Daniel? Blog

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

I?e had a few emails about it, and a few blog comments… and I?e 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?l 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? like me to come visit you in Bristol then do send me an email, I?l 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? also interested in a few PhD students and/or MSc students coming along to show off their Knowledge projects.

I?e 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? only brainstorming at the moment, and so I welcome all ideas/comments.

Oh, and… The event will be free and I won? 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?l probably send this off to the Linking Open Data Mailing List too… so, I? sorry for cross-posting)