EdTechUK

Intro to Open Source

"Perhaps you have already heard about open source software and you can't quite believe that it offers a way to use software for free. Perhaps you have heard that open source is a movement espoused by men (and some women!) sporting beards and sandals. Perhaps you have simply no idea what it is and you want to find out more. Whatever your motivations, it's always a good time to start learning about free and open source software."

Although I'm not a man, sporting a beard or wearing sandals, I still felt inclined to point you all in the direction of the latest resource from OSS Watch, the open source advisory service: Open Source for Absolute Beginners. And for those of you already hungry for more advanced information, check out the OSS Watch teams top web resource picks.

East Midlands 2.0

There are a whole bunch of things going on across the East Midlands region digital media businesses and freelances in the East Midlands and beyond right now:

R&D Innovation Schemes

Get paid to innovate with digital media with Melt
Melt have launched their £50,000 R&D fund - blue sky thinkers in film, tv, games, theatre, music and digital media are sought to join with South Yorkshire practitioners to develop innovative digital media products.

Emerging Technologies and Creative Industries - A Vision for the Future
June 23rd 2006- Leicester Marriott Hotel - A one-day conference that looks at the impact of emerging technologies and creative industries on regional development.

Open Workshop on Creative Writing & New Media at De Montfort University (DMU)
Narrative Lab is hosting this workshop taking place on Friday 23 June, which marks an important moment in the history of writing and new media.

Nottingham agency maps an interactive future on BBC’s Springwatch
Award-winning interactive mapping technology developed by Internova, leading East Midlands interactive agency based in Nottingham, is currently featured on BBC2’s Springwatch with Bill Oddie website and television project.

EM Media - Investing in the East Midlands
EM Media has recently secured £6 million of finance from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) to invest in East Midlands film and media. DOWNLOADS AVAILABLE: Business Plan, Action Plan and Treatment.

Tender opportunity: Digital Distribution Consultant
Consultant needed for UK Film Council partners’ Digital Distribution Network Strategy Paper

If you're based in the East Midlands , sign up for EM Media’s monthly e-newsletter list for news in games, tv, film and interactive media in the East Midlands. Send a blank email to:

Emmedia-film@aweber.com

blog.ac.uk - the consequences

Well - last Friday certainly was a blast.

Even though the day panned out well - better than could have reasonably been expected - it was extremely frantic for me. One of the things that kept me sane through the whole process something Stephen Downes said at last years International Edublog Awards: While Dave Cormier carried out the thankless task of identifying the years top ten edublog stories, Stephen  suggested that the number one story should actually be the way that edublogging individuals had become an actual community - not in any abstract sense but in the very real, public, and meaningful way that people had reached across the globe to one another to share work, ideas, problems and aspirations.

This model of practice was very much what inspired and enabled last Fridays event to go ahead. So in addition to the delegates, facilitators, and to Stephen and Barbara, I very much need to extend my gratitude to the international community of edubloggers who have been so generous with their time, ideas, arguments and selves. A special shout out must go to James Farmer, who was very much at last Fridays event, in terms of inspiration and gossip (shh!!!).

I couldn't blog on the day, so I'm throwing in a Q & A I did for Stephen O'Hear after the jump.

Your site as a graph

http://fraser.typepad.com/edtechuk from http://www.aharef.info/static/htmlgraph/