I participated in the 2013 UKGovcamp at IBM’s South Bank building on Saturday 9 March 2013.

It was the usual surprising, inspiring, bustling, informative, argumentative and lively mix built on Open Space principles.

Amongst the sessions I took part in where:

• Intersection of open innovation and open government – led by Esko Reinikainen this session looked at the various barriers to change within government structures, including how information can be lost by the lack of knowledge bases.
• Is digital changing the nature of communications? – led by Anne McCrossan this discussion examined issues raised by the digital first policy, including how to effectively communicate with those not online and how to bring them into the tent – which touched in wider points such as education.
• Open government and the national action plan – led by Tim Davies the session looked at the Open Government Partnership, which was very interesting, since I was not aware of the organisation’s existence beforehand!

Afterwards, the world was fully put to rights at the post events drinks in Doggetts.

All in all, another excellent UKGovcamp – many thanks to Dave Briggs and Steph Gray for organising the day and the sponsors for their support.

I attended BVE 2013, the annual broadcast and production technology trade show, on Wednesday 27 February 2013, at ExCel London.

Plenty of equipment to see in the exhibition, but I did notice a number of the larger company stands weren’t quite of the size as previous years.

It was interesting to note the increased number of small UAVs on display at the show, all various forms of remotely controlled helicopter used for mounting camera and sound equipment.

At the end of the afternoon I caught Orange Coconut‘s Gary Hewson giving a presentation on understanding codec compatibility: making the right choice for editing and delivery.

After the exhibition I went to the BECTU BVE 2013 social, jointly organised by the union’s Young Members Forum and London Production Division, during which plenty of ale and other beverages where consumed in a networking environment (full disclosure: I was involved in organising the social!).

I went to meeting number 20 of the WordPress London local group on Thursday 21 February 2013, held at the Google Campus.

Two presentations were made at the meeting:

• Siobhan McKeown gave a talk on how you can contribute to WordPress.
• Luke Williams gave a presentation on embracing the Customizer (example from presentation).

Salutations to WordPress.com for sponsoring the drinks and pizza.

Afterwards it was beers at the nearby Masque Haunt.

WordPress London meets on a monthly basis – many thanks to Keith for organising the gathering.

If you’re not based in London, see if there’s a WordPress local group near you on the WPUK wiki.

Charles Street, Manchester, at 1552 on 25 May 2012.

I went to meeting number 19 of the WordPress London local group on Thursday 17 January 2013, held at the Google Campus.

Two presentations were made at the meeting:

• Laura Kalbag gave a talk on designing WordPress admin icons, which included Laura producing a new icon live!
• John Graham-Cumming gave a presentation on accelerating WordPress sites with CloudFlare (who sponsored the evening through beer and pizza!)

After the meeting it was drinks at the nearby Masque Haunt.

WordPress London meets on a monthly basis – many thanks to Keith for organising the gathering.

If you’re not based in London, see if there’s a WordPress local group near you on the WPUK wiki.

Happy birthday, BBC Radio, which was 90 years old on 14 November 2012.

I attended the annual Wetherspoon 2012 Autumn Real Ale Festival at various JDW establishments across London.

The Festival, which ran 24 October to 11 November 2012, featured 50 real ales and 10 ciders.

I went to the Wetherspoon Autumn 2012 Real Ale and Cider Festival

I attended the Wetherspoon 2012 Autumn Real Ale and Cider Festival which ran 5 to 23 October 2011 and featured 50 real ales and 10 ciders.

I’ve detailed the drinks I sampled at various different JDW pubs during the festival, with marks out of ten.

The festival included ales by international brewers but specially brewed in the UK for the event, shown by [international special], and occasionally brewed beers [occasional].

Here’s the beers I sampled during the festival, along with marks out of ten and a brief comment:

• Banks Brewery Howling Wolf – 7/10 woody
• Cambridge Brewing Company Haether Ale [United States] [international special] – 8.25/10 light and pleasant
• Cotleigh Brewery Kookaburra [occasional] – 7.75/10 leaves falling
• Everards Brewery Terra Firma [occasional] – 8.25/10 vigarous
• Feral Brewing Company Australian IPA [Australia] [international special] – 8.5/10 refreshing
• Svyturys Brewery Baltijos Red Ale [Lithuania] [international special] – 8.1/10 nutty
• Brouwerij’t IJ Ijbok [Holland] [international special] – 8/10 refreshing and light
• Freeminer Brewery Deep Shaft – 8/10 dark and tasty

Full details are given in the festival tasting notes [2.9MB PDF].

The wide-ranging UK Government Digital Strategy has been issued – Tom Loosemore, Deputy Director at UK Government Digital Service, explains how the strategy was written.

An important element of the strategy is the work currently being undertaken to bring together currently disparate government websites into the integrated GOV.UK.

According to Simon Dickson, this isn’t the first time this has been attempted.