4 Weeks, 2 IT Conferences- April’s going to be busy
DeveloperDeveloperDeveloper Belfast- 4th April
DeveloperDeveloperDeveloper! Day – Belfast- Saturday April 4th 2009! This FREE developer event brings DDD to Belfast! If you were unable to go to Microsoft TechEd, Microsoft PDC or conferences such as DevWeek, DDD is for you! There will be NO Microsoft speakers presenting, just speakers from the .NET developer community; although we will have many of the Irish Developer Platform Evangelists (DPEs) on hand to help out and chat to attendees.The day is put together by the community for the community, in other words you. We thank our sponsors who have helped make the event possible: Microsoft have graciously sponsored the event!
More information and registration at: http://www.developerdeveloperdeveloper.com/belfast
Agenda
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Barcamp- 25th April
BarCamp Belfast is a user-generated unconference for designers, developers, startups and geeks to share and learn in an open environment. It’s taking place on the 25th April 2009 in The Black Box, Belfast.
Speakers- More to come
Teens & T’Internet — How to understand and deal with Under 18s on the internet, how to market to them etc. (not to be taken seriously!)
— Enda Crowley (@endac)
What’s your phone number? — A talk about social networks, social engineering, simplicity, and grassroots action.
— Blaine Cook (@blaine)
Something about WordPress — Something about using WordPress 
— Lee Munroe (@leemunroe)
MySQL Replication — Scaling your app using MySQL replication for redundancy & capacity . Replication Topology, sever roles, hints, tricks, tips & gotchas.
— Simon McCartney (@simonmcc)
Niche Social Networks — How to Make Millions (or maybe just a living…) from a Niche Social Network.
— Michelle Gallen (@michellegallen)
Not sure yet — Probably my microcontroller modded, with wifi frankenstein coffee roaster
— Andrew Gribben (@grib)
MatchMedia — An insight into ‘The Digital Visualisation of Competitive Sport’ a product currently in development. Philip Wilson (the products inventor) will give a view of the product, the progress being made, the partners already involved and any potential collaboration opportunities.
— Philip Wilson (@internetsense)
Engaging In Social Media — How brands are using social media (in particular Bebo) to engage with their audience
— Philip Macartney (@fubar7676)
Competitive advantage and the web — How what makes companies is changing, and what this means for you!
— Paul McKeever (@paulmckeever)
Adventures in building a web app — Short talk on experiences building a real time Javascript app atop Google AppEngine, and/or focus on application performance and why it’s of prime importance.
— David Wilson
Educating Standards — Bootstrapping web design education for the benefits of the creative community by creatively colliding the ivory towers of academia with the messy trenches of industry.
— Christopher Murphy (@fehler)
More information and registration: http://www.barcampbelfast.com/
Portstewart in the sun
I was up at Ballyhome residential centre this weekend with the guys I went to South Africa with and we went for a stroll around Portstewart to clear our heads. It was bitterly cold but the sun was shinning and we got some cracker views around the cliff path looking onto the rocks below. Truly beautiful:
Opportunities
Looking back that fourteen year old doesn’t seem like me, so much has changed in my life and I find it hard to believe that the decision I took eleven years ago- to stay with a youth club, could have played such a major role in forming who I am today.
The leaders in Gateway became role models and mentors to me, encouraging me to try the unknown and to be just a little more daring than I naturally would have been. By doing this they increased my confidence and knowledge more than I will ever know.
My experience at Gateway has opened up many doors for me. Every job interview I have ever taken part in has raised my time at the club, always in a positive sense.
I was able to complete a youth work qualification that allows me to run any youth club in Northern Ireland (OCN lv2 & 3 in Youth Work and Programme Development) and while completing the course became involved in a project that saw me spend three weeks in Johannesburg learning how South African youth leaders work with young people. While there I also ended up on a local radio station talking about youth work and various aspects of Northern Ireland. It was a surreal experience to be talking about our small country to goodness knows how many people at the other end of a radio.
More recently I ended up on the BBC Community Bus website talking about my experiences within Gateway and how it has changed my life, prompting me to write this very post. It’s incredible how one thing can lead to another.
I wonder what opportunities this year will bring?
Beginnings
In November 1997 a shy fourteen year old girl noticed a poster in the corridor of her school advertising volunteer vacancies at a youth club for children with special needs. She was curious about the idea has she had never done anything like that before and with a friend agreed to go to a talk about the club. The day of the talk dawned bright and clear however the girl was too ill to go to school that day and missed the talk entirely. Fortunately her friend had gone and liked the idea of the club so they agreed to visit. The fates conspired on that day as well and the club was closed for Halloween. Not to give up though they agreed to try again the following week.
The next Saturday got off to a better start as the club was in full session when they arrived. They were introduced to the Leader in Charge of the day, Joe Burns, and were given a guided tour of the club. It all seemed like great fun with a social area, art and craft room, pool tables and a sports hall but slightly overwhelming as well as there was a lot of people in the club but everyone seemed really friendly. It was also the first time that anyone had shortened her name, she’d never been called Jackie before and it rang strangely in her ears.
Over the following weeks they settled into the club routine and began enjoying themselves, helping out in the art room but still keeping to themselves. After about a month or so, the girl’s friend decided that Gateway wasn’t for her and decided to leave. The girl found it strange that all of the members continued to ask after her friend even a couple of weeks after she had left, as she hadn’t thought that they had made much of an impact, they had mainly kept to themselves. The girl was in two minds- to stay and try and help out even though she knew no one there, or to leave as well. It seemed a decision was looming…
After a couple of days mulling it over the decision to stay seemed like the right one to make. It seemed daft to leave just because her friend had and being on her own was forcing her to make friends with the other leaders and the members. As time went on her confidence grew and she knew that she had made the right decision to stay.
The years at the club started to pass and the girl, who was nearly always called Jackie now thanks to Gateway/school cross links, developed as a stronger person. She went on first aid courses, volunteer training weekends and spoke about the club almost everywhere she went. Her experience even helped her gain her first part time job as she was able to talk about her time with the club.
Many things changed in Jackie’s life: her education continued to expand as she studied her gcses, a-levels then graduated from university, her part time jobs changed from Eason to Tesco, but Gateway remained a steady constant in her life. Sure leaders and members came and went but it became an escape from the rest of life. To think that all those years ago she was going to leave. Think what she would have missed out on.
The Power of Word of Mouth
At one Gateway meeting several years ago someone suggested sending letters about our club to the various special needs schools in our area, letting them know that we existed and asking if they would mind passing the word onto their pupils and parents. One of our leaders at the time, a special needs teacher herself, urged caution as parents who found out about the club via their school might feel as if we had been vetted by the school in some way lending an air of affiliation with gateway that the school could not uphold. Taking the point onboard it was decided to leave the idea at that and move on.
Recently the conversation has re-entered my mind as two special needs schools have separately contracted me asking for information on Gateway and one has went as far as publishing my details in their Christmas bulletin, which has already resulted in being contacted by an interested parent.
I am overjoyed at the interest that is currently spreading about Gateway especially as it all seems to be word of mouth- the highest recommendation there is. I hope it will continue for years to come but the words of my friend years ago remains fresh and therefore I will continue to have an open door for people to contact me rather than actively seeking attention- it seems to be working so far!
K2 Blackpearl Error: 1 28025 Failed to Start IPC
I got hit with this error last week when an IPC event that I was using within my workflow to kick off another workflow process failed to start. It turns out that I had forgotten to give my child process start permissions within the K2 server. As soon as I did this it started working for me.
It seems like such a small error but took way too long to find a solution as there was only a couple of forum posts with the same error as me but without a solution so I can’t be the only one out there having problems with it. Here’s hoping that the next person with the error will stumble across this post rather than searching in vain.
Common Cold
Well it looks as if I’ve got the cold again. I seem to be the one person out there that every cold strain going has to pass through. I last had it in September so surely I shouldn’t be catching it again so soon.
The only positive is that I never seem to catch anything stronger. Maybe all the bouts of cold block out anything worse. All I know is that I’m again stocking up on day nurse, vaseline and tissues. Lovely!
Gateway: Ten Pin Bowling Trip
8 sleepy leaders and 15 hyperactive children made for a great ten pin bowling trip this week. With many of the members practicing the week before on the club’s new wii and the distraction of the game machines dotted around the bowling lanes we knew that we would have our hands full. We weren’t wrong.
Our timings were almost too perfect and we arrived in Glengormley with half an hour before the bowling venue opened. Never to miss an opportunity to visit MacDonalds next door we piled in to drinks all round. Some of the more sensible leaders went with tea and coffee and with the morning being so cold I don’t blame them. Just as our members started to get restless the bowling alley opened and we were able to get the lanes set up.
The great thing with having lots of leaders at the moment is that I was able to sort out some lunch with the venue’s cafe safe in the knowledge that everything else was being sorted. When I arrived back everything was in full swing and I was able to join in the fun at my own lane. It was great to see the more able members helping out the less able and there was serious competition brewing among the older members, all good natured of course.
All too soon the hour was up and it was time for lunch. I had ordered chips and drinks and the bowling alley were kind enough to let us eat down by the lanes so there was plenty of room for everyone. Once finished and after a game or two of air hockey it was time for home again.
This has to be one of the first trips that I’ve organised where everything has went to plan and to schedule. I can only thank the leaders with me for that. All round a really successful day.
NIMTUG last night
Last night as previously mentioned I attended the Best of PDC event hosted by NIMTUG at the Welly Park Hotel. It was the first nimtug event since April and it was great to see so many people there, especially those well remembered from previous events. As is by now tradition we stayed for a good while once Martha’s excellent talk had finished, discussing the current IT situation in Belfast and I ended up back home at 1am this morning. Well worth it though and a huge thank you to Martha, Damien and Simon for putting the event together.
NIMTUG:Best of PDC Event
The Northern Ireland Technology Users Group, or NIMTUG for short, are holding its next event on Monday 1st Decemeber in the Wellington Park hotel in Belfast. The session will cover a range of topics from LA’s PDC event earlier this year. Further details and registration can be found on the nimtug site.
