am quite new to Bristol), and what we work on. The first of which is tomorrow afternoon. (If you’d like me to come visit you in Bristol then do send me an email, I’ll be happy to do so)

I hope to have set a date by Monday 21st July 2008. My feeling so far is that the event will be at some point in the next couple of months (i.e. before the end of September 2008). I will obviously let you know about this as soon as I have set it!

Hi all,

Just a quick note to all of those in the South-West of England (and anyone else interested). I am organising a “Knowledge Unconference” in Bristol, which is loosely attached to the “Semantic Web South-West” Group.

The idea will be similar to a BarCamp, except that it is a lot lighter, more social, more hands-on. It will also be only half-a-day long. Plus it will be “themed” around the general subject of Knowledge. So for example:

• The Semantic Web / Linked Data / Hyperdata / Data Web
• Topic Maps
• Information Architecture and Design
• Knowledge Acquisition
• Knowledge-Based Systems, Knowledge Engineering and Rule-Based Systems (etc)
• Knowledge Visualisation
• and maybe even, Object Oriented Databases

I will try to get the obvious companies in/around Bristol involved: e.g. HP Labs, ILRT, University of Bristol CS Dept, UWE Computing Dept. But I am very keen for small businesses, sole-traders and start-ups who are interested in Knowledge and who are in the area to come along. I’m also interested in a few PhD students and/or MSc students coming along to show off their Knowledge projects.

I’ve decided to do this because Knowledge is such a broad subject, which is so fragmented with people working on little Islands (with their own formats, frameworks, methodologies, protocols etc) that it is going to be worth just getting together, showing people stuff and talking about it. Some of the areas of interest have been typically academic in feel, so it would be interesting to hear success stories within business.

Someone in Bristol City Centre has been lovely enough to offer modern conference space for this event FOR ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. It has a conference room that holds about 100, and two breakout rooms. Also includes Free WiFi, Cabled Internet Connections, TV, and Projector.

I’m only brainstorming at the moment, and so I welcome all ideas/comments.

Oh, and… The event will be free and I won’t need a sponsor because the space is going to be free (unless people really really want a free meal)

If you have any comments, or if you are really excited and want to help me figure out when the best time to do this is (!) Then please send a message to danieljohnlewis [-a-t-] gmail [-d-o-t-] com

Cheers,

Daniel

(I’ll probably send this off to the Linking Open Data Mailing List too… so, I’m sorry for cross-posting)