The web & broadcasting blog

• MPs, step away from the internet [Charles Arthur - Comment is free]
• Music beta and linked data [BBC Radio Labs]
• Gears, BrowserPlus, and Web 3.0, baby [Yahoo Developer Network blog]
• Things to consider when using WordPress as a CMS [Devlounge]
• Oh happy day - the new Delicious is here [Delicious blog]
• Londoners not paying for Oyster Card failures [Going Underground's Blog]

• Ofcom leak shakes staff confidence [BECTU]
• Ofcom’s blueprint leaked [Media Guardian]
• My show-stopping session at WordCamp [Puffbox]
• Know exactly where you stand in the world [Media Guardian]
• Beyond REST? Building data services with XMPP PubSub [Anarchogeek]

• Lost tapes of the Dr Who composer [BBC News]
• Announcing the Open Web Foundation [Open Web Foundation]
• Twitter searches for the next step [Technology Guardian]
• Wider, bigger, better [BBC Radio Labs]
• If you want to repeat Apollo, do it right [New Scientist Space Blog]

• Startup ideas we’d like to fund [Y Combinator]
• How much money does the BBC need? [Media Guardian]
• Careful language is central to our technology [Inside guardian.co.uk]
• The biggest barrier to accessibility and inclusive design is us [Chris Heilmann]
• Why bother writing an article at all? Why not just scan in a few naked photos and have done with it? [Charlie Brooker - Comment is free]

One of the action points from this weekend’s WordCamp UK 2008 was to look at forming local WordPress groups.

These will allow regular meetups of WordPress users across the country.

Four groups are currently under discussion:

• WordPress UK London
• WordPress UK Midlands
• WordPress UK North
• WordPress UK South West

Follow the appropriate link for your area if you’re interested in getting involved.

If you’re not covered by these areas, join the WordCamp UK mailing list to propose a new group.

Local groups are one of a number of WordCamp UK initiatives to build a strengthened WordPress community in the light of its increasingly high profile use as a general web platform, such as the next version of the Number 10 Downing Street site.

Today is the last day to buy tickets for WordCamp UK 2008.

Admission to the event, to be held 19-20 July 2008 in Birmingham, is only by tickets purchased online.

I’ll be making the epic journey from West London to Birmingham later today by National Express Coaches.

I’m looking forward to meeting those with whom I’ve corresponded on the event mailing list, as well as participating in the range of sessions scheduled over the weekend.

Those of us involved in organising the event have already been tentatively looking ahead to 2009.

If this weekend goes well, and all the signs indicate it will, WordCamp UK is likely to become an annual gathering, probably at a different location each year.

• New findings show diverse, wet environments on ancient Mars [SpaceRef]
• 30+ must-have updated Firefox 3 extensions [Mashable]
• 30 year railway strategy lasts just one year [Christian Wolmar]
• Full steam again [Guardian]
• Our electric future [The American]
• Nick Cave: part of me is screaming to get out [Telegraph.co.uk]

• Oyster Card failure recovery [Going Underground's Blog]
• Maybe normalizing isn’t normal [Jeff Atwood]
• European Directive on Public Sector Information [Power of Information Task Force]
• Smart CSS ain’t always sexy CSS [Digital Web Magazine]
• Sound and vision [Jeremy Keith]