This page shows the branch's meeting programme for the 2008/9 academic year.

Come back to this page from time to time to confirm dates and times, and to check for amendments to the programme and more details on some of the sessions as they become available.

Programme Summary

Thursday 11 September 2008	Joining up Business and IT
Thursday 9 October 2008	Amazon Web Services: Cloud Computing in Action
Thursday 13 November 2008	Imagining an immersive future: the role of serious games and virtual worlds in everyday lives
Wednesday 19 November 2008	BCS Careers Unlocked
Thursday 4 December 2008	The Spy in the Coffee Machine
Thursday 22 January 2009	How to Solve IT Problems in 97% Less Time
Thursday 19 February 2009	Real World RDF Databases
Thursday 12 March 2009	Conferencing & Smarter Working
Thursday 23 April 2009	Annual Branch Visit: Sophos Anti Virus Lab
Thursday 21 May 2009	Silverlight: The Art of the Possible & Branch AGM
Attendance	Unless stated otherwise, all our meetings and events are held on Thursday evenings and are open to the public without charge. Except for special events or rare meetings which are expected to be heavily oversubscribed, there is no need to book: just turn up on the night. When booking is required, it will be made clear on this page and on the monthly emails which we send to people on our mailing list.

We hope that you will enjoy the range of topics to be covered. If there are other subjects you'd like to hear about, it's never too soon to start thinking about next year. Just drop us a note using the contact form.

Following our usual practice, we will send email reminders to each branch member of record between one and two weeks before each meeting.
Any unavoidable changes to the programme will be advertised on this page and notified to members by email.

We reviewed the wording of our meeting reminders in the light of the EU Directive on Electronic Communications (which came into force in the UK on 11 December 2003) and now include a clear explanation of why individuals are receiving the message and how to unsubscribe.

Programme details were posted to branch members in late August. If, after allowing for postal delays, you didn't receive yours, please let us know using the contact form.

Programme Detail

Joining up Business and IT

Date	Thursday 11 September 2008
Time	19:30 (Tea and Coffee from 19:00)
Location	Oxford e-Research Centre, 6 Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3QG ..Directions and Map
Calendar Entry	Download this iCal file: depending on your browser settings, your calendar may launch automatically, otherwise double click to add the meeting to your Outlook diary. Procedure may differ for other Calendar tools.
Meeting Summary	On the reports page
Speaker	Dr C James Bacon, Independent Consultant, Author & Academic James Bacon's IT career has been full and varied. From consulting roles in the City and on Wall Street to University lecturing, he has worked as far afield as Australia and New Zealand. More about James in this BCS Member Case study

Abstract: This seminar and workshop, based upon global research with hundreds of business managers and academics, is about a Model and accompanying Process for effectively joining up Business and IT, which according to surveys is the No. One issue in the Business use of IT. It shares the knowledge and results gained thus far, and invites comments and suggestions.

The aim will be to divide the 90 minutes into (1) presentation, (2) workshop, and (3) general discussion.

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Amazon Web Services: Cloud Computing in Action

Date	Thursday 9 October 2008
Time	19:30 (Tea and Coffee from 19:00)
Location	Oxford e-Research Centre, 6 Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3QG ..Directions and Map
Calendar Entry	Download this iCal file depending on your browser settings, your calendar may launch automatically, otherwise double click to add the meeting to your Outlook diary. Procedure may differ for other Calendar tools.
Meeting Summary	On the reports page
Speaker	Jeff Barr, Senior Manager, Web Services Evangelism, Amazon UK More about Jeff in his resume

Abstract: Jeff Barr, Amazon's Lead Web Services Evangelist, will discuss Amazon's line of infrastructure web services including the Elastic Compute Cloud, the Simple Storage Service, the Simple Database, and more. Jeff's talk will discuss these services from a technical and business perspective and will include plenty of demos.

Jeff would be more than happy to demo sites, applications, and tools built by members of the audience. Please do use the feedback form to let us know of such items in advance so that Jeff can spend a few minutes getting to know what each of them does.

Imagining an immersive future: the role of serious games and virtual worlds in everyday lives

Date	Thursday 13 November 2008
Time	19:30 (Tea and Coffee from 19:00)
Location	Oxford e-Research Centre, 6 Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3QG ..Directions and Map
Calendar Entry	Download this iCal file: depending on your browser settings, your calendar may launch automatically, otherwise double click to add the meeting to your Outlook diary. Procedure may differ for other Calendar tools.
Speaker	Dr Sara de Freitas, Research Director, Serious Games Institute Dr Sara de Freitas is Director of Research at the Serious Games Institute at the University of Coventry where she leads an applied research team working closely with industry. The Institute is the first of its kind in the UK and it is envisaged that it will play a leading role in future developments of game-based learning.

Abstract: Serious Games involve the use of electronic games technologies and methodologies for purposes other than entertainment. These include: e-learning, simulation, team building, collaboration and opinion shaping. Some recent projects are described implementing these technologies.

The presentation will explore how living, learning and working are changing in the face of new technologies that allow for more immersive experiences. The impact of games and virtual worlds is only beginning to be touched upon with new applications from health, education, team building, and business training emerging. However questions remain as to how different the twenty-first century will become in the face of new spaces emerging for undertaking all kinds of human interactions. Step into the world of an immersive future, and envisage how far these new forms may transform our everyday lives.

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BCS Careers Unlocked

Date	Wednesday 19 November 2008
Time	19:00
Location	Oxford Castle OX1 1AY..Directions and Map
Poster
Calendar Entry	Download this iCal file: depending on your browser settings, your calendar may launch automatically, otherwise double click to add the meeting to your Outlook diary. Procedure may differ for other Calendar tools.

Whether you're just starting a career in IT or growing within your current role, you're invited to join us for wine and nibbles at the unique Oxford Castle and talk to successful local IT businessmen and women. Tour the Castle and its Tower, take our BCS and Castle quiz, and find out what the BCS can do for you.

Note: If you want to take the tour of the Castle, don't arrive too late, as numbers are limited.

Peter Leavy from the BCS will be on hand to answer questions about CITP, ISEB and SFIAplus (Skills Framework for the Information Age). He will also be taking part in a debate on topics that you will choose on the night.

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BCS Oxfordshire Branch Christmas Lecture: The Spy in the Coffee Machine

Date	Thursday 4 December 2008
Time	19:30 (Mulled wine and mince pies from 19:00)
Location	Rewley House, Oxford OX1 2JA ..Directions and Map
Poster
Calendar Entry	Download this iCal file: depending on your browser settings, your calendar may launch automatically, otherwise double click to add the meeting to your Outlook diary. Procedure may differ for other Calendar tools.
Speaker	Dr. Kieron O'Hara, Senior Research Fellow, Southampton University Kieron is the author of several other books, including: 'Plato and the Internet' (2002); 'Trust: From Socrates to Spin' (2004); 'After Blair: Conservatism Beyond Thatcher' (2005); 'The Referendum Roundabout' (2006); 'inequality.com: Power, Poverty and the Digital Divide' (2006, with David Stevens); and 'After Blair: David Cameron and the Conservative Tradition' (2007). He also wrote 'A Framework for Web Science' (2006, with Tim Berners-Lee, Wendy Hall, James A. Hendler, Nigel Shadbolt and Daniel J. Weitzner), for the journal 'Foundations and Trends in Web Science', and edited 'Advances in Knowledge Acquisition' (1996, with Nigel Shadbolt and Guus Schreiber). He also publishes frequently in popular journals and newspapers, and has appeared several times on radio and television.

The talk, subtitled “The End of Privacy as We Know It”, is based on a new book about the implications of privacy in today's increasingly web-based world. It is written by Nigel Shadbolt and Kieron O'Hara, two prominent figures in the realm of Web Science. With chapters titled “They Snoop to Conquer” and "A Man's Best Friend is his Blog", the book treats a serious subject in a refreshingly light-hearted and accessible way.

We are entering a new state of global hypersurveillance. As we increasingly resort to technology for our work and play, our electronic activity leaves behind digital footprints that can be used to track our movements. In our cars, telephones, even our coffee machines, tiny computers communicating wirelessly via the Internet can serve as miniature witnesses, forming powerful networks whose emergent behaviour can be very complex, intelligent, and invasive. The question is: how much of an infringement on privacy are they?

Exploring the invasion of our privacy from CCTVs to blogs, O'Hara explores what-if anything-we can do to prevent it from disappearing forever in the digital age, and attempts to find the right balance between the benefits and dangers of this new technology.

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How to Solve IT Problems in 97% Less Time

Date	Thursday 22 January 2009
Time	19:30 (Tea and Coffee from 19:00)
Location	Oxford e-Research Centre, 6 Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3QG ..Directions and Map
Calendar Entry	Download this iCal file: depending on your browser settings, your calendar may launch automatically, otherwise double click to add the meeting to your Outlook diary. Procedure may differ for other Calendar tools.
Speaker	Paul Offord, Development Director, advance7 Paul has a 29-year career in the IT industry, working in the UK, the US and Germany for companies such as IBM, National Semiconductor and Hitachi. In 1989 he founded advance7, an independent consultancy specialising in IT performance and stability. In August 1990 advance7 launched a critical problem resolution service called REACT, since when the company has helped over 250 of Europe's leading companies solve chronic IT problems.

Abstract: ICT Departments are coming under increasing pressure to fix problems quickly and fix them for good. In this presentation the speaker shows how method-based problem diagnosis can find the Root Cause of a problem consistently faster than any other approach.

ICT teams and suppliers will quickly resolve almost all of the problems that a business encounters, but every so often extraordinary circumstances can – and do – arise. Functional problems are generally easily fixed, but stability and performance problems can drag on and on, soaking up support time, and causing serious business inefficiencies as staff adjust processes to accommodate the problem.

Method based problem diagnosis is rarely understood and even more rarely practised, yet it offers an effective means to solving long-running problems.

The techniques outlined in this presentation gain significant benefit from the tools and facilities already available within the IT department, allowing a seamless flow from current support activity.

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Real World RDF Databases

Date	Thursday 19 February 2009
Time	19:30 (Tea and Coffee from 19:00)
Location	Oxford e-Research Centre, 6 Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3QG ..Directions and Map
Calendar Entry	Download this iCal file: depending on your browser settings, your calendar may launch automatically, otherwise double click to add the meeting to your Outlook diary. Procedure may differ for other Calendar tools.
Speakers	Christian Davis, Development Director & Steve Harris, Head of Architecture, Garlik Christian has a wealth of experience within Telecommunications and Technology sectors. Prior to joining Garlik, Christian worked in various roles for Virgin Mobile managing the delivery of large scale commercial and IT projects. Prior to joining Garlik, Steve was as a researcher in the School of Electronics & Computer Science at University of Southampton, working in a number of areas, including scalable Semantic Web technologies. Steve designed several Semantic Web systems and became known for his work on efficient storage engines and advanced optimisation techniques.

Abstract: An overview of RDF database methods, its real world application and use of RDF data and storage. The talk describes Garlik's development and use of the large scale RDF data store which runs on clusters and powers garlik.com, qdos.com and foaf.qdos.com. It will cover the design, architectural and development challenges and data store metrics (size, performance).

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Conferencing & Smarter Working

Date	Thursday 12 March 2009
Time	19:00 for 19:30.
Location	Oxford e-Research Centre, 6 Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3QG ..Directions and Map
Calendar Entry	Download this iCal file: depending on your browser settings, your calendar may launch automatically, otherwise double click to add the meeting to your Outlook diary. Procedure may differ for other Calendar tools.
Speaker	Neil Johnstone – DigitalMeeting Neil has spent much of his adult life serving in the British Army. He has a strong grounding in communications as a signaller and has won awards for his all round technical and verbal communications skills. Later he changed track to the Corps of Army Music where he specialised as a Bass Clarinettist. He also plays various saxophones, keyboards and has been known to make a noise on the string bass. He has a diploma from the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music in Band Direction-management and conducting. He is currently developing conferencing and communication processes for the Supply Chains of the British Aerospace Community. In his spare time he enjoys attending and organising science fiction conventions, comedy panel games, and is a real ale bon-vivant. He loves wearing black, speculative fiction in all media, the history of space exploration, puppies being adorable and cooking his "special" curries.

Abstract: With advances in technology, audio visual conferencing has now reached the desktop. The aim of this talk is to explain the benefits of conferencing by showing its generic features and to put these in the context for companies of all sizes.

Recently the use of IP technology has allowed people to connect and communicate from all corners of the World. Neil Johnstone from DigitalMeeting invites you to join him for an informal discussion about how past, current and emerging technology can help businesspeople to work together without the hassle and cost of actually travelling to do it.

• What is Smarter Working, and why do it?
• What do Al Gore and Red Dwarf have in common?
• How does a fax machine from the Seventies fuel your car today?
• Can you really be in two places at once?

All these questions will answered, and many more asked in "Smarter Working: Routes to Conferencing".

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Annual Branch Visit: Sophos Anti Virus Lab

Date	Thursday 23 April 2009
Time	19:00
Booking	As registrations were unexpectedly high, we regret that we were unable to accept everyone who wanted to come.
Location	Sophos plc, Abingdon OX14 3YP ..Directions and Map There's plenty of parking on site.
Public Transport	The Oxford Bus Company route X3 links Abingdon with Oxford city centre. Details of routes, times and fares. The nearest bus stop looks like Boundary House on the Oxford Road, just over a mile on foot from Sophos (according to Google).
Poster
Calendar Entry	Download this iCal file: depending on your browser settings, your calendar may launch automatically, otherwise double click to add the meeting to your Outlook diary. Procedure may differ for other Calendar tools.
Main speaker	Mark Harris, Director
Meeting Summary	On the reports page

Sophos receives around 20,000 malware samples, processes millions of spam messages every day and finds a newly infected web page every 6 seconds. How modern malware works, the link between spam, malware and the web will be shown. Real malware and the systems and tools that SophosLabs use in the response to protect their customers will be demonstrated.

Outline agenda is:

1. Light refreshment in the atrium on arrival
2. Introductory talk from the lab director,
3. Demo and hands on with live viruses
4. Entry into the secure lab for further demonstrations of tracing and analysis techniques, virus types and questions and answers
5. Approx 9:20pm optional self-funded lager and soft drinks in the lakeside restaurant & bar (the Spam & Lettuce)
6. Close by 10:00pm

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Silverlight: The Art of the Possible & Branch AGM

Date	Thursday 21 May 2009
Time	19:30 (Cheese and Wine buffet from 19:00)
Location	Oxford e-Research Centre, 6 Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3QG ..Directions and Map
Calendar Entry	Download this iCal file: depending on your browser settings, your calendar may launch automatically, otherwise double click to add the meeting to your Outlook diary. Procedure may differ for other Calendar tools.
Meeting Poster
Meeting Summary	On the reports page
2009 AGM	Agenda for 2009 AGM (16KB) Chairman's report on 2008/9 for 2009 AGM (80KB) Minutes of 2008 AGM (16KB)
Speaker	Michael McClary, Web Agency Platform Strategy Advisor for Microsoft UK

Our meeting starts with the business of the Annual General Meeting, preceded as usual by a light cheese and wine buffet.

Then our main speaker, Michael McClary, will describe Silverlight. Silverlight is a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in from Microsoft which enables rich user experiences; from widgets and games to interactive high-definition video and Rich Internet Applications. Michael will deliver an 'Art of the Possible' session in which the background and usage of Silverlight is interspersed with many demos and real-world examples, along with a discussion of its position in a growing software and service world.

Apress, one of the world's leading technical publishers, are providing several relevant books as well as tokens for ebooks to be given away on the night. Preference will be given to people who are willing to write a short book review.

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