oshug November 2011

oshug@oshug.org

3 participants
4 discussions

e-petition on programming in schools
by Jeremy Bennett 18 Nov '11

18 Nov '11

This e-petition to HMG asks to have programming taught in schools It is only tangentially related to the interests of OSHUG. However in general if you learn programming it will bring you into a range of tools and application that are open source. The understanding it brings also helps awareness of open source. And of course one of the best ways of learning real programming is with Arduino. https://submissions.epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/15081 If it reaches 100,000 signatures, then it may be considered by parliament. Given the number of programmers in the UK that should be achievable. I believe that any member of the public can sign e-petitions, not just adult voters. In particular if you have children who care about this issue (mine do), then they can sign as well. Jeremy -- Tel: +44 (1590) 610184 Cell: +44 (7970) 676050 SkypeID: jeremybennett Email: jeremy.bennett(a)embecosm.com Web: www.embecosm.com

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Hacker Day @ Oxford Instruments - 3rd December
by Paul Downey 10 Nov '11

10 Nov '11

Forwarded from the Oxford Geeks mailing list .. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Jason Field <jason(a)jasonfield.com> Date: Thu, Nov 10, 2011 at 3:18 PM Subject: [oxfordgeeks] Hacker Day @ Oxford Instruments - 3rd December To: list(a)oxfordhackspace.org.uk, oxfordgeeks(a)googlegroups.com Hi all, My quest to open up Oxford Instrument's doors to the local hacking community has succeeded, and we're planning to hold an event on the 3rd of December for all who are interested! The theme for the first event will be 3D printing since it brings together a lot of different aspects of the open source hardware movement, but we'll be happy to welcome anyone who has a project they'd like to work on. On site we have; * Scopes/DVMs * Professional soldering stations * General tools * Miscellaneous electronic bits 'n bobs (SMD resistors & caps, wire etc.) * Space * Refreshments & lunch * First-class bodging skills See the attached flyer for address details. If you're interested in coming along then please let me know (either email or @iamjasonfield) so we have a rough idea of numbers. Thanks, Jason PS. Apologies for the cross-posting, and date conflict with the excellent-looking Random Hacks of Kindness. Maybe we can look at some random hardware hacks of kindness at OI? -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Oxford Geeks" group. To post to this group, send email to oxfordgeeks(a)googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to oxfordgeeks+unsubscribe(a)googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/oxfordgeeks?hl=en. -- Paul (psd) http://blog.whatfettle.com

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OSHUG #14 — Open for Change Part 2 (Hexayurt, O + S, Onawi), Thursday 24th November.
by Andrew Back 08 Nov '11

08 Nov '11

Hello, Details are now online and registration is open for the November meeting. Cheers, Andrew --- OSHUG #14 — Open for Change Pt.2 (Hexayurt, O + S Project, Onawi) 24th November 2011, 18:00 - 20:00 at Centre for Creative Collaboration, 16 Acton Street, London, WC1X 9NG (51.529049, -0.116436) Registration: http://oshug.org/event/14 Back in May at OSHUG #10 we heard about three projects concerned with effecting positive change. At the thirteenth meeting we'll be continuing with this theme, and hearing about the Hexayurt disaster relief shelter, documenting Appropriate Technology for the needs of others, and open renewables. - Free and Open Source Housing The Hexayurt is an award-winning replacement for the disaster relief tent which provides shelter at 20% the cost of a tent. It is designed to be manufactured anywhere in the world at any scale, from local materials, as Free hardware, to house humans in need. The Hexayurt Project maintains the designs and makes them freely available. An estimated $250,000 worth of Hexayurts were built at Burning Man this year. Vinay Gupta is one the world’s leading thinkers on infrastructure theory, state failure solutions, and managing global system risks including poverty/development and the environmental crisis. He works at both the theoretical level, building models and mapping tools and at the practical level, as the designer of the Hexayurt, he helped start the US National Defense University STAR-TIDES program on humanitarian assistance, consulted on urban resilience for Arup, and is an associate fellow of the UCL Institute for Security and Resilience Studies. - The Needs of Others One of the areas seeing heavy influence from the Free and Open Source Software (F/OSS) movement is Appropriate Technology, and the O+S Project is working from the perspective of its documentation. It is investigating the difficulty in translating from F/OSS to Appropriate Technology at both a practices and principles level, and how we must go further to meet the goals with the world’s poorest people. Al Razi Masri is a recent Manufacturing Engineering graduate and founder of the O+S Project. In addition to which he is working on documentation for the Hexayurt Project and instructional documents for other Appropriate Technology. - Open Hardware and Renewable Energy Onawi is a non-profit organisation promoting open hardware for the development of non-domestic wind energy systems. Open hardware is becoming increasingly popular, as we can see in the recent initiative by Facebook to open up the technology behind their data-centres. However, most open hardware projects are targeted at hobbyists or those looking for custom do-it-yourself alternatives to mass market products. While this is a very positive aspect, at Onawi we believe that open licensing and collaborative development could have a far reaching impact on industrial production. In particular, Open Hardware could provide the horizontal technology transfer of renewables required to fight climate change in developing countries. Javier Ruiz is a UK based digital activist and social entrepreneur promoting open data, open standards and open licensing as the basis for a better future based on transparency, participation and collaboration. His practical work cuts across various spheres ranging from citizen journalism, archives to renewable energy. His background is in anthropology and technology management, and you can normally find him at the Open Rights Group. Note: Please aim to arrive for 18:00 - 18:20 as the talks will start at 18:30 prompt. Registration: http://oshug.org/event/14

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Open Source Hardware Camp, Thursday 27th October.
by Andrew Back 01 Nov '11

01 Nov '11

Hello, Registration is now open for the inaugural Open Source Hardware Camp which will take place on Thursday 27th October. Further details should be added to the event page in due course. Cheers, Andrew -- Open Source Hardware Camp 27th October 2011, 09:30 - 18:00 at Centre for Creative Collaboration, 16 Acton Street, London, WC1X 9NG, (51.529049, -0.116436) http://oshug.org/event/oshcamp Join us at the inaugural Open Source Hardware Camp for a hands-on day of three parallel workshops, with short plenary sessions in the morning and afternoon. - Practical 3D Printing A hands-on session in which we will use OpenSCAD (an open-source, code-based, 3D parametric CAD software system to design simple 3-dimensional objects), and other freely available tools, to turn the resulting designs into files that can be used to drive a RepRap 3D printer, or similar rapid prototyping device. Further details TBD. Graham Klyne has been a software developer since the late 1970s, during that time having been involved in projects and products ranging from industrial process control, 3-D motion capture, network infrastructure, home automation, semantic web technologies and research data curation. He has also been involved in the development of IETF and Web standards. More recently, he has been pursuing a personal interest in 3D printing - which neatly complements his earlier work in motion capture - and has constructed a RepRap machine (which he hopes to use for making specialist parts for model aircraft) and has been learning a little about 3-D parametric CAD. As a member of the pif3D project, David Flanders helps coordinate the parts, materials, tools and skill required for people to build their own 3D printers. This is all done for free, so long as you promise to help someone else build their own printer as well! David enjoys hacking code in his spare time and working on designing new 3D models, currently he is working on prototype 3D models for: a rollerblade frame (for off road inline skating), a flowerpot that has a water reservoir (so it doesn't dry out when you are on holiday or forget to water it) and lighting fixtures (including translucent lamp shades, candelabras and chandeliers). David's day job is working with technology innovation projects in Universities throughout the UK. - Building the Internet of Things with Nanode and Pachube In this workshop we will be given an introduction to Nanode, the low cost open source Arduino-like board that has built in web connectivity, and Pachube, the web-based service "built to manage the World's real-time data". Following which the workshop will split into two groups and build a real world IoT application for the Centre for Creative Collaboration. With one group focusing on Nanode development and the other using Pachube to develop the online part of the application. Ken Boak joined BBC Research Department after graduating and worked on digital picture processing of HDTV images, and coding algorithms for video distribution around studios. Since then, Ken has worked in laboratory instrumentation, telecommunications, low power wireless and consumer electronics produced in the Far East. With an interest in renewables, Ken now develops laboratory instruments to teach undergraduates the principles of photovoltaic and wind power. Outside of work, Ken is interested in smart wireless sensors, open source hardware and low cost solutions for the Internet of Things. Paul Tanner is a consultant, developer and maker in wood, metal, plastic, electronics and software. His day job is IT-based business improvement for SMEs. By night he turns energy nut, creating tools to optimise energy use. Paul graduated in electronics and was responsible for hardware and software product development and customer services in several product and service start-ups, switching to consulting in 2000. - Collaboration in Open Source Hardware Whilst the development practices associated with open source software are now reasonably mature and understood by many, the same cannot be said of open source hardware and with it come specific challenges. For example, in terms of collaboration across design tools, managing contributions, licensing and project presentation. In this workshop we will be given an introduction to Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools and the process of documenting a project, licensing and other challenges, before looking at the current options available for presentation and collaboration. Further details TBD. Paul Downey is a doodler, a maker and a veteran communications software developer. He has been hacking embedded systems since the late 1970s. Formerly BT's Chief Web Services Architect, and lead W3C representative, he was until recently a member of Osmosoft — a small team building open source Web collaboration systems. Paul is co-founder of SolderPad, a place to share, discover and collaborate on electronic projects. Andrew Back is an artist, electronics hacker and open source advocate. He acted as BT's Open Source Strategist, establishing company-wide open source policy and process and representing them at a number of bodies including The Linux Foundation and ATIS. Andrew co-founded the Electron Club in 2006 — one of the UK's first hackerspaces, and is co-founder of SolderPad, a place to share, discover and collaborate on electronic projects. Note: * Please aim to arrive for 09:30-09:45 as the event will start at 10:00 prompt. * A light lunch and refreshments will be provided. Please ensure that you make any dietary requirements clear when registering. // With thanks to sponsor DesignSpark — http://www.designspark.com //

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oshug November 2011