The GIST Hub

Open Data Sheffield is a community of active citizens, geeks, academics, journalists and public data providers collaborating to increase public sector transparency in the region and make it easier for citizens to understand the decisions and services that affect them.

Anyone is welcome who has an interest in unlocking the mysteries of public data, presenting meaningful ways to reveal the underlying stories behind policy making and public sector performance or wants to help local bodies engage with the community to create and publish coherent and useful open data.

Doors open at 6.30pm for registration, drinks and pre-meeting chat.

The main feature this month will be the Open Data Mashup Game. We invite you to get involved with playtesting and developing the Open Data Mashup game, which should be a fun way to explore and show off the possibilities of open data for developers, designers and data owners.

There’ll be an Open Floor for you to show’n'tell your open data projects (let us know if you have something to share) and we’ll round up some of the main developments in the open data scene since the last meet.

We’ll wrap up by 8pm and head Onwards to a nearby pub for a sociable drink to explore ideas with other collaborators.

We’re interested to hear about the topics that you may want to learn more about and discuss in future gatherings, as well as receiving offers from potential speakers or workshop facilitators for future sessions, whether that’s about datasets, tools, techniques and technologies, or sharing use cases and case studies to help make sense of it all. Get in touch if you want to contribute.

You can also keep up-to-date and follow the developments by joining in the online group. There is a Twitter channel – @opensheffield – that you may want to follow. We’ll also be posting updates and publishing information about publicly released data on the website.

The GIST Lab is a community collaboration space operated by The GIST Foundation in partnership with the Showroom Workstation.  Find directions here.

This is the opening meeting of the Python Sheffield group. The group is for discussing all aspects of the Python programming language and is open to anyone with an interest in Python, including experienced Pythonistas, occasional Python users and those wishing to learn more about Python. Python is an interpreted dynamic language available on all major platforms and is used for a huge variety of different tasks.

For this opening meeting, the agenda is a round-table introduction of the attendees, their backgrounds and their interest in Python. This will then be followed by a discussion on the future structure of the group, the attendees’ expectations of the group and a general Python discussion.

Twitter: @pysheff

Web: http://groups.google.com/group/python-sheffield

Email: python-sheffield@googlegroups.com

Package: The GIST Foundation 2010 Universal Social Bash

Date: Friday 17 December 2010

Time: Three Releases:
- 10am-noon: Alpha … buggy … groggy … coffee
- 2pm-5pm: Beta … testing … playtesting … mostly playing
- 7pm-late: Live … all systems go … totally socially interactive

Location: The GIST Lab, First Floor, The Workstation, Grinders Hill / Brown Street, Sheffield S1 2BX

We’ve had a tremendous year. We want to celebrate it with you and the rest of the folks that have made 2010 such an awesome ride for Sheffield’s grassroots tech and social innovation community.

So, join us at the 2010 Universal Social Bash. Or USB v1 for the geeks amongst us.

Space is limited, so we’re staggering deployment throughout the day. Grab a ticket for whatever times suit you best. We’d love to see as many of you as we can. If you want to join us for more than one stage, that’s totally cool too. You can even hang out at the Lab in the gaps between.

Early Adopters Bonus: Awards?

Well, we can’t let another year go by without some kind of roll of honour. Grab a ticket before Monday and suggest a category. Make a nomination too if you want. We’ll open up online voting in the week running up to Friday, and roll out honours from 20:10 in the Live slot.

Nom Nom Nom

Talking of nom(inations), we’ll stock up the bar and arrange some nom options. We’d love to be able to keep you all fed and watered without having to dip into your pockets on the night. Get in touch if you’d like to help out, or pick up a USB Platform License to make a gratuitous donation (instant Roll of Honour creds).

What to bring?

Tickets are free, so apart from your good selves, just wrap something geeky up to pass on to another random member of the community. Keep it secret for now. It may get wikileaked on the night.

GIST USB v1 : 2010 Universal Social Bash : Connecting the whole GIST Community : #gistusb

The GIST Magazine is a gathering of folks involved or interested in all forms of geek, digital and creative technology culture.

It’s the first one of the new year. Let’s make it a cracker …. Get in touch if you want to help out or contribute to the lineup. All contributions welcome, and this month we’d particularly like to hear from folks who can 

• provide a closer look at Yahoo’s S4 distributed stream computing platform
• hijack Microsoft’s Kinect gaming interface for other purposes …
• shed some insight on the new DirectGov single user experience proposal
• lend a coordinating hand for a key-signing party to build up the web of trust
• share a review of the latest innovation and technology must-read publication

So far this month:

• Social Software Engineering: Twitter Cryptography
  Matthew Mella unveils a new challenge for alternate reality using the Twitter platform
• … more from you?

Plus announcements about forthcoming GIST events and other grassroots innovation and technology projects. 

Do any of these ring true for you?

• Passionate about technology or what it can do for us?
• Design it, make it, build it, share it?
• Invent, innovate or create social change with it?
• Play with it, have fun with it, or simply consume it?

Join us for an informal and infectious mix of grassroots innovation, social action and technology.  Get The GIST on the first Wednesday of every month. Doors open from 6.30pm, kick off at 7.30pm. Food and drink are available in the bar.

The GIST Magazine incorporates GeekUp Sheffield and features a range of content drawn from the projects, groups and activities of the GIST Community and the wider grassroots technology scene. If you’d like to share something at the Magazine, pick up a Contributor ticket or get in touch.  

The GIST Magazine is a gathering of folks involved or interested in all forms of geek, digital and creative technology culture.

It’s the last one of the year. Let’s make it a cracker …. Get in touch if you want to help out or contribute to the lineup. All contributions welcome, and this month we’d particularly like to hear from folks who can 

• provide a closer look at Yahoo’s S4 distributed stream computing platform
• hijack Microsoft’s Kinect gaming interface for other purposes …
• shed some insight on the new DirectGov single user experience proposal
• lend a coordinating hand for a key-signing party to build up the web of trust
• expose their face for the definitive rogue’s gallery of Sheffield’s Movember geeks
• share a review of the latest innovation and technology must-read publication

So far this month:

• Social Software Engineering: Twitter Cryptography
  Matthew Mella unveils a new challenge for alternate reality using the Twitter platform
• Location Location: Plotting Open Data on a Map
  How-to with Richard Allsebrook. No coding experience required! 
• Old Skool: Writing the C64′s Killer App Game
  With Andrew Spencer, writer of 1983 classic Commodore 64 game ‘International Soccer’
• Location Location: Gaming the GIST Lab
  Bridging the virtual and physical community space
• … more from you?

Plus announcements about forthcoming GIST events around open data, a potential user experience usergroup, a live install&go WordPress demonstration and other grassroots innovation and technology projects. And maybe even the seasonal social.

Do any of these ring true for you?

• Passionate about technology or what it can do for us?
• Design it, make it, build it, share it?
• Invent, innovate or create social change with it?
• Play with it, have fun with it, or simply consume it?

Join us for an informal and infectious mix of grassroots innovation, social action and technology.  Get The GIST on the first Wednesday of every month. Doors open from 6.30pm, kick off at 7.30pm. Food (including daily specials) and drinks are available at the bar.

The GIST Magazine incorporates GeekUp Sheffield and features a range of content drawn from the projects, groups and activities of the GIST Community and the wider grassroots technology scene. If you’d like to share something at the Magazine, pick up a Contributor ticket or get in touch.  

This is the final session of the GIST Write! Lab, a month-long open house to help writers start and finish their works. Join other budding writers in a mutually supportive and friendly environment to

• kickstart a regular writing habit
• progress or complete an existing longer term writing project
• share writing for feedback
• give feedback to other writers
• find other writers to grow confidence and practice writing with
• get a change of scene and pace to energise your writing project

It takes place at the GIST Lab in Sheffield throughout November.  Anyone can take part, whether they are writing creative or factual works.

4pm – 7pm the Lab will be open for knuckling down and getting some writing done.

7pm – 8.30pm we’ll be catching up on writing project progress, sharing best practice and ideas and generally keeping each other moving forward, while focussing on a specific aspect of writing.

As the last session we’ll be reviewing our achievements over the month and then heading off to a local hostelry to celebrate our hard graft.

The GIST Write! Lab is a month-long open house to help writers start and finish their works. Join other budding writers in a mutually supportive and friendly environment to

• kickstart a regular writing habit
• progress or complete an existing longer term writing project
• share writing for feedback
• give feedback to other writers
• find other writers to grow confidence and practice writing with
• get a change of scene and pace to energise your writing project

It takes place at the GIST Lab in Sheffield throughout November.  Anyone can take part, whether they are writing creative or factual works.

The GIST Write! Lab is a month-long open house to help writers start and finish their works. Join other budding writers in a mutually supportive and friendly environment to

• kickstart a regular writing habit
• progress or complete an existing longer term writing project
• share writing for feedback
• give feedback to other writers
• find other writers to grow confidence and practice writing with
• get a change of scene and pace to energise your writing project

It takes place at the GIST Lab in Sheffield throughout November.  Anyone can take part, whether they are writing creative or factual works.

4pm – 7pm the Lab will be open for knuckling down and getting some writing done.

7pm – 8.30pm we’ll be catching up on writing project progress, sharing best practice and ideas and generally keeping each other moving forward, while focussing on a specific aspect of writing.

The GIST Write! Lab is a month-long open house to help writers start and finish their works. Join other budding writers in a mutually supportive and friendly environment to

• kickstart a regular writing habit
• progress or complete an existing longer term writing project
• share writing for feedback
• give feedback to other writers
• find other writers to grow confidence and practice writing with
• get a change of scene and pace to energise your writing project

It takes place at the GIST Lab in Sheffield throughout November.  Anyone can take part, whether they are writing creative or factual works.