Author Archive

1. What do you do in your day job?

I work at Carsonified in Bath. We do a number of events focussing on the web industry including “The Future of Web Apps”, “The Future of Web Design” and “Fuel” which looks at how you can take advantage of web technologies to help run your business more effectively. Now and again I get back to the code. Most recently I helped produce “The Mattinator”, a web app created by Carsonified using the Django web framework in four days. The app allows you to post to multiple twitter accounts from one interface. I have also run a couple of my own workshops on PHP5 at our offices in Bath which I really enjoyed. Prior to joining Carsonified I worked as a freelance web developer focussing mainly on .Net and PHP projects.

2. What do you do outside of work, in your 10% time, or when your boss isn’t looking?

Like many other people on this blog I have a young child who takes up the majority of my free time. Now and again I still manage to crowbar in some personal projects and have a couple of ideas I am working on. Having only moved to Bath this year I am also really enjoying discovering the South West. We also seem to get a lot of visitors desperate to escape London, our previous home, for a weekend.

3. Why are you attending BathCamp?

I have never been to a BarCamp style event and it’s great that it’s right on my doorstep. It will also be good to learn more about what’s going on in the vibrant local geek scene, a good opportunity to put Twitter names to faces, meet people interested in similar stuff and to learn something new.

4. What are you passionate about?

My daughter, watching her grow and develop over the last year has been amazing and challenging. I also love learning and I still get a kick out of discovering something new, whether it be a new web framework such as Django or reading about Modernist architecture, great graphic design or discovering a new Belgian beer!

5. What would you fill a bath with, and why?

My abstract answer would be time, there’s just never enough. On a more “practical” level I would throw in a bunch of friends, the family, a crate or two of cold Peronis, a selection of pizzas, a tub of Italian ice cream, a great view to gaze at and a miraculous hangover cure for the following day.

What do you do in your day job?

I work for the Institute of Physics Publishing in Bristol, my official job title is “Information Systems Developer”. I just am just reminded that I have worked here for seven years (shocked). Originally I was hired as a ColdFusion developer but have ranged across a variety of different technologies. Currently I am almost exclusively working in Java and towards the back-end of web applications, which I enjoy.

What do you outside of work, in your 10% time, or when you boss isn’t looking?

I am not sure I actually get as much as 10% thanks to my three sons. However they need me less and less these days so the situation is improving, mostly is has got to the stage where they want to overpower me physically or mentally (which will happen sometime soon). Much of my free time is taken up with learning Chinese and other language learning related activities at the moment. I have been looking around for a European language to learn and settled on German so that is likely to keep me busy also.

Some of my 10% time at work is spent secretly doing things that I think are work related but that my bosses may not. I guess many of us are in that position, there is always some new technology or approach to investigate, I never feel I have time do enough investigating.

What are you passionate about?

Recently that would have be learning. I work in an industry that requires continual learning and my hobbies usually involve some kind of learning. It seems that modern technology and the Internet are providing opportunities to learn things faster and with less overhead (effort still required though). I am still exploring new ways to learn and becoming increasing despondent about how little these changes are reflected in the way that my sons are educated. When I can I have started trying to repair some of the damage.

Why are you attending Bathcamp?

Mainly because it sounds fun and interesting, I haven’t attended this kind of event before. Of course it helps that is it is very local and that I actually know at least one person who is going. I spend a lot of time on the back-end of web applications these days and it seems some of the more creative types (dangerous to pigeonhole I know) have more fun. I guess I need to get out more. It would be a real bonus if there are any native Chinese speakers or learners there of course.

What would you fill a bath with, and why?

Dorset Naga chile peppers (the hottest you can get); completely pointless as there would be enough heat and flavour there to last many lifetimes, but it would be rather beautiful. This is typical chile-head mentality which goes something along the lines of “Wow I grew three plants of that really hot chile this year and had more more than I could possibly use, next year I will grow ten.” I am prone to chile-head mentality unfortunately.

About Chris

Chris blogs at Chris on the Web and Friedelcraft and Tweets at chris_english and chris_mandarin.

1. What do you do in your day job?

I’m a freelance web monkey /or/ Technical Director of Olivewood, a web apps company based in Bristol (depending on who’s asking). I do front end development right through to back-end code (of various types) and databases.

I first got involved with the internet in 1998 when a friend told me the best way to get a job (I was actually looking for something in conservation, as I have a background in Environmental Science), was to stick my CV on the web. I bought a modem and a copy of “HTML for dummies” and had my first website up 24 hours later, despite having never used the internet before.

That coincided with the dot com boom, and there was a huge demand for web people, so it was only a few months later that I landed a contract as a professional web designer at BT, followed by several years of sweating it out at web agencies before going freelance last year. I’m happy I can make a living out of it, but I know I would still be building websites and web apps for fun if I did something else for a living.

2. What do you outside of work, in your 10% time, or when you boss isn’t looking?

Family stuff and skateboarding mainly – I don’t get much free time though, particularly during this first year of freelance/ running a company. If I did have more spare time i’d probably start a band again – something I spent a fair amount of time doing before jobs, houses and fatherhood! Actually i’m kind of over the band thing – it’s only after a few glasses of wine that I start to feel the need to jump on stage, whereas it used to be an obsession!

3. Why are you attending BathCamp?

Because i’m a geek and I really want to go as I had to pull out of the Bristol BarCamp last year at the last minute. I always have a surplus of ideas going on and i’d like some time to try stuff out and discuss it with other digital people. I’m hoping it will be like some kind of therapy where I can talk nothing but utter geek and not have peoples eyes glaze over!

4. What are you passionate about?

Family, skateboarding, web geekery, traveling, the outdoors (in moderation) – or preferably a combination of all those. Maybe involving a winnebago.

5. What would you fill a bath with, and why?

Pasta and pesto. I could probably eat a whole bath full of that. If not my 4-year old son would help out – he’s inherited a love of pasta and pesto from me.

1. What do you do in your day job?

I help people figure out what web 2.0 is all about and how it (especially the social aspect) affects them. Once it’s figured out I help them implement web tools and marketing approaches to help them either be more productive in the work place, or help them engage with their audience in this shiny new world of social media.

I do this sort of stuff mainly for Government, Museums and Galleries, and other non-profit style organisations.

When I’m not doing that, I make WordPress websites for people (I’m a designer by trade). I make websites (mainly – but not exclusively – blogs) that have engagement and conversation at their core. And I do this sort of stuff for campaigners and charities and the like.

2. What do you do outside of work, in your 10% time, or when your boss isn’t looking?

I find it very difficult to step away from the internets so when I’m not talking about social media to clients I’m often partaking in it via Twitter, Plurk, Flickr, Last.fm, Facebook…

When I do actually close Firefox, I’m quite partial to producing the odd (musical) mash-up and I sometimes pen my own loops-based tunes too.

And I like seeing live music, exhibitions, going to bars that have rope slides and going ‘ahhh, eeeh’ at Airshows.

3. Why are you attending BathCamp?

I’ve been to a few barcamps (and barcamp style events) and they are always inspiring, creative and lots of fun.

I’ve got a background in museums and galleries and I know there will be some other museum geeks around to learn from and share ideas with. I’m especially looking forward to that.

And it’s in Bath and that is a lovely lovely city.

4. What are you passionate about?

I get annoyed when things are badly designed and don’t need to be. That applies to anything – web interfaces, kitchen equipment, road signs, architecture…

Which means I get a little too excited when things are designed well (especially architectural spaces). Computer interfaces should be designed so well they are invisible, architectural spaces should be designed so well you notice them.

5. What would you fill a bath with, and why?

Puppies! Oh my goodness, imagine that!

About Jenny

Jenny’s personal site lives at www.jennybee.net and she can be found elsewhere on the internets at linkedin.com/in/jennybee and twitter.com/jennybee.

1. What do you do in your day job?

At the moment I am working for a start-up in Bristol called Beanbag. As to what I do its a bit hard to describe as there is no job title or job description – basically if its not coding or design I’m involved to some extent. So far that has mainly meant doing some blogging, writing/rewriting some copy, trying to get a bit of publicity from other more impressive blogs and doing a bit of customer service. Its all good fun and interesting to be in on something at the start.

2. What do you outside of work, in your 10% time, or when you boss isn’t looking?

Depends on the sporting season to be honest! During the winter between helping out with a local football club, watching a few Bristol Rovers games, getting stressed out every time England take the field during the Six Nations and Sunday afternoons watching Bristol play the dullest rugby known to man there isn’t much time left. The summer is mainly just recovery time!

In my 10% and other free time I’ve got quite an interest in the idea of using the social web to enhance events and have written a bit about that and put it into practice once or twice. I also try to occasionally update my personal blog.

3. Why are you attending BathCamp?

Because it only 20 minutes away on the train – is that a suitable answer? I like the freedom that unconferences allow you and the opportunity to learn something completely unexpected and interesting. I also enjoy the occasional opportunity to have a beer and a chat with people who actually understand what I’m talking about when I speak about my job!

4. What are you passionate about?

Increasingly my passion seems to have settled on education in particular the idea of literacy. Whether that is traditional literacy, information literacy or media literacy changes like the Bristol weather but its that concept of comprehension – people (mainly young people) being able to do more than just go through the motions with something but to really understand what they are reading (whether its a book, newspaper or webpage) or watching and make their own judgments on its worth. I think thats really important as we are bombarded with more and more information sources.

5. What would you fill a bath with, and why?

Butcombe Gold… any explanation would seem unnecessary!

1. What do you do in your day job?

I’m a freelance writer, mostly about computers and internets. I fell into it. I started life as a trainee reporter on the Cambridge Evening News in the early 1990s. Normal trainee reporter stuff – cats stuck up trees, car crash on the A14, body found in the Cam in the early hours of the morning, phoning Jeffrey Archer for comment on scandals, to which his answer was always “No comment,” and you can see why really – but the big thing that happened was that CB1 opened just down the road from my house.

CB1 was the first cybercafe in the UK outside of London, and after writing an article about it I started going there quite frequently. I taught myself how to use internets while they were still very young. The machines were a mixture of Macs and NeXT boxes. God knows what the software was, I can’t remember.

A couple of years later and a journo friend called from her job in London. “You know about the internet, don’t you?” she asked. Well, sort of, yeah. “Well we need an internet correspondent. Fancy a job?” And that was that. After a few years of London I got sick of it and went freelance. Shortly after that we moved to Bradford on Avon.

2. What do you do outside of work, in your 10% time, or when your boss isn’t looking?

I have a five-year-old. That should be answer enough.

But if I’m honest, I do get time to myself. On Thursday nights I go singing, and after singing we singers go to the pub where the landlord glares at us if we show any signs of singing some more. If I have a free day with no five-year-old and no work (all you fellow freelancers will know about those days), I like to take my camera out for a walk.

3. Why are you attending BathCamp?

Same reason as everyone else. I didn’t get invited to FooCamp. Also, because I think it’s good for my sanity, my career and my sense of well-being if I go to local geek events. I get on with geeks, even though I lack the expertise that a Computer Science degree or a career in programming would have given me.

4. What are you passionate about?

Passions change over the years, don’t they? Stuff I used to get all hot and bothered about doesn’t trouble me as much as it did. These days I’m growing interested in two strands of environmentalism that I label “waste” and “simplicity”. They’re linked, of course. I’m interested in minimising waste, and in all aspects of everything that make life simpler. Other things that start me swearing include: the poor quality of daily newspaper journalism these days; the poor quality of most TV; the poor quality of food offered by most supermarkets. I’m nearly middle-aged, can you tell?

5. What would you fill a bath with, and why?

A cloned copy of myself, who could do the childcare when I need to get on with some deadline-specific work.

About Giles

Giles’ online presence can be felt at http://gilest.org/.