Since my last life update, lots has changed...

Over the last six months I've been really involved in lots of stuff:

• I got a new Desktop Computer (four core AMD @ 2.6Ghz, 8GB RAM)
• I organised DFEY to visit and stay overnight in London for Young Rewired State
• My time as contracted systems administrator for the BBC was extended until early February.
• I videoed a lot of sailing and windsurfing at Glossop Sailing Club
• I moved out, I now live in the Peter's Fields area of central Manchester, Close to Gmex & Deansgate Locks.
• I went to a multitude of awesome Barcamps - Brighton, Bath, Blackpool.
• Working with Samantha Bail, I helped put in a bid to Becta to build an informal learning platform with free software.
• I went and saw geek-rock legend "Jonathan Coulton" and Gypsy-Folk-Ska-Dance crew "3 Daft Monkeys" live at Manchester Academy
• I attended and filmed the legendary WLYC Southport 24 Hour sailing race, but did not participate.
• I helped organise Barcamp Manchester 2, with Ian Forrester & Andrew Disley.
• I gave a talk at WYLUG and Oggcamp on "Engaging young people in technology"
• I started my own Creative Commons and independent music podcast, (Dobbo's) "Mashup".
• I started work on super secret project one
• I launched Pokebook, a webapp guaranteed to become more popular than Facebook or be bought by Google by Q1 2010.
• I got a new phone for my birthday - a Nokia N900
• I spent time in Glossop with friends and family over Christmas & New Year
• I attended Northern Digitals and CING for the first time.

What's on the cards?

BUPA 10KM Run

Somehow, my colleagues at DMC managed to talk me into doing the Manchester Great Run. I'm not quite sure how they managed to get me to think it's a good idea; it's a 10km street race round Manchester.
I've never been someone who was good at running, I've never enjoyed it; I've never wanted to enjoy it. I have, however, been one of those who perceivers.

I remember back in the old days at High School, being told by the PE teacher that my aim, was to finish the 1800m run without dropping to a walk. I was undoubtedly one of the slowest runners and least fit people in the group. I remember as I jogged round the grass track, in the blazing sunlight, passing people who could surely do it as well, but simply weren't going to try as hard as I was. I finished the run in a painfully long space of time, but was congratulated for trying, not giving up and making it to the finish.

This is my aim for the BUPA 10km. Finish the race, without dropping to a walk, ideally as fast as I can.

I'll be training 2-3 times a week from January until May, and that, hopefully, should bring me up to an adequate level

I think I'll be running for charity, specifically for the digital rights experts - The Open Rights Group - I really support what they are doing, I can see with my own eyes the difference they make and so they have a personal connection for me. I hope you'll consider sponsoring me on their behalf.

FOSDEM

I really enjoyed visiting FOSDEM (Free and Opensource Software Developers Europe Meetings in Brussels, Belgium, last February, even despite losing a borrowed laptop I'd taken there.

Last year, I had a cracking time.

At the Friday night beer event, I sampled the famous (and rather tasty) Belgian beers, happened to meet Russel Bryant from Digium and OEJ, another famous Asterisk developer. I also managed lose my bag containing my (brother in law's) laptop and the subsequent morning developed an enviable hangover!

That however didn't stop me enjoying the insightful and enjoying talks, and chatting with interesting people doing cool stuff.

On Saturday evening, a group of Italian Debian developers took me under their wing and later that evening, Steve MacIntyre and the #Debian-uk IRC channel introduced me to the game of Mao - much fun and many "rules" were broken.

I intend to go again, this year, it's on the 6th and 7th of February, again in Brussels as it is every year. I'm slightly panicky now because I have no valid passport or anything booked. eeeek!

A Real Holiday

I desperately need a "real" holiday. I guess I should carefully define what I mean by "real" because it's not quite so clear...

I need to go on holiday to somewhere but not because there is a tech event there so this does not count Barcamps/Conferences/etc.

I'm not that fussed about how relaxing per se it is by the traditional definition of the word. I don't think I'm like to go to the Canaries and lie on a beach for 7 days and do absolutely nothing. I think I'd get exceedingly bored bring my laptop onto the beach, which defeats the point and isn't what I want.

Tim being bored = Bad

One of the things I've been thinking about is going to one of the Sunsail Beach Clubs on the Mediterranean right at the beginning of the season (no need to ramp the price up more than necessary!). The idea of spending all day every day high performance sailing dinghies on a warm, tideless sea appeals to me, though perhaps it does also still feel a bit boring and unremarkable.

Another idea I've been thinking of is spending a week crewing on one of the tallships - old fashioned sailing vessels with squarecut rigs. I'm not sure about that, but it's still a possibility.

I've been scouring wikitravel for unique things to do, places to go but am yet to find something that really totally catches my eye.

Again, I'm looking for something enjoyable, exciting & different, not necessarily sunny, "relaxing" or easy going.

Anyone got any ideas?

Please leave a comment.

Many reading my blog will not have heard the name Richard Rothwell and thus will have very little idea of his significance in the early days of DFEY.

I first encountered Richard, like many others, via the Schoolforge-uk (SF-UK) mailing list, with his posts on free software and LTSP related subjects.

Ben Webb and I, on hearing he would be speaking at Manchester Free Software group in May 2008 about Sustainable Education Solutions, went along to see what we could gather.

As probably one of the only Manchester Free Software talks that was not been videoed (release of the videos is a separate issue!), it was a talk that I vividly remember regretting it was not being recorded mid-talk. I regret this to this day.

I am going to be speaking on Wednesday at the upcoming meeting of Liverpool LUG

"This month’s talk will be given by Tim Dobson from DFEY-NW. He will be talking about what "Digital Freedom in Education and Youth (DFEY)" is all about and how free software communities can engage with young people. He'll then open the floor to questions. This talk will be filmed and posted online under a Creative Commons Licence.

"Tim is an active member of the Manchester Free Software group and is well known at many other technical events. Having just finished his A levels, in his spare time, he enjoys dinghy sailing."

The meeting will be held on

Wednesday July 1, 2009 from 7:00pm - 8:00pm

at

Liverpool Social Centre
96 Bold Street
Liverpool, England L1 4HY

Moral support would really be appreciated!

This XKCD cartoon strangely captures essence of most of my complaints with the way ICT and technical subjects are taught in schools.

For me, it was a extensive number of weekends trying to make various different project work and multiple evenings getting to know the right people in the tech industry - thanks to the vibrant north west technical communities.

Please pass this on to anyone you think might be interested.

DFEY-NW (Digital Freedom in Education & Youth - North West) is a group focusing on young people and issues of freedom in the digital world, based in the Northwest of England at the moment.

When
  Saturday April 25th 2009 12:30pm -> ~4:00pm

Where
  BBC Manchester, New Broadcasting House, Oxford Road, Manchester, M60 1SJ
  Photo: http://tiny.pl/z7bf
  Map: http://tiny.pl/z7b1
  Nearest train station: Manchester Oxford Road (3 mins walking distance)

Attending?
  Due to BBC restrictions, you need to tell us: http://dfeynw4.eventbrite.com/
  or feel free to email us on team at nw.dfey.org to let us know you are coming...

Ubuntu 9.04 'Jaunty' Release Party
  The day before the meeting is the Ubuntu release party in Manchester.
  It looks like it's going to be a load of fun. Maybe see you there?
  Details: http://is.gd/sKLf

In case you need it, here's some contact information:
  Tim's mobile: 07922334403
  Email: team at nw.dfey.org

Everybody seems to be doing these things:

Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

1. I am very persistent and do my very best not to give up at things
2. I've been vegetarian since birth
3. I love sailing small, fast dinghies
4. If I'm not overworked with interesting things, I'm bored.
5. I have just back from FOSDEM which I loved
6. I have visible scars on my head from chicken pox which make me look like I was shot in the head by a shotgun or something
7. I have been interested in computers from the first moment I had access to one.
8. I have been really, really lucky in so many ways throughout my life so far
9. I hate chain mails and hype in general
10. I am very tired at this moment in time
11. I have only been to London once in my life - when I met Gordon Brown
12. I was involved in a Comenius Project with CAMSFC
13. I usually cook for myself at least once a day
14. I can waggle my ears
15. I like travelling to different places
16. I co-founded DFEY & DFEY-NW, I help organise Manchester Free Software Group and I sometimes attend Geekup and other techie groups
17. I snore like a warthog on steroids
18. My room is a comfortable mess, even though it is small.
19. I prefer being called "Tim" over any other derivatives of "Timothy"
20. I went to The Manchester Grammar School and don't like to admit it
21. I suffer from having significant groups of friends in wildly different social groups who won't get on in the slightest
22. Honesty means a lot to me
23. I have grown up completely through my life so far without having a TV in the house
24. I'm generally quite patient and calm with people
25. My favourite TV series at the moment are Skins, The IT Crowd, Dr. Who...

(Please forward this to anybody or any lists you think might be interested)

DFEY-NW (Digital Freedom in Education & Youth - North West) is a group focusing on young people and issues of freedom in the digital world, based in the Northwest of England at the moment.

In Brief

WHERE:

Meet near the strange phonemast-like sculpture thing outside Manchester OXFORD ROAD Station.

VENUE:

BBC Headquarters, Oxford Road, Manchester

I recently spotted a message to the BECTA Safetynet Mailing list from Miles Berry and Terry Freedman.
The message mentioned how they are doing a presentation at BETTS conference in January (apparently some big education conference thingy!) and since they are doing it on

What are your kids learning when you're not looking?

where they explore things young people learn using computers and IT outside the formal education sphere and activities widely recognised as being educationally beneficial.

To get some hard figures on this they set up a questionnaire for young people to fill asking them of their experiences of how they could and do use computer facilities at home and in educational establishments.

Due to my work with DFEY, I couldn't help but see the funny side of this, so I wrote these satiric HOWTOs: