Manchester Free Software

Substance, a local cooperative, are working to free local government and other data so that the information can get to the people who really need it. The project is called Plings and Steven Flower will be talking about about their experiences over the past two years and their plans for the next two years. Free software and freedom of data are the goals – but they have to jump through and negotiate a few hoops along the way!

*New Location*

The meeting will take place at the usual time, 7pm, at the Lass O’ Gowrie pub on Charles Street in Central Manchester. We will be located in the back room on the ground floor. As normal, there will be people around a little earlier (probably sampling the food and drinks on offer). Their website has full details of how to get there and the fine selection of food and drink on offer.

General information about Manchester Free Software meetings can be found on our meetings page.

If you would like five minutes to tell us about something, please contact us.

Updated: The slides from this talk are now available under a Creative Commons cc-by-sa license.

This month’s talk be given by Des Gregory from green h, a with-permission-free-franchise-social-enterprise based in Manchester. They sell low cost, reconditioned computers to communities, schools and small businesses (to name but a few), earning money for Ubuntu ‘techies’ in the process.

PLEASE READ THE DETAILS ABOUT A CHANGE OF LOCATION!

Location
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We will meet in Bar Odder just across the road from the BBC on Oxford Road.

As usual things will start at 7pm. The pub serves a good selection of food and drinks.

At our February meeting there will be a talk by Chris Maiden and James Panton, from NWDUG, entitled ‘What you don’t get for free: the cost of building a Drupal site’. The talk will give an overview of the popular CMS and will discuss how best to invest your time and effort to get the most from the software.

In addition to this month’s main talk, we will also have a brief Lightning Presentation.
Ross Gardler will give a short insight into the work of OSS Watch, a public funded, Higher Education Advisory body for Free and Open Source Software.

There is a different location this month, the BBC building on Oxford Road. Access is via the front entrance (including disabled access), where someone will meet you in the reception area.

As usual the talk will start at 7pm, although people will be around from 6.30pm, and it will end around 8.30pm followed by networking and socialising. There will be refreshments available and we will have access to the BBC bar.

Where possible we need to know in advance the names of people who will be there (it’s a secure building), so if you think you will be coming please email team@manchester.fsuk.org.

If you would like five minutes to tell us about something, please add yourself to the wiki or contact us.

To start off the new year we have Ian Lynch from The Learning Machine Ltd (TLM), who are creators of the Ingots qualification, which is an officially recognised qualification in the UK and around the world. Ian will be talking about how to set up and sustain a global FOSS-based business. This talk may also be of interest to people wanting to improve IT teaching or qualifications in schools.

The meeting will take place at 19:00 in the Manchester Digital Development Agency on Portland Street. More about the meetings and venue can be found on our meetings page.

If you’re coming, feel free to add yourself to the FSF Groups wiki page. If you would like five minutes to tell us about something, please add yourself to the wiki or contact us.

Updated: The slides from this talk are now available under a Creative Commons cc-by-sa license.

It’s party season and Manchester Free Software is going to celebrate with a social event. We’ve been around for a year now and this is a great opportunity to say hi to everyone. There will also be free mince pies!

Starting at the MDDA as usual, we will move on to FAB (or the Christmas markets or somewhere) later in the evening, after 8pm.

Additionally, if people are interested there will be an informal keysigning party.