• 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]

• Our YouTube privacy: a triumph for common sense [Guardian PDA]
• The latest on our audio improvements [BBC Radio Labs]
• Alpha: when beta is not good enough [Mashable]
• Is the iPhone killing terrestrial radio? [ReadWriteWeb]
• The sun sets on free speech [Jeff Jarvis]

• WordPress 2.6 [WordPress development blog]
• iPhone 3G: fail [James Cridland]
• Geeks make public presentations fun again [ReadWriteWeb]
• The Royal Mail PAF, that old chestnut [Rob Dunfey]
• An ESB for the Web? [O’Reilly Radar]
• Media 100 2008 [Guardian]

With less than a week to go, half the tickets for the UK’s first WordCamp have been sold.

The planning and organisation for the event has been run on open source lines, using a core combination of wiki and mailing list, leading to the active involvement of many volunteers.

In particular, from my point of view as WordCamp UK coordinator, the substantial work involved in organising the event has been spread amongst a number of mailing list subscribers.

This has been particularly useful in making arrangements for staging the WordCamp in Birmingham – even more useful when taking into account I’m based in London!

The running order is nearing its final version, and I’m not expecting further significant changes to be made.

Admission to WordCamp UK 2008 is only by tickets purchased online – so book now to ensure your place!