Bristol Girl Geek Dinners

We are very proud of Bristol Girl Geek Dinners member Jo Reid of Calvium who has been announced as finalist in the National Everywoman in Technology Awards. The winners will be announced on 29th March so good luck Jo!

Calvium are based in Watershed’s Pervasive Media Studio, where we held our last dinner. The up-and-coming tech company has designed a mobile app development software platform called AppFurnace which makes it more affordable and easy for small businesses to make their own apps. Clients that have already used the service include the Royal Shakespeare Company, Historic Royal Palaces, Soho Theater and many others. The idea came after the company spotted a gap in the market for a method of making cost-effective smartphone apps, with the typical AppFurnace app costing a fraction of the usual commercial cost.

Jo Reid said:

“We created AppFurnace because of our passion for helping people in the creative industries. Its an innovative product that inspires innovation in others.”

Jo, 49, has been involved with the cutting edge of technology throughout her career, starting out on novel ways to design copier interfaces at Xerox, through expert systems for computer aided software engineering tools at Texas Instruments and penultimately working on applications of pervasive computing technologies at Hewlett-Packard Research Laboratories.

Jo is currently responsible for consultancy, sales and marketing. In this role she runs training courses and applies her expertise in mobile experience design and her knowledge of location and context aware applications to help customers create history inspired located games, community story telling walks, trails, hunts and quiz games  as mobile apps.

The AppFurnace platform allows designers and front-end developers to make beautiful custom mobile apps for clients, providing everything that you need to make your own apps.

A Bristol based Freelance Art Director & Designer who has used the service is Tyrone Probert. He said:

“Using AppFurnace has opened up a whole new world of design and business opportunities. I currently have at least two Apps in development which I’m hoping will lead to some bigger revenue streams in 2012.”

Jo has also written a blog piece celebrating female app makers: http://www.appfurnace.com/2012/02/the-female-technology-touch/

If any fellow Girl Geeks are  interested in Everywoman and perhaps getting involved in the awards next year you can find out more info here: http://www.everywoman.com/techawards/finalists

The Bristol branch of the BCS have asked us to pass on details of their Spring School as follows:

The spring school is coming up fast and all days are filling up quickly so register soon so you don’t miss out.

We have another speaker announced for the First night. James Cook of the SpiderGroup will be talking about The Future is in the clouds

Full details can be found on the website here http://www.bristol.bcs.org.uk/?q=node/140

Please note that registration and payment are essential for these talks.

Refreshments will be available from 18:30 with the talks to start at 19:00

We also have a follow up event of a visit to the G-Cloud demonstrator at HP Offices in Bristol. Spring School attendees will have priority in attending this.

• 6.30pm (refreshments will be provided) for a 7.00 start
• 7.00pm – 8.30pm talks

Mon 5 March

An Introduction to the Cloud & Cloud Security
To start with we will look at risk management considerations and an overview of the security considerations associated with cloud computing – in particular:

• Availability of data and business functionality
• Protecting data from unauthorised access
• Handling security incidents

Speaker: Ian Fish

Follower by our latest speaker

James Cook: The Future is in the Clouds

James will be discussing the journey of the Cloud; where it
began, and more importantly, where it is going.

Mon 12 March

Running Applications in the Cloud

Software as a Service (SaaS) applications have unique design challenges that are becoming easier to overcome thanks to cloud hosting and modern development practices.

Speakers: Michael Corbett and Ben Halstead

Mon 19 March

How to get it right legally when using the Cloud
This will cover the legal problems that arise when using the Cloud and the best ways of dealing with those problems.

Speakers: Jeremy Holt of Clark Holt Commercial Solicitors. Justin Pirie from Mimecast

Mon 26 March

What’s different about ‘cloud forensics’ & Designing, building and running a SaaS application

A great deal is being said about “cloud forensics”, but one has to ask how this is different from “computer centre forensics”, a subject which attracts no hype, and just happens.

Speakers: James Davenport, and TBD

Costs for delegates: (Inclusive of VAT)

• £40 for the 4 lectures for BCS members and students
• £60 for the 4 lectures for non-BCS members
• £15 per lecture for BCS members
• £25 per lecture for non-BCS members

The Branch is on Twitter. For all the latest event news please follow them: @BCSBristol

Here is a poster for this event please print one out and put it up. Register for this event here: http://pervasivegirlgeeks.eventbrite.com/

This event is being sponsored by SETsquared and hosted by the Pervasive Media Studio. With a talk from Verity Alexander of the Pervasive Media Studio.

For more info see our next dinner page

In addition to the main speaker we are also inviting members of our group to give short Pecha Kucha presentations about their PhD work – if you are interested in doing so please contact us

Please register for this event to give us an idea of numbers: pervasivegirlgeeks.eventbrite.com

Here are the Pecha Kucha presentations from event number 12 at infineon last Thursday (19th January).

We are currently planning our next event for February. If you are interested in giving a Pecha Kucha at the next event please get in touch!

Maria Felice:
Using advanced ultrasonic technology to detect stress corrosion cracks during aerospace maintenance (powerpoint file)

Elena Hensinger:
What makes us click? — Modelling and Predicting the Appeal of News Articles (pdf file opens in browser window)

Iwona Gajda:
Self sustainable cathodes for Microbial Fuel Cells (powerpoint file)

Having recently acheived charitable status, the English Wikipedia are now looking to overcome the challenges that come with continuing growth and professionalisation. To this end, the current Board will soon be starting to advertise for expressions of interest in becoming a Trustee.

Presently, the Board is mainly composed of people who are active editors of one or more of the Wikimedia projects. However, they would particularly like to encourage new trustees who have valuable skills and experience – regardless of whether they are currently involved in the Wikimedia movement. The only essentials are commitment to their vision of making the world’s knowledge freely available to all, and an understanding of the dynamics of a charity that relies on a community of volunteers for its impact. They value increasing Board diversity and in particular encourage female candidates to apply.

If you are interested in this role or know someone else who might be you can find out more here: http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2012/01/could-you-help-lead-one-of-britains-newest-and-fastest-growing-charities/

This Thursday, in addition to our main speaker, Dr Constance Fleuriot, we will have 3 very short ‘Pecha Kucha’ presentations from 3 PhD students:

Maria Felice:
Using advanced ultrasonic technology to detect stress corrosion cracks during aerospace maintenance

Elena Hensinger:
What makes us click? — Modelling and Predicting the Appeal of News Articles

Iwona Gajda:
Self sustainable cathodes for Microbial Fuel Cells

Here are posters for our two events in January. Please print them out and put them up

Girl Geeks next event – come and celebrate Wikipedia’s 11th birthday party with us: Wiki birthday editing party. 1-5pm Sunday 15th Bristol Uni. Food served at 3. SIGN UP: http://wikibirthday.eventbrite.com/

GGD #11

Wikipedia Editing Birthday Party at the University of Bristol on Sunday 15th January from 1 – 5pm. Wikipedia will be providing nibbles and assisting in some hands-on experience of Wiki-editing, so bring your laptop. It’s also Wikipedia’s birthday so time to celebrate. More details on our event page.

Places on this event are limited – you can sign up for it here

GGD #12

This dinner is taking place on Thursday 19th January at 6:30 for 7pm. It is sponsored by Infineon who are going to host the event at their offices in Stoke Gifford and provide us with pizza. I am pleased to announce that we now have a speaker for this event – Constance Fleuriot, a Research Associate based in the Pervasive Media Studio. We also have a few five minute slots for people to give a short presentation about their PhDs – get in touch if you are interested in doing so. There are more details on our event page.

Sign up for this event here