I took part in the London public sector rally on 30 November 2011.

Pictured is the BECTU banner.

I went to the annual BECTU London Freelances’ Fair 2011 on Friday 17 June 2011 at Savoy Place.

In the morning I went to The Freelance Toolkit Workshop – an extremely informative and useful session run by David Thomas.

After a peruse around the fair exhibition area (pictured), I participated in two seminars in the afternoon: the first on using DSLR cameras to make film and television programmes (not convinced, to say the least!) and the second on pitching programme ideas (a sort of role playing exercise – very interesting).

This year saw a significant increase in attendence compared to last year – many thanks to BECTU’s Writers Producers and Directors Branch for organising the event and to the sponsors for their support.

I attended the launch of the Lost Arts campaign in Westminster on Wednesday 15 June 2011.

The campaign includes a website that will record all the arts-related events, projects and organisations that will be closed due to cuts in public funding; including a running total of money lost to the arts and the resultant negative impact on the economy.

I’ve just launched the BECTU May 2011 London Production Division social networking evening site.

I put together this simple one page site in less than a day – made possible by the flexibility and efficiency of WordPress.

I joined the BECTU contingent on the TUC March for the Alternative on Saturday 26 March 2011.

We were joined by more than quater of a million protesters on the march from Embankment to Hyde Park.

Below Yvonne does a sterling job carrying her placard on the march.

The scene at 1512 in Hyde Park when I arrived.

The Netroots UK conference, held on Saturday 8 January 2011, was an interesting day, consisting of plenary and workshops sessions.

The only disappointing element was the final plenary session, which, I think, should have pulled together the various elements of the day and outlined a common way forward. Instead a rather rambling session seemed to fizzle out and merge into the post event social.

However, still looking forward to the second Netroots UK.

My new site for Christine Bond has recently been launched.

The site is for Christine’s campaign in the BECTU NEC and President elections.

I used WordPress to build the site (of course!), giving a great deal of flexibility to quickly react to developments in the election campaigns in the next few weeks.

Christine, coming from a photography background, was detailed in her design brief, and hopefully I’ve brought her ideas to life on the web.

Good luck to Christine in the elections!

• Warning to copyright enforcers: Three strikes and you’re out [Guardian]
• Hackers fan the flames of imagination at Mashed [Guardian]
• London SearchMonkey Developer Evening a great success [Yahoo Developer Network blog]
• Firefox download record official [BBC]
• The machine that copies itself [Guardian]
• Merger forms transatlantic union [BBC]

Went to the BECTU London Freelances’ Fair 2008 last Friday at BAFTA Piccadilly.

This is the third year of the Fair, and attendance appeared to surpass last year.

Informative stalls were complemented by a range of seminars and workshops.

At one of the seminars, Dean Whitbread, Chair of the UK Podcasters’ Association, spoke on the exploiting the digital future panel.

Following a quick apparatif of Timothy Taylor’s Landlord at the nearby Red Lion, I returned to the BAFTA bar for a lively discussion with event organisors from BECTU’s Writers Producers and Directors Branch.

• Phoenix Mars Lander delivers soil sample to microscope [NASA]
• Yahoo! succumbs to the power of Google [Observer]
• I’m searching for Google alternatives [Guardian]
• Semantic web – why bother? [Tom Scott]
• How to publish linked data on the web [Freie Universität Berlin]
• BECTU’s response to PSB review [BECTU]