Local Creatives (and a little about DC)

Stuart Gibson writes about going local with Twitter: Northern Ireand can feel a little insular at times, even more so when you are outside the sprawling metropolis that is our capital city, so to find this whole world of other geeky types so close was a revelation. Within a week I had stopped following @kevinrose, … Continue reading “Local Creatives (and a little about DC)”

Stuart Gibson writes about going local with Twitter:

Northern Ireand can feel a little insular at times, even more so when you are outside the sprawling metropolis that is our capital city, so to find this whole world of other geeky types so close was a revelation. Within a week I had stopped following @kevinrose, @veronica and all the other web 2.0 celebrities and started connecting with real people there was a chance I could actually meet.

There’s other reasons to go local with your services – at the end of the day, the new media A-listers can be assholes. Sure, local people can be assholes too, but at least you have a connection with the locals.

Stuart also continues with his proposal for a site for NI Creatives. He reckons it needs:

  • Discussion forum: Standard discussion forum (propose vBulletin for functionality reasons)
  • Regularly updated news: announcement of forthcoming events, press release information etc.
  • Calendars: subscribable calendars for general and specific areas (one for music events, one for art exhibitions, one for tech events etc as well as an “everything”)
  • A “People” section – a list of everyone that considers themselves part of the creative community, with optional contact information etc.

To be honest, a lot of this is what was planned for the “Digital Circle” web site but I think it’s worth separating the functions of these. One of the conversations I had a CreativeCamp Belfast was ‘what is the digital circle’.

The Digital Circle is: The Northern Ireland Digital Content Industry Group – it’s essentially a recognised interface (and representative body) for providers and producers of digital content. The current work is to help address some of the identified barriers to success for digital content creation, these were identified as:

  • Investment – finding money to keep a business running is one of the problems that content creators face. While the costs have reduced across the board for hardware (and to a lesser degree, software), the costs of running a business are pretty much the same. Everyone has costs associated with accommodation, food, heat. But investment is not meant to address these things – it’s to address the big problems out there – like how do you upscale production to meet a global market, how do you fund a server farm that will turn your web service into a global player? And it can come in several forms – personal investment, friends and family, bank loans, venture capital and public funding. In my opinion, these are the order in which you should approach them as well. The latter item, public funding, should only be used if there is a persistent (and not one-time) benefit to the community that paid for it.
  • R&D and Innovation – people in Northern Ireland are not short of ideas, but they are short on confidence in them. One of the benefits of hanging out at OpenCoffee or BarCamp is that you get to meet a lot of people. Sometimes it’s just about the networking, but other times it’s an opportunity for you to tell people about your idea and see what people think. If someone says it’s a cool idea then maybe you should develop it. We also have an inbred fear of losing ownership of things – ideas are kept secret, potential successes are missed because people fear collaboration and this fear of losing ideas is a major cause of failure.
  • Internationalisation – though nearly everyone I know has a smattering of French “Avez vous borrow some milk? Je voudrais un wee black saucepan”, it’s definitely not where it needs to be to start to address an international market. It goes beyond just translating the words in content though – it’s how to develop your product for an international market.
  • Skills and Training – lack of appropriate skills is something that has always been a constant in the post-education market. University prepares you for academia and research and a degree is only a validation that you’re capable of a certain level or quality of work. Universities are also limited to teaching principles, skills and methods and not specifics so the first thing you’ll do

On top of this – it’s an opportunity to present your opinions to public bodies. Everyone involved in content creation, management and delivery is part of the Digital Circle in some fashion because the Digital Circle is just a label for the industry itself – and those who choose to band together to do something about it. There’s no legal entity called “Digital Circle”, at the moment it’s just a commitment from InvestNI to listen and from several businesses around Belfast to attempt to band together and give their time freely to create something bigger than just their individual companies. If you’re working for the betterment of the industry through collaboration, sharing of ideas and networks, then you are the Digital Circle. It’s not up to me to decide, my role is to help people connect and to help implement the decisions made by the group. If you’re interested in the content market in Northern Ireland, then you really should get involved.

Lastly, rather than having multiple seemingly unconnected ‘camps’ around Belfast, I think it would be worthwhile to get people talking together about these things, for instance,

  • hold events outside of Belfast for a change
  • introduce more of the ‘camp’ idea
  • have a schedule of what’s happening where

In any given month we already have OpenCoffeeClub, Mobile Monday, NiMUG, Comic Creators in Belfast and no doubt half a dozen other ‘open’ events. I say ‘open’ in preference to membership network events where there’s a very formalised structure and membership (and an expectation to deliver business leads to other members). I’d be interested in hearing about others. I’d written half a proposal for a slightly more formal ‘conference collective’ which I was tentatively calling “NORTH” for design, music, technology and anything else that could be considered, held multiple times a year with a focus on different aspects.

What do you think we should do?

BarCamp WiFi Disaster

Okay, this one left me scratching my head. When I arrived at BarCamp, we were allocated two IP addresses on the QUB network and I set about using one of them to provide a public network and the other to provide a Private network for the Webcasts or whatever and to act as a failover. … Continue reading “BarCamp WiFi Disaster”

Okay, this one left me scratching my head.

When I arrived at BarCamp, we were allocated two IP addresses on the QUB network and I set about using one of them to provide a public network and the other to provide a Private network for the Webcasts or whatever and to act as a failover. Things were fine at first until people started to arrive. We might have had ten to fifteen laptops on the network when the WiFi just started playing up.

Using iStumbler, we determined that there was some sort of issue with the network. WiFi channels 1, 6 and 13 were stuffed with ambient traffic so we repositioned to avoid those and still we were getting this problem. In our WiFi network scans we were seeing multiple instances of our networks, though the second one was encrypted. Attempts to join our unencrypted networks would fail silently and the only stable network we could manage was the Ad-hoc one provided by my Macbook Pro – which not everyone could join (the Nokia N800s and Vista laptops mainly).

The theory went:

There was some sort of Trojan effect going on, either automatically or malevolently (and presumably from an attendee). When you put up a network, it would spawn a copy of the network which had a WiFi password. This would cause your attempts to join our network to fail – it was like it was jammed. If you put up an encrypted network, then you had a 50% chance of latching onto the wrong network and entering your WiFi password. This would make WiFi password harvesting to be very quick. They theory continued that the malevolent presence would then join your encrypted network using the harvested password details and start to sniff for passwords on the WiFi.

Bastard, eh?

I would really hate to think this was an attendee acting malevolently but then I’ve seen worse from humans. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was a trojan on someone’s machine because someone definitely had an unpatched Windows machine on the network, the “Free Public Wifi” ad-hoc network that appears nearly everywhere there’s a collection of Windows machines.

See

The puzzling phenomenon of seeing “Free Public Wi-Fi” that you can’t connect to when you’re searching for free public wi-fi has been solved. It’s “Microsoft Windows Silent Adhoc Network Advertisement.”
From a Nomad Research Centre Advisory:
This advisory documents an anomaly involving Microsoft’s Wireless Network Connection. If a laptop connects to an ad-hoc network it can later start beaconing the ad-hoc network’s SSID as its own ad-hoc network without the laptop owner’s knowledge. This can allow an attacker to attach to the laptop as a prelude to further attack.

Not recent and not unpatched. But there it was.

This post explains something else:

At Emerging Tech 4-5 years ago, someone had set up an ad hoc network with the same name as the real one. It was interfering with the real one, so the organizers repeatedly asked whoever had set up the ad hoc network to shut it down. The culprit turned out to be …. me. But I knew that I had not set up an ad hoc network, much less set one up and name it the same as the conference network. All I did was open my laptop and click on one of the ones that had the official conference name … which must have been an ad hoc network someone else set up. I then became the “carrier.” Ack.

That’s just brilliant. So it’s entirely possible that it wasn’t malevolent and wasn’t a clever Trojan/Worm but rather was just the way Windows works.

If this is the case, an extra special thanks to everyone who uses an unpatched version of Windows. I loved missing talks because I was troubleshooting why the WiFi was screwy.

BarCamp Belfast 08 mini review

Things that interested me most… Emma Persky’s Feature Recognition. Although challenged by being opposite Brian O’Neill’s freelancer talk (and let’s face it, what geek doesn’t dream of sticking it to the man and going ronin!). Best idea – move it to another time slot and that really worked I think. I thoroughly enjoyed it and … Continue reading “BarCamp Belfast 08 mini review”

Things that interested me most…

Emma Persky’s Feature Recognition. Although challenged by being opposite Brian O’Neill’s freelancer talk (and let’s face it, what geek doesn’t dream of sticking it to the man and going ronin!). Best idea – move it to another time slot and that really worked I think. I thoroughly enjoyed it and it gave me ideas for five, six, seven more applications that I don’t have the skill (yet) or the resources to build (again, yet). The possibilities with pattern recognition are fascinating and though this technology has been studied for a while, it takes a good demo to move it from ‘yeah, sure’ to ‘oh, that’s cool’. Good job Emma!

Tracy Dempseys Life Wheel/Spokes demo – I’d not really thought about my priorities that way. I have therefore resolved to work on the areas most deficient (quality time with my kids, general day to day job satisfaction) and not worry about the areas I’m happy with (how current I am with technology etc, money). The interesting thing is not thinking about how much effort you put into these things but how happy you are with the results. For those areas where I want more – I’m going to work on them with the theory that you get out what you put in. It’s funny, I’ve been results oriented (and passionate and loudmouthed about achieving them) for years in my ‘professional’ life.

Gerard McBreen’s Digital Circle. I wasn’t interested in the Adobe FLEX/AIR stuff anywhere near as much but Digital Circle is like a taster-for-10 of some ideas I’ve had for years (and the reason I tried to start Infurious). I’d still like Infurious to be a ‘publisher’ for a small group of developers but don’t know how to approach it just yet. I need to think on that but would encourage anyone creating any sort of digital content (software, eBook, movies, animations) to join Digital Circle.

And the rest?
All of the others were good though not especially relevant to me (Ruby scales? Whoodathunkit?) and next time round I’d like to hear Richard’s presentation on webcasting. Nick’s talk on the New Music Economy was an alternative path to my promotion of ‘1000 fans’ but as he said on the day – there isn’t just ‘one way’. As an homage to the existing model of music economy, I bought ‘Feel Good Lost’, by Broken Social Scene last night from iTunes after a short listen to a track during BarCamp. I’ve not bought much new music recently so that was nice.

Best Bits– conversations in the corridors and between talks – finding out how people got into their line of work, why they made their choices and also discovering some pleasant feedback on things I’ve done (or could be about to release). I do need to talk to Will King about his OpenGeo data but that can wait for a little bit. Mix that in with a little WiMax and you’ve got a spicy meatball!

Worst Bitsthe WiFi disaster. Something was definitely rotten in Kislev. I’m blogging about this concurrently but it flummoxed me and Paul Dundas and in the end to supply two rooms with intermittent WiFi, we ended up having to use three infrastructure access points and one ad-hoc access point. The latter was my laptop which effectively kept me from vegging out and using it which was probably a good thing.

Next steps?

OCC BBQ is on the 16th July down in Terryglass, County Tipperary (about 200 miles away from where I’m sitting as I type this). I’m driving down and will be sorting out some accommodation in the next day or so. Current thinking is to trip down on Tuesday afternoon (arriving before closing time at the pub), enjoy the BBQ throughout the Wednesday and then trip back on the Friday. That would mean two nights accommodation though.

I also want to continue that chat with Andy McMillan, Andrew Gribben and Matt Keenan about Co-working that we started right at the end when I was packing up. David Rice should also be involved but only if he can find a ‘first name twin’ like the rest of us. I’m joking, David. Mostly.

There was also some talk of doing another ‘event’ in six months? Maybe a TechLudd? (Go on, call it TechNorn or something). I’m up for helping get this going – I’d wanted to start an ‘Expo’ for tech companies for years!

Fabulous stuff today. My only regret was that I didn’t talk! I’m going to remedy that at OCC BBQ by the way as well as talking to some interesting people I’ve wanted to chat with for ages.

OCC BBQ, Terryglass, Tipp – 16th July

The motion was made for one party to attend the OpenCoffeeClub BBQ being held in Terryglass, in Tipperary on the 16th July 2008. Surprisingly, the other party did not wince or shout or laugh but immediately began assisting with preparations for the trip. Preparations are underway. Which is pretty much how it went down when … Continue reading “OCC BBQ, Terryglass, Tipp – 16th July”

The motion was made for one party to attend the OpenCoffeeClub BBQ being held in Terryglass, in Tipperary on the 16th July 2008. Surprisingly, the other party did not wince or shout or laugh but immediately began assisting with preparations for the trip. Preparations are underway.

Which is pretty much how it went down when I asked HerIndoors about going to it. So I’m a little gobsmacked.

The event starts at 11 am which means probably driving down the night before(Tuesday), staying over and then attending the day (Wednesday), crawling back to the accommodation for a second night and then driving back next morning (Thursday) – though as a non-drinker I have entertained the idea of driving back after the BBQ ends.

That’s a long drive but I’ll have my TomTom and my wits.

Great minds and all that

Ian Robinson writes about Northern Ireland Cocoa Developers Some of us from Northern Ireland, who were at WWDC, are thinking of setting up a local Cocoa developers group to met and discuss development and technologies related to the Mac OS X and iPhone/iPod touch platform. It is envisioned that there will be periodic meetings, a … Continue reading “Great minds and all that”

Ian Robinson writes about Northern Ireland Cocoa Developers

Some of us from Northern Ireland, who were at WWDC, are thinking of setting up a local Cocoa developers group to met and discuss development and technologies related to the Mac OS X and iPhone/iPod touch platform. It is envisioned that there will be periodic meetings, a mailing list, a web page, possibly guest speakers, etc. All this is still to be determined. The following 5 domains have been registered for the group to use:

nicocoadev (.org, .net, .com, .co.uk)

nicod.org

Earlier this week, we took John Kennedy’s idea for XCake.org and launched a wiki. Two years ago I’d attempted to get Cocoaheads Northern Ireland started up but attendance was pretty low. I’m happy to say that there are a lot more people interested now…

[EDIT: This would be a nice topic at BarCamp?]

BarCamp Belfast this coming Saturday!

I got this from Andy McMillan, the organiser of BarCamp Belfast 2008. L I N E U P 9:00 – 10:00 – Session-setup (registering) & networking 10:00 – 12:30 – Morning sessions and workshops 12:30 – 2:00 – Lunch (provided) 2:00 – 5:00 – Afternoon sessions and workshops 5:00 – 5:30 – Wrap up and … Continue reading “BarCamp Belfast this coming Saturday!”

I got this from Andy McMillan, the organiser of BarCamp Belfast 2008.

L I N E U P

9:00 – 10:00 – Session-setup (registering) & networking
10:00 – 12:30 – Morning sessions and workshops
12:30 – 2:00 – Lunch (provided)
2:00 – 5:00 – Afternoon sessions and workshops
5:00 – 5:30 – Wrap up and clean up
5:30 – late – Pub

The lineup for speakers will be available on Saturday morning after everyone has registered their session.

P R E M E E T
Since we have a lot of people coming from out of town, a meetup on Friday evening has been suggested. Anyone interested in a few pints should head along to McHughs for a few drinks on Friday at 6pm. Plan to make it an early night, though!

S P E A K E R S
The idea behind BarCamp is that everyone that attends also talks. Well under a quarter of the registered attendees have also registered a talk – theres still plenty of time to put something together. Everyone can find something to talk about, it doesnt even have to be long or insanely detailed – have a think about it, fire any ideas up on the wiki, and if you need any advice or questions answered, just fire me an email.

T E C H
Yep, we’ll have projectors available in both rooms with standard DVI connections. A few DVI to VGA adapters will be knocking about for those bringing Macs, but it’s still a good idea to pack a spare. Free wireless internet will be provided on the day, and we’ll try to have power strips running along the seating for laptops, etc.

R E Q U I R E D
If anyone has any spare wireless routers, please bring them along. The router(s) I have available are likely to go on fire once they get any serious traffic going, spares would be useful!

P U B L I C I T Y
If you’re attending or talking, please do all you can to plug yourself and the event on any blogs / social networks you frequency. Tell your friends, spread the word as much as you can! Anyone who has already blogged, I’d love to read what you’ve written, and if you’re planning on live-blogging or twittering like a manic, please let me know!

S T R E A M I N G
The conference will be streamed online – full details will go on the wiki as soon as I get ’em.

C O N T A C T
I haven’t been able to find email addresses for Paul Dundas, Paul Browne, Philip Orr, Florian Hollerweger, Paddy Donnelly, Peter Armstrong, Conor McCluskey, Daniel McLaughlin, Danielle McDougall or Michael Kitchen. If you know any of these people please forward this email on to them.

Any other questions, email Andy – or send him a message on twitter @goodonpaper.

Hope to see you all there.

BarCampBelfast 2008

BarcampBelfast 2008 is planned for Saturday 21st June, 9am – 5pm. Last year I had other commitments and couldn’t make it but I intend to turn up this year. Mac-Sys did sponsor it last year and will be doing so again. I think we need more of these events. There’s already a set of speakers … Continue reading “BarCampBelfast 2008”

BarcampBelfast 2008 is planned for Saturday 21st June, 9am – 5pm. Last year I had other commitments and couldn’t make it but I intend to turn up this year. Mac-Sys did sponsor it last year and will be doing so again. I think we need more of these events.

There’s already a set of speakers lined up but they’re looking out for more if you’re interested. I would like to speak on something but fear that my areas of knowledge are sufficiently shallow that there’d be nothing I could really teach anyone, especially when faced with the people speaking there.

The subjects do tend to be tech-heavy but that’s the problem. The subjects I know well enough to talk about (or could brush up on) would be of little relevance to the audience (unless people really want to know about OSPF or MLTs…I know I don’t!) and I’m sure no-one wants to hear about my epic failure at becoming a programmer (it’s code night tonight in Bangor, oh yes…)

Make the effort to turn up.

BarCampBelfast link at Barcamp.org

BarCamp Belfast: 30th June 2007: QUB

I grabbed this from Tom Raftery’s social media? blog. BarCamp Belfast is taking place in Queens University Belfast on Saturday June 30th. Sign up on the wiki now if you are going to attend. Here’s the wiki link. I’ve never been to any sort of BarCamp so I’m not sure what to expect really. I’m … Continue reading “BarCamp Belfast: 30th June 2007: QUB”

I grabbed this from Tom Raftery’s social media? blog.

BarCamp Belfast is taking place in Queens University Belfast on Saturday June 30th.

Sign up on the wiki now if you are going to attend.

Here’s the wiki link. I’ve never been to any sort of BarCamp so I’m not sure what to expect really. I’m also not sure I want to present anything considering where I’ll be day to day. But I’ve asked the planner about what being a sponsor entails and we can take it from there. I’d like to useful on the day.