BarCampApacheOxford 2011

10-11 September, University Club, Oxford

The Apache Software Foundation (with help from Alfresco, OpenDirective, Torchbox, White October, The Guardian and Indigo Clothing) ran a BarCamp in Oxford in September. The fun started on the evening of Saturday September 10th with a geeky meal followed by pub, and the real action commenced at 10am on Sunday the 11th.

 

The event in 2011 was a great success, thanks to everyone who came along or sponsored for making it such a wonderful day! For those interested, the rest of the page has been left un-changed.

 

The venue has been booked, and sign-ups are open! To sign up, edit the Attendees section below to list yourself, or drop an email to the google group and we'll do it for you. Then, have a look at the rest of the page for more information on the event, what to bring, when to come etc! 

 

ATTENDEES: You need to sign up in the table below (simply click "edit" at the top of this page). You should also join the Google Group, that way we can all keep each other informed, about resources, planning, requests for  help/crash space etc. if you Twitter then follow @barcampoxford on Twitter (and please use the tag #barcampoxford to join in)

 

Details

View Larger Map

Venue and overview

(See the bottom of this page for a map showing walking routes to the venue)

The venue is the University Club, Mansfield Road, Oxford, OX1 3SZ, 01865 271 044. It's booked for the Sunday, but we will kick off on Saturday evening with a meal in central Oxford, with drinks before and after. The un-conference will happen during Sunday daytime.  For those planning to turn up on Saturday night, the venue offers accommodation at a reasonable rate, but availability is very limited and must be booked well in advance; check availability here.  There are also plenty of other cheap options for overnight accommodation in Oxford (including couch surfing for free, see below).

 

A map showing the centre of oxford, with walking routes to the venue from the rail and main bus stations, the hotels suggested in the "accommodation" section, and from the Park & Ride bus stops.

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Saturday Evening

For anyone arriving early, we'll be going out for a meal on the Saturday night. We'll meet in the Duke's Cut (pub) on Park End Street from 6pm. At 7.30pm, we'll walk a few doors down to Al-Salam, a Lebanese Restaurant also on Park End Street for dinner. Afterwards, we'll head to one of Oxford's great pubs up in Jericho for a more drinks and geeky discussions! Do come along to some/all of the Saturday evening if you can!

 

For those from out of town who want to see a bit of Oxford, you could come early and go to some of http://www.oxfordopendoors.org.uk/ on Saturday.

 

Meals on Sunday

We're hoping that we'll again be able to offer food during the day at the venue. It'll depend on sponsors though, so more details nearer the time!

Themes

BarCamps are ultimately themed by the attendees: what you want to present, the BarCamp will host.

We'd love for this event to allow academic/hacker types to meet up with the vibrant and highly active geek community in Oxford, the county and beyond. Our intention is to make geek connections between projects in the academic and business sectors.

BarCamps are supposed to be fun, informative and useful. Whilst we do not intend to limit the kinds of topics you can discuss we are deliberately marketing the event to people with interests in one or more of the following:

• Open development techniques and practices
• Web 2.0 style data mashups
• Use of and engagement with The Apache Software Foundations projects
• OpenOffice.org, the ASF and the Apache Incubator

Schedule

In commons with all BarCamps, we'll be deciding on the schedule on the day. So, it's up to you! Here's the suggested framework. We will fill in the details at the start of play.

• 09:00 set-up/get-in
• 09:30 registration (say hello, make name badge, get swag/loot etc)
• 10:00: After a brief introductory talk, the schedule will be decided by us all at the start of the event. How it works is that we scribble down topics we're interested in and hold them up. If others are interested we then pick a slot on the programme (single or double). It's all very flexible and as topics emerge there is often splitting and lumping and reorganizing. If a session is really going strong at the end of its slot then folks simply decamp and carry on elsewhere, having free'd the room for the next slot. The schedule is expected to morph during the day
• 11:00 First slots
• 12:30 - 13:30 Lunch
• 13:00 Oxford walkabout- see the dreaming spires
• 15:30 Downstairs bar opens, for those discussions that work best with beer... Sessions continue upstairs
• 17:30 Closing session
• 17:45 clean up and off to pub

To give you an idea, here's a photo of the schedule board from last year. We also hope to post updates of the board at random intervals, check Flickr for photos tagged #barcampapacheoxford.

Barcamps need you!     

 

Although we a venue and a date, unconferences consist of you, the attendee! We need:

• Offers of basic help, setting stuff up
• 3 projectors 
• 1 laptop to drive twitter walls, flickr streams etc on them (for the communal areas)
• 3 flipcharts with stands (with enough spare paper that we can pinch quite a bit for the scheduling wall) 
• coloured A4 paper (for notices, scheduling etc) 
• cards for the name label holders? 
• kettle? (for making tea/coffee in) 
• 1m ruler (for making the schedule chart with)

 

Attendance at the BarCamp is Free, but normal BarCamp rules will apply, most importantly all attendees will be expected to particpate in an active way. Ways to contriubte include:

• present (informally or formally) about your favourite project
• hack together a mashup with other attendees systems
• play devils advocate in a lively debate
• have a drink with someone you have never met before

Help publicise the event

You could help by telling people about the event, or by putting up the poster which can be downloaded from here.

What to bring

• Laptop
• All the chargers/cables you'll need
• A plugboard to make sure we have enough sockets
• If you're using a Mac for a presentation, VGA adapters
• Spare battery (if you have one)
• Camera
• Sleeping materials - sleeping bag, pillow and toiletries (if you are using our crash spaces - see below)
• An idea for a session, presentation or talk
• A smile
• ...?

Crash space

Geeks from out of town will be in need of crash space on Saturday 10th. Please put your name down if you can offer someone a piece of floor. Anyone without crash space sorted should let it be known at the meal on Saturday, and we can pair people up then.

It's also possible to reserved a room at the venue for those wanting to pay for their own bed, though there aren't many spaces. Contact the University Club for details and to book.

 

We have contacted those of you who indicated the need for a crash space and it look like you are all sorted, but if you still need support, let us know!

 

Attendees

Attendee numbers are limited owing to funding for things like catering. Thanks to the generous support of our sponsors we have managed to increase the maximum attendance from 50, so we're please to report that everyone who has registered below will have a space.

Also mention what you can bring to the party. Everyone at a barcamp will speak or contribute somehow, but if you can offer extra bits and bobs then that'd be great.

Finally, if you don't want to get a pbwiki account, then just email us and we'll put you on it.

 

	Name	Email / homepage /twitter	If you can help, say how	Crash space?	Any notes (including comments on topics you want to see discussed)	Saturday Dinner?
1	Ross Gardler (ASF and OpenDirective)	@rgardler	organiser		* Understanding open development * The Apache Incubator * Commercial participants in open source	Yes
2	Steve Lee (OpenDirective)	@SteveALee	gofer		* open development * open accessibility and Assistive technology	Yes
3	Sylwia Presley	@PresleySylwia	blogging, documenting, reception, setting up	in Wantage if needed	* kids and technology * on-line privacy	Hopefully
4	Nick Burch	@Gagravarr	organiser	All spaces taken, sorry		Yes
5	JP Stacey	@JPStacey	organiser			Yes, Veggie
6	Ben O'Steen	@benosteen	Can bring projector, arduinos, MS Kinect
7	Nava Whiteford	@new299
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9	Robbie Mackay	@rjmackay	Happy to help if needed.	Spare couch/bed, and possibly floor space if needed. Ask on twitter.	* Crisis mapping * Tech and international development * Ushahidi
10	Sander van der Waal	@sandervdwaal	organiser	One or two		Yes
11	Graham Klyne	@gklyne	working RepRap		Cool gagetry and toys
12	Alejandra Puerto	@apuermo			I'm interested in CC and using technology in education.
13	Juan J. Martínez	@reidrac			* Open Stack Object Storage * Python, Django, OSS in general
14	Iain Emsley	@iainemsley			Interested in open literature and technology in education
15	Kevin Carmody	@skinofstars		May have one in Headington. I'll know closer to the time.
16	Jason Field	jason@jasonfield.com	Can bring stationary from my employer (Oxford Instruments), a projector and some Arduinos		* Python, CherryPy, Django * Hardware control (Arduino et al) * Routes for hardware-focussed companies to contribute to open source
17	Alistair Hann	@alistairhann
18	Bharath Ganesh	@BharathGanesh	organizer, blogging, documenting			Yes,  Veggie
19	Mohammad Nour	- mnour AT apache.org - @mohammadnour - tadabborat.blogspot.com - tadabborat.tumblr.com	organiser		- Automating ASF processes (Incubator in particular).	Yes
20	Dan Braghis	@zerolab	volunteer (can help on the day)		mapping, social coding, Drupal
21	Proactive Paul	@proactivepaul	regular barcamper and BCL team and TC team - so can be asked for any sort of help really	arriving early on Sunday for Sunday only	WAMP user - would like to see LAMP demo and sandpit
22	Ramsey Khudairi	@rkhudairi	volunteer (can help on the day)	Booked a double room at the University Club in Oxford from Thursday, September 8th through Monday, September 12th if someone would like to split the room (including some of the cost of the room).
23	Michael Davis	m.r.davis@cranfield.ac.uk		Spare room	Python, Plone
24	Ashley Griffiths	@NimbyDagda	willing to help out on the day		Drupal, Node.js, BDD, Open Source in Government	Yes
25	Alex Winson	@xmakina	First timer but happy to help with gophering and such		WAMP, C#
26	Don Harbison	dpharbison@gmail.com Twitter: dpharbison	Organiser, focus on Apache OpenOffice and Apache ODF Toolkit community development		OpenOffice-LibreOffice cooperation; ODF ecosystem development	Yes
27	Lal Krishna	lkdasa@gmail.com
28	Oleg Lavrovsky	@loleg	Friend of BCAO visiting from abroad	Might be handy..	Open data, source, science, maker + demo scene, web development, games
29	Ian Lynch	ianrlynch (gmail)			Interested in Apache Open Office/Libre Office co-operation, end user education/certification for FOSS, Open Content as a learning medium, Like to learn more about Python.	Yes
30	Gino Ahmad	@ginost7		Yes please, would be nice!	I am a web developer and i hope to give some web development presentations.
31	Dan Haywood	@dkhaywood dan at haywood-associates.co.uk		Nope
32
33	Robert Burrell Donkin	@itstechupnorth	I'm sure Nick and Ross will think of ways to keep me busy ;-)	Please find me space to crash - anything really would be fine	Grab me if you're interested in * Aural interface for Linux * Brainstorming how to release OOo at Apache * Email	Yes, Vegetarian
34	Robert Matthews	rmatthews at nakedobjects.org
35	Yousif Masoud	yousif [dot] masoud [at] gmail.com			Anything Web related.  Apache OODT
36	Marsh Penman	m.a.m.penman [at] gmail.com		Crash space available in Farringdon	Open resources and changing views of personal world/reality Also paper aeroplanes and satellites!
37	Jacek Zlydach	temporal.pl@gmail.com	Willing to help with whatever that's needed.	Could use some :).	Lisp, game development, lifehacks, anything practical and fun, time travel ;).
38	Inigo Surguy	inigo.surguy at gmail			Could talk about Scala; interested in ODF discussion
39	Simon Riggs			No need for accommodation	Interested in discussing Apache/other data stores, APIs and open development/incubation. Would also like to do 5 min overview of PostgreSQL, but no more!
40	Dan Q	scatmania.org			LAMP, web, ruby, android	Yes, veggie
41	Richard Melville	@6tricky9			Erlang	Yes
42	Finn Lewis	@ecofinn	Not been to a BarCamp before. Happy to help wherever.		Drupal developer and enthusiast - interested in FOSS in public sector and schools, open data, would like to play with arduinos!	Yes.
43	Ben Foxall	@benjaminbenben		Might have a (small) spare room going.		Yes!
44	Ed Lucas	@mightjustwork	First timer		Curious about SPARQL and small ARM devices	No :'(
45	Rob Aley	robert [dot] aley {@} dph (dot) ox |dot| ac <dot> uk	First time		HTML5 as an application platform, PHP, open development	No (baby sitting duties!)
46	Eamonn Neylon	@eneylon		Not needed		No
47	Esa Harjula	firstname lastname [at] helsinki fi
48	Curt Schröeder	curt dot schroeder at antycipsimulation dot com			Would be willing to give a short presentation on how Anytcip Simulation uses OpenGL, Open Scene Graph, and Python as part of its COTS products and services business and perhaps show a demo or two
49	Andy Footner	andy dot footner at torchbox dot com	happy to help			yes
50	Val Redchenko	lazyval at gmail dot com	happy to help			maybe
51	Danese Cooper	@DivaDanese  danese at gmail dot com	Happy to help out
52	Bas van Schaik	sebastiaan dot van dot schaik at cs ox ac uk				Yes
53	Vincent Vanner	Cercaroma.Net	First timer			yes
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Anyone registering below this line should be aware that food may be limited for you. Of course there is an answer to this problem, if you bring some snacks with you there will be more to go around. So anyone below this line will be expected to bring some additional food and drinks.
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Catering

Sponsors permitting, we'll be providing snacks and drinks througout the day. Lunch will be provided with plenty of vegetarian options, let us know via the google group (see above) if you have any special requirements.

 

There is a bar in the venue and we've asked for it to be opened at 3pm. I'm sure there will be a bunch of us heading off for food and more beer in the evening, so  all your needs should be catered for.

 

On the Saturday evening before, we're going to for a meal, followed by drinks in a nearby pub. The pre-dinner drinks will be at the Duke's Cut on Park End Street, a stone's throw from the station and the bus station. For dinner, we're going to Al-Salam, a Lebanese Restaurant on Park End Street, who're doing us a lovely variety of food as part of their set menu. After that, we'll walk up the canal to Jericho, and retire to one of the many nice pubs there.

 

Sponsorship

We're still looking for more sponsors! We have the venue covered, but we could use a little bit more towards food (snacks and lunch), and everyone always likes free beer!

 

If you may be able to help out, please get in touch with the organisers (see the end of the page) or drop a note to the google group. We'll hopefully have an information pack on sponsorship available soon.

 

Confirmed Sponsors

We're very grateful to a number of local companies who have kindly sponsored the event, and thus allowed it to go ahead. We'd like to thank:

The Apache Software Foundation	Merticocracy in Action, BarCamp Style!
	Open Source Enterprise Content Management. If you're interested in using Alfresco, building your solution on top of Alfresco, or working for Alfresco (we're hiring Java developers!), talk to one of us at the Event!
	Collaborate to Innovate - OpenDirective facilitates open innovation through engagement with Open Source software. To find out how we can help find software products and opportunities that are reaching the chasm between the early adopters and the early majority, or how Open Development and BarCamps can help your company or research, speak to us at the BarCamp!
	Oxfordshire based Web Design and Development, with a strong focus on the charity, NGO and public sectors. We'll be at the BarCamp talking about some of our recent projects and technologies, and ask us about our current job openings (we're hiring!) or how we could help with your web application or website needs
	Focusing on designing websites and developing software that people can use intuitively, because frankly this is the only way to deliver results. We start every web development project by putting the kettle on! We'll be at the BarCamp, come talk to us over a cuppa about our job openings, or your website needs
	The Guardian Open Platform is part of the Guardian's ongoing digital engagement strategy. Encompassing such projects as the Guardian Content API which gives access to over 10 years of journalistic content, the Data Blog which provides the data behind the popular stories and the Guardian Developer Network which is improving the conversation between developers and journalists. Find out more about what data and content is available, and what amazing things have been done with it, at the BarCamp
	It wouldn't be a BarCamp without some free stash and Indigo Clothing, the London based custom t-shirt printing company, are kindly donating some white Fruit of the Loom tshirts printed with the BarCamp Apache logo on the front and the event sponsors on the back. Indigo supply t-shirts, hoodies, polos and much more to a wide range of clubs and events so if you need to create tshirts make sure you get in touch with them on 0800 061 2207. Please show you thanks by following Indigo on twitter (@indigo) or leave a nice review on Google Places

 

 

Accomodation

These are some suggestions for accommodation in Oxford.

1.  Parklands B&B:  reportedly reasonable.  Around a 20-minute walk from the venue, or a 5-minute bus ride plus a 10-minute walk.  Around £90 per room per night.

2.  Rewley House (University's Continuing Education Dept.):  offers quite basic, inexpensive accomodation.  Around a 15-minute walk from the venue.  Roughly £65 per room per night.

3.  Best Western Linton Lodge Hotel:  no personal reports, but reasonable location similar to that of Parklands B&B.  Around £60-£70 per room per night.

4.  Holiday Inn Pear Tree:  good accommodation, but less convenient location,  on the northern outskirts of the city, by the ring road.  The Pear Tree Park & Ride service runs from near the hotel, reaching the centre of Oxford in 10 minutes; the venue is a further 10-minute walk.  Rooms are usually over £100 per night.  Please note the park and ride service does not run past 18:57 on Sunday, nor after 23:30 on Saturday.

5.  The Buttery Hotel:  reportedly reasonable accommodation, directly in the centre of Oxford, and around a 10-minute walk from the venue.  Between £55 and £90 per night, depending on room type.

If you would like more advice, please contact any of the organisers, as below.

 

Travel

From airports:

Heathrow and Gatwick:  There is a good bus service direct to Oxford's central Gloucester Green station; see here

Stansted:  There are indirect services run by National Express, through London or Heathrow Airport; see here

Birmingham:  There is a frequent rail service from Birmingham International Airport to Oxford Rail Station; see here

For details of travel from other airports, please contact the airport for information.

 

Travel by rail:

Trains to Oxford all arrive at Oxford Rail Station.  For details of trains, please see here

 

Travel by inter-city bus:

Buses to Oxford generally stop near the centre of the city, often at the Gloucester Green bus station.  Some services also stop slightly further from the centre, in Oxpens Road.

 

From London specifically:

Bus:  two services run frequently; the Oxford Tube and the Oxford Express. Travel time is around 2 hours.

Rail:  trains run from London Paddington, and take around 1 hour (though some stop more often, taking around 1.5 hours).  See here

 

By car:

On-street parking is difficult to find in Oxford, and is limited to 1 or 2-hours.  Some details can be found here.

There are also some car parks where a car can be left all day for a fee (see the above link).  The most convenient locations for the venue are at Gloucester Green and Worcester Street.

There are also park-and-ride services, but please be warned that these stop in early evening on Sunday.  See here.

 

Getting to the venue:

Taxis are available at both the rail station and Gloucester Green bus station.  By foot, the venue is around 10 minutes from the centre of the city, 15 minutes from Gloucester Green bus station, and around 25 from the rail station.  Please see the map in the next section.

Buses from the rail station to the city centre are available, and cut the walk to around 10 minutes.  Services include the S3, which runs from the station to George Street during the day; see here.

 

Map of Oxford

A map showing the centre of oxford, with walking routes to the venue from the rail and main bus stations, the hotels suggested in the "accommodation" section, and from the Park & Ride bus stops.

 

Core Organisers

If you've any queries, contact one of these people.

	Name	Organisation	Email
1	Ross Gardler	ASF	rgardler AT apache.org
2	Nick Burch	Alfresco/ASF	nick AT apache.org
3	Sylwia Presley		@sylwiapresley
4	Mohammad Nour	ASF	mnour AT apache.org
5	Sander van der Waal	OSS Watch	sander.vanderwaal AT oucs.ox.ac.uk

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Anti-Harassment Policy

 

BarCampApacheOxford is dedicated to providing a harassment-free experience for everyone. We do not tolerate harassment of participants in any form. Participants violating these rules may be sanctioned or expelled, at the discretion of the event organizers.

Harassment includes offensive verbal comments, deliberate intimidation, stalking, following, unwanted photography or recording, sustained disruption of talks or other events, inappropriate physical contact, and unwelcome sexual attention. Participants asked to stop any harassing behaviour are expected to comply immediately.

Sexual language and imagery will not be tolerated in any event venue, including talks. Exhibitors should also refrain from using sexualised images, activities, or other material. Booth staff (including volunteers) should not use sexualised clothing/uniforms/costumes, or otherwise create a sexualised environment.

If a participant engages in harassing behaviour, the organizers may take any action they deem appropriate, including warning the offender or expulsion from the event. We expect participants to follow these rules at all event venues and related social events.

If you are being harassed, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, please contact a member of the event team immediately. The team can be found downstairs at the registration desk.

The event team will be happy to help participants contact local law enforcement, provide escorts to walk you to/from your room/car/taxi/etc, or otherwise assist those experiencing harassment to feel safe for the duration of the event. We value your attendance.

• You can contact the event team via the Google Group or find us downstairs at the registration desk
• You can contact the Apache Conference Planning team at concom@apache.org
• Thames Valley Policy non-emergency number: 0845 8 505 505
• Oxford Sexual Assault Helpline: 01865 726295
• NHS Direct (non-emergency medical): 0845 4567
• Local Taxis: 01865 240000, 01865 242424