Even if you can’t join us for the full OTA11 event, you should definitely try to make it out to Bletchley Park for Friday evening, as we will be introducing an exciting new element to the programme:

Ignite is a global event, organized by volunteers, where participants are given five minutes to speak about their ideas and personal or professional passions, accompanied by 20 slides. Each slide is displayed for 15 seconds, and slides are automatically advanced. The Ignite format is similar to Pecha Kucha, which features 20 slides displayed for 20 seconds each. The presentations are meant to “ignite” the audience on a subject, i.e. to generate awareness and to stimulate thought and action on the subjects- Wikipedia

 

The event-within-an-event is being organised by Ignite Cardiff’s  very own Claire Scantlebury, and the submission form is still open for speakers to come along and volunteer to give a five minute talk. The rule is – you can’t talk about yourself or your job (so no blatant self-promotion is allowed) but if you’re passionate about something or want to talk about something cool and innovative then just fill in the form behind the link above and we’ll be in touch.

See you on Friday night!

Opening Speaker – Bill Thompson

We are thrilled to announce that our opening speaker is Bill Thompson of the BBC, who will be taking a philosophical look at the way the proliferation of online and mobile has changed society and will introduce the Digital Public Space as a concept which will potentially change the landscape of society and the internet.

New media pioneer Bill Thompson is a journalist, commentator and technology critic based in Cambridge, England. He has been working in, on and around the Internet since 1984. He contributes to other publications both on and off-line, including The Guardian and The New Statesman. He writes a monthly column for new net users for BBC WebWise, and a technology column for Focus magazine

Bill appears weekly on ‘Click‘ (formerly ‘Digital Planet’ and ‘Go Digital’) on the BBC World Service and occasionally on other BBC radio and television programmes. You can find him online, working in one of Cambridge’s many cafés, or at the bar of the ICA.

http://www.andfinally.com/

http://twitter.com/#!/billt

Ewan Spence

Ewan  is known for his strong views on mobile technology and ensuring assessibility to it all; a love of trivia; the new media landscape on the internet; the effect technology and communication will have on the public conscious and existing businesses.

He has been active in this space for over ten years, working for a number of sites, publications and media companies, some for long periods of time, others for commissions, one-off pieces or a series of articles or shows.

As Scotland’s first podcaster, he’s been a prominent voice in the rise of podcasting and new media online, picking up a BAFTA nomination for my coverage of the Edinburgh Fringe along the way.

At Ignite Bletchley Park, Ewan will be talking about ‘Everything I ever needed to know about European politics I learned from the Eurovision Song Contest’

www.ewanspence.com
http://twitter.com/#!/ewan

Alistair MacDonald

Alistair is a self-confessed geek with a fascination for transport. By trade he is a real-time software developer and radio travel presenter, two completely different skills that often get mixed up in his “pet projects”. Currently Alistair is working with the start-up Usable HQ Ltd.

At Ignite Bletchley Park, Alistair will be talking about ‘The Metro Simulator. Simulating a light transport system on a web server’

http://www.agm.me.uk/blog
http://twitter.com/#!/alistair

Terence Eden

Terence Eden has been working on the mobile Internet since long before it was fashionable. He consults on QR codes, mobile strategy, and mobile security matters.

His work has featured in Wired, The Guardian, The Register, and Now Celebrity Weddings.

At Ignite Bletchley Park, Terence will be talking about ‘QRpedia – linking museums and Wikipedia with QR codes’.

http://shkspr.mobi/blog/
http://twitter.com/#!/edent

 

James Hugman

James is a geek living in Brighton. Despite being on the internet since 1991, he doesn’t have a tan, and is not an anarchist. At Ignite Bletchlye Park, James will be talking about ‘The Technologies of a Modern Revolution’.

http://hugman.posterous.com
www.twitter.com/jhugman

Chris Monk

Chris is a carer, educationalist, once a teacher and now volunteer at The National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park.  He is keen to encourage young people to learn about computing and whenever possible to get them to experience learning outside the classroom.

At Ignite Bletchley Park, Chris will be talking about ‘Kids can’t code’ and has asked that you show your support for the National Museum of Computing by tweeting using #tnmoc.

www.tnmoc.org
www.twitter.com/ChrisMonk_oo

 

Dr Alex Blewitt

Dr Alex Blewitt is passionate supporter of both OSGi and Eclipse, having first been introduced before the release of Eclipse 1.0, and getting involved in the open-source project just before the OSGitransition happened with the release of Eclipse 3.0. He was nominated (and a top three finalist) for Eclipse Ambassador in 2007, as recognition of his contributions as chief editorEclipseZone.

Alex spent many years working with Java, having founded International Object Solutions Limited in 1997, just after Java 1.1 was released. Now he spends his time development on mobile platforms at Bandlem Limited, which he founded in 2010. Alex currently writes for InfoQ covering both OSGi and Eclipse, and continues to develop modular applications in his spare time. His ObjectivEClipseproject was used as the basis for the Sony Snap Developer IDE, and many are using the ZFS port on OSX, which he maintains. In what little time he has left over, he spends with his young family and has been known to take them flying if the weather’s nice.

At Ignite Bletchley Park, Alex will be talking about ‘Git and Gerrit for Distributed Code Review’.

http://alblue.bandlem.com
www.twitter.com/alblue

Imran Ghory

Imran used to work in the city figuring out how currencies worked, until he discovered that it was much more fun to make up your own job. He now focuses full-time on geeky side-projects, drawing a web-comic and blogging. He accidentally built up expertise in the startup world so occasionally does consultancy and lecturing in the field.

At Ignite Bletchley Park, Imran Will be talking about ‘Cracking Cryptics’.

http://www.imranghory.org
www.twitter.com/imranghory