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This blog, as you’ve probably noticed, is no longer actively maintained. For information about past and future Geek Nights, go have a look over at the Cambridge Geek Nights site.

CGN #8

CGN #8 will be taking place on 14th February, with talks beginning at 7:30pm (arrive from 7 to enjoy the bar tab generously provided once again by the Guardian Open Platform).

We are again at The Cambridge Union (9a Bridge Street, Cambridge).

Our speakers for this event will be:

• Rufus Pollock from the Open Knowledge Foundation, speaking about Digging into Data with CKAN and datapkg
• John Souter speaking on London Internet Exchange

Even though it’s Valentine’s day we hope to see all of you on the 14th for beer and good company!

CGN #7

CGN#7 will be held at 7:30pm on Monday 13th December (arrive from 7pm to take advantage of the bar tab, sponsored by Pepsmedia).

We are once again at The Cambridge Union (9a Bridge Street, Cambridge).

Details for CGN #7
This month we have 2 main speakers:

• Michael Brunton-Spall will be speaking about Git
• Artur Ortega will be giving a talk on Modern Accessibility

We will also have a couple of lightning talks.

Looking forward to seeing you all on Monday!

CGN #6

CGN#6 will be held at 7:30pm on Monday 8th November (arrive from 7pm to take advantage of the bar tab, sponsored by Cambridge Consultants).

We are once again at The Cambridge Union (9a Bridge Street, Cambridge).

Details for 8th November
This month we have 2 main speakers:

• Richard Pope will be speaking about ScraperWiki.com
• After a postponement from speaking at CGN#5, Vero Pepperrell will tell the story of Alfred (http://alfredapp.com), a Mac productivity app launched in March, sharing some observations on how the community has grown & how you might apply this to your own project or app.

As we only have 2 main speakers this month we’re looking for some of you to get involved by giving lightning talks. We already have one confirmed from our sponsor, Cambridge Consultants, but need approx 3 more.

This month we will be implementing a fixed time limit of 5 minutes on all lightning talks. If you would like to nominate yourself, either for the November event or any future event, please send an e-mail detailing the topic of your talk to mail@cambridgegeeknights.net – we look forward to hearing from you.

So join us on the 8th November for CGN#6!

CGN #5

CGN#5 will be held at 7:30pm on Tuesday 28th September (arrive 7pm for drinks etc).

We are once again at The Cambridge Union (9a Bridge Street, Cambridge).

Details for 28th September

• This month, Martin Kleppmann, fresh off a plane from San Francisco, will be talking about Rapportive (http://rapportive.com), the browser add-on that tries to make your email inbox a better place.
• Vero Pepperrell will tell the story of Alfred (http://alfredapp.com), a Mac productivity app launched in March, sharing some observations on how the community has grown & how you might apply this to your own project or app.
• Lisa Evans from the Open Knowledge Foundation (http://www.okfn.org) will be talking about “Where Does My Money Go?”, and on using technology to visualise and explore Government data.

We’ll also have a couple of lightning talks from ideaSpace, a new coworking space in Cambridge University’s Hauser Forum, as well as this month’s generous sponsors from Red Gate, who will be speaking about the current employment opportunities within the company.

Looking forward to seeing you all on 28th!

Cambridge Geek Night #4

After a short break, Cambridge Geek Nights are back! Our next gathering will be on 3rd August 2010 at 7pm with talks starting at 7:30pm.
CGN4 is being sponsored by the lovely people at The Guardian Open Platform.

We have a new venue at The Cambridge Union (9a Bridge Street, Cambridge) and a new meeting date on a Tuesday rather than Wednesday.

Details for 3rd August
Our speakers are now confirmed and are:

• Martin Lucas-Smith from Cyclestreets: Bicycle journey planning using open data
• Nathan Matias: Instrumenting and performance testing multi-user web apps.

Looking forward to seeing you all there on the 3rd!

Cambridge Geek Night #3 Tonight – September 9th!

It’s been a mere six weeks since the last Cambridge Geek Night, and tonight it’s time for another. It’s in the same place as last time – The Maypole – so it should be nice and easy for you all to find. Here’s a map anyway though, just in case you haven’t been before.

This time Neil Crosby (that’s me) will be talking about Yahoo! Pipes, and how easy it is to mix, munge and mash data with it, and Richard Pope will be talking about his adventures in freeing the postcode. We’ll be kicking off the talks from about 7:30.

As is now customary, there’ll be a tab at the bar – this time from a super secret anonymous philanthropist who wishes to make geeks happy whilst staying out of the limelight like a shadowy Santa Claus.

There’s also going to be an initial planning session for a future BarCamp Cambridge – if you’re interested, turn up at 6:15 and join the discussion!

Looking forward to seeing you all there tonight. 🙂

Cambridge Geek Night #2 Wrap Up

Thanks to everyone who came along to the second Cambridge Geek Night last week!

Here are the slides from all presentations:

• Richard Boulton on Xapian open source search engine
• Patrick Farrant & Drew Winlaw on Intellectual Property
• Michael Brunton-Spall on the Guardian’s API & the MP’s Expenses Crowdsourcing tool

As I mentioned, we’ll also be highlighting some local events every time we meet, so that you can keep yourselves busy in between Geek Nights.

• I’ll be running workshops in Cambridge on “Blogs & Social Media in Business” to which CGN attendees & their colleagues can get a £50 discount by mentioning CGN in their registration. Cambridge sessions will run on 8th September and 20th October.
• Helen Goldrein also mentioned the Cambridge Enterprise Conference on 23rd September, with a reduced rate of £50 when mentioning CGN on registration.

More events to recommend? Let us know and we’ll share them with the other attendees.

And finally, we’ve created a mini-survey to get your opinion on the event, so please spend 30 seconds completing it to help us make Geek Nights a better event!

See you September 9th at the next Cambridge Geek Night.

– Vero Pepperrell

CGN2: This Wednesday @ The Maypole

Happy Monday, hope the weekend was good to you all.

Just a brief reminder that we’re meeting on Wednesday for the second Cambridge Geek Night. This month, the evening is sponsored by the kind folks at The Guardian’s Open Platform.

The speakers are:

• Richard Boulton: Xapian, the open source search engine
• Patrick Farrant from Taylor Vinters solicitors: Legal aspects of entrepreneurship and protecting creative ideas
• Michael Brunton-Spall from the Guardian: The MPs expenses crowdsourcing app and the Guardian API

We’re meeting at the Maypole again, so here’s the map for you lazy sods who won’t look for it yourselves 😉

The beer tab will be open from 7pm onwards, so grab a beer and head upstairs, as we have the room reserved for the evening.

Looking forward to seeing you all on Wednesday evening!

CGN2: July 29th speakers announced

CGN 2 will be on 29th July, at the Maypole, the same location as last time. We’ll open the beer tab from 19:00 (or maybe a bit earlier!) and talks will begin at 19:30.

This month, our speakers are:

• Richard Boulton: Xapian, the open source search engine
• Patrick Farrant from Taylor Vinters solicitors: Legal aspects of entrepreneurship and protecting creative ideas
• Michael Brunton-Spall from the Guardian: The MPs expenses crowdsourcing app and the Guardian API

The Guardian (guardian.co.uk) have generously offered to sponsor the evening’s drinks, so be sure to catch them and say thanks during the evening.

Looking forward to seeing you all on 29th July!