Category: alt.net.uk

As mentioned in the last post, our initial batch of tickets sold out. Next round will be available on the 10th of November at 12.30pm (lunch time!).

Registration at:

http://www.eventbrite.com/event/1014272717

Update: Registration is now open

I’m happy to say that another Alt.Net.UK will be happening this month on the 19th20th of November. Thoughtworks UK have kindly agreed to host the event at their offices.

An initial batch of tickets will be available from 1pm today.

Registration:
http://www.eventbrite.com/event/1014272717

I’ll blog again when the next batch of tickets are available.

Last week Richard Fennell sent through details about an Alt.Net Open Space Conference he has helped organise in Bradford on 17th/18th April 2009.

The event will be hosted by Black Marble at their office in Bradford, West Yorkshire, and there will be space for 50 attendees. The format will be the same as previous UK Alt.net conferences.

• A planning session on Friday the 17th April from 7pm to 8:30pm, followed by a trip to a bar to socialise
• The open spaces sessions from 9am to 4:30pm on Saturday 18th April.

Registration opens at noon today so if this is something you are interested in find out more at http://www.altdotnetuknorth.info

This weekend was the Alt.Net.UK conference. Personally, I had a great time, met some great people and had some great conversations.  However, one thing which surprised me was the level of automation and testing topics. While I proposed a few sessions on testing (as I would), other people raised great discussions around this area.  To my surprise, they wasn’t just TDDBDD but focused more on Acceptance Testing and how we can improve the quality of software. This is something I wasn’t expecting and I think its a sign of things to come with developers and testers working as a single unit.

The discussions has definitely got me thinking, and hopefully others who attended.  There are clear issues within software development which are causing pain, the question is – how do we solve these problems?

Thank you to everyone who attended, without you the conference wouldn’t have worked, and also our great sponsors. While, I felt it was a successful conference, there is still room for improvements which we will take into account next time.

If you want to know more about Alt.Net and some of the topics, a good starting point is the Foundations of Programming e-book.

We have just opened registration for the Alt.Net.UK Summer Conference. To register visit http://altdotnet.org/events/5 . Once the registration is full, you will be able to join the waiting list incase of cancellations.

If you have any problems or questions, please let me know – either leave a comment or email me at Blog {at} Ben Hall . me . uk

The plan is host the event at Conway Hall in London and our thinking is to follow the same sort of schedule as we did in February:
– Evening planning session on Friday 12th September, following by a trip to a bar to socialise.
– The Open Spaces sessions all day on Saturday 13th September

For more information take a look at my previous announcement and the Alt.Net.UK website.  Details regarding hotels and bars will be made available at a later point.

What is the conference format?

The conference will be based on the open spaces format.

Whoever shows up is the right group. Whatever happens is the only thing that could have. Whenever it starts is the right time. When it’s over, it’s over.  An Open Space conference’s agenda is decided upon by the conference participants during the opening of the event.

What is Alt.Net?

Various blog posts have defined Alt.Net.  Term originally coined by David Laribee on his blog.

Who are the organisers?

Ian Cooper, Alan Dean and Ben Hall.  Conchango and Red Gate are also providing support.  

We are pleased to announce that the Alt.Net UK Conference will be returning in September, and that there will be room for more attendees this time!

The plan is host the event at Conway Hall in London [1] and our thinking is to follow the same sort of schedule as we did in February:
– Evening planning session on Friday 12th September, following by a trip to a bar to socialise.
– The Open Spaces sessions all day on Saturday 13th September

This time we are thinking of starting off Saturday with a Park Bench to get the juices flowing.

We are very open to listening to feedback from the community if you think that there are ways that we can improve on the conference experience.

We would especially like to have more testers, technical authors and usability folk attend to foster cross-pollination of ideas.

User registration will start from Friday 11th July at 07:00 UK time [2] so the early birds will get the worm!

The following social hubs have also been set up: Upcoming [3], Facebook [4], FriendFeed [5] and LinkedIn. Don’t forget that you can subscribe to the AltNetUk News River [6].

Finally, we are currently looking for sponsorship, so if you know of an organisation that would be interested to be associated with the conference in return for a little lucre, we would love to hear from you / them! (The conference is non-profit)

Conchango and RedGate have generously agreed to be launch sponsors – but more is needed, especially as we have to pay for Conway Hall this time.

[1] http://www.conwayhall.org.uk/

[2] http://altdotnet.org/events/5

[3] http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/867921/

[4] http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=31833353320

[5] http://friendfeed.com/rooms/altnetuk-conference

[6] http://newsriver.altnetuk.com/

Regards,
Ian Cooper, Ben Hall and Alan Dean

SerialSeb, one of the attendees at Alt.Net.UK conference earlier in the year, is arranging a few drinks in a London bar (to be announced via upcoming link) as a chance to catch up, meet and have an informal chat (no sessions or anything like that) with people who are interested in the alt.net ideas.  Should be a great way to unwind after a hard days work.

More information on his post – http://serialseb.blogspot.com/2008/04/announcing-altnet-london-beers-event.html

I’m planning to attend and it would be a great chance to catch up with everyone again.  I look forward to seeing you there.