Portrait of Edd Dumbill, taken by Giles Turnbull

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What I make

expectnation
a conference management web application


XTech Conference
a European web technology conference

Ten things you need to know about me

To keep you reading all the way through, the best one's at the end.

1. I'm striking back out on my own again

After a couple of years working full time in an office, I've decided it's the right time to take my own business, the Useful Information Company, further on. As the rest of this post illustrates, we'll be involved in web technology conferences, our own products, and Rails-based software development. I'm always looking for collaborators, comment and customers, so get in touch if any of this lot grabs you.

2. I'm organising an amazing web developer event in London, late October

Useful's first venture is XTech WebDev London. This is the first of a new type of event for XTech: a focused one-day training event for web developers. The idea is to focus on the best practice in web development that emerges from the cutting-edge work demonstrated in the regular XTech conference.

This year, that means: Ajax, web standards, open data, REST and Ruby on Rails. Any web developer wanting inspiration and a view of the future should come along. London, UK. October 31, 2006. You can reserve your place now. (We're right-priced for your training budget, and start late enough that folks could make it from all over the UK and beyond without staying a night.)

3. The pace is hotting up for XTech 2007 in Paris

Meanwhile, I'm busy putting together the call for participation and programme committee for XTech 2007, in Paris, France. Our theme is "The Ubiquitous Web." As keynotes, I'm pleased to welcome Adam Greenfield, Matt Webb and Jack Schulze.

4. I'll be off travelling shortly and reconnect with old and new friends

Though a little daunted by the new face of air travel, I'm heading out to O'Reilly in Sebastopol at the end of this month to take part in FooCamp. One of my main aims is to seek out the ingredients required for a successful professional online community. In September I'll be putting in some time at EuroOSCON. Both visits will let me hook up with friends, many of whom I've not seen for a couple of years.

5. I'm on the programme committee for O'Reilly's Emerging Technologies 2007 conference

This one has me interested and engaged. Rael Dornfest is due to unveil the call for participation in a couple of weeks' time, and I'll give my take on the conference then. The show itself is March 26-29, 2007.

6. I have an exciting startup under the covers, in the area of conference and event management

One of the things I've done a lot of over the last half-decade is organise, coax and bully people into presenting at conferences. I'm pouring what I've learned, and more besides, into a great product. You'll soon be bored of me talking about it.

7. I'm involved in taking Pharmalicensing into an exciting new phase

Pharmalicensing is an online exchange for intellectual property in the biotech and pharmaceutical world. I was part of its foundation in 1998, and am still involved. I will be part of a newly energized team of people pushing it forward into 2007. 

8. I'm having a bit of a clean-out of projects

Alas, with so much going on, I need to cut out a few existing commitments. One of these things will be Monopod, my Mono-based podcast client for Linux. If I can't find anybody interested in its maintenance, I'll just hang the source code out there for anyone to pick up.

9. I want to get more energy put into DOAP

One of my long term projects I definitely don't want to cut out is DOAP, my project to describe software projects in RDF. It's had a slow but sure take-up over the last few years, and is finding its way into some significant projects. However, I do need a bit more energy for it, and one or two collaborators would certainly help. 

10. Around Christmas-time, I'm going to become a father to twins

I've still not recovered from the shock. Rachael and I are going to be the proud, stunned, parents of a couple of bright shiny bundles of Human 2.0. Completely awesome, and I've absolutely no idea what to do! For now, we're just concentrating on throwing enough junk out to make room for them.

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