Archive for the ‘LUGRadio Live’ Category

Posted on November 2, 2009 - by jono

Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame: Laura Cowen

A few weekends back I was in Wolverhampton for the power and glory that was LugRadio Live 2009 and I just wanted to write up a quick blog entry about someone who never ceases to impress me with her work: Laura Cowen.

As usual, Laura was knee-deep in crew responsibilities at the event, and she could be found operating video cameras, coordinating other crew members, helping with A/V and also stepping in as one of the presenters at OggCamp the following day. By day she is a technical writer, user experience advocate, and geek, but by night she joins the other reprobates on the rather excellent ubuntu-uk Podcast and she was heavily involved in the planning of the hugely successful OggCamp. Laura is not only accomplished in both her work and Open Source activities, but she always brings an incredibly warming atmosphere to the projects she is involved in, including many LugRadio Live events both in the UK and the USA.

I just wanted to say a huge thanks to Laura for all her contributions to LugRadio over the years and her continuing work with the Ubuntu community. Thanks!

Posted on October 22, 2009 - by jono

Wild And Wicked Wolverhampton Weekend

Tomorrow I fly to England back to Wolverhampton for LugRadio Live 2009. I have been over in California now for over a year and it will be the first time I have got to see many of my friends since I moved. It will also be the final re-union of the LugRadio team for the last ever live show and last ever LugRadio Live. It is going to be a blast!

Although LugRadio Live is entirely sold out of tickets, there is going to be one hell of a party on the Friday night at The Hogshead, 186 Stafford Street, Wolverhampton, WV1 1NA from 7.30pm and also on the Saturday night at the The Connaught Hotel, 40-50 Tettenhall Rd, Wolverhampton, WV1 4SW from 8pm. On the Saturday there will be Karaoke. Oh yes. Everyone is welcome to both parties, and I would love to see you all there!

The fun doesn’t end there though, oh no! On the Sunday, the first ever OggCamp is going to take place at The Connaught Hotel in Wolverhampton, and it is shaping up to be an incredible event. The organizers behind it, the venerable Ubuntu UK and Linux Outlaws podcasts, have worked hard to make it a rocking event and I can’t wait for it! I really hope it becomes a staple in the UK Open Source event calendar. So, good people, get your delicate arses over to OggCamp too.

What a rollicking weekend of Open Source goodness, firmly seated in the great British heartlands:

• Friday 23rd October – Party at The Hogs Head in Wolverhampton.
• Saturday 24th October – LugRadio Live 2009 and party at The Connaught Hotel in Wolverhampton.
• Sunday 25th October – OggCamp at The Connaught Hotel in Wolverhampton.

I look forward to seeing you all there!

Posted on September 8, 2009 - by jono

LugRadio Live 2009 Announced

I am proud to join my fellow large gents in announcing the power and the glory that is LugRadio Live 2009 in Wolverhampton on the 24th October 2009! Although LugRadio may be no more, LugRadio Live is alive and kicking and we are all tickled pink about the forthcoming fun-fest.

Featuring such legends as Andy “blackadder” Robinson (OpenStreetmap), Brock Craft (tinker.it), Bruno Bord (LugRadio Community), Craig Rothwell (OpenPandora), Des Burley (A Real Lawyer Speaks), Gervase Markham (Mozilla), Martin Meredith (Hack The Planet), Matthew Paul Thomas (Ubuntu), Matthew Somerville (MySociety), Patrick Finch (Mozilla), Steve Lamb (Microsoft), Tom Edwards (Linux Supercomputing) and more as well as the first live re-union of the LugRadio team, Stuart Langridge, Adam Sweet, Chris Procter and I, it is shaping up to be a rocking day. To top things off that little bit more, the inaugural OggCamp happens on the day after, also in the glorious city of Wolverhampton. Finally, don’t forget that on the Friday night before LugRadio Live 2009, we will be having our usual pre-show get together at The Hogs Head.

Two rocking events, one rocking weekend. If you are not there, the terrorists will have won.

So, what are you waiting for? Go and see the LugRadio Live and OggCamp websites and start making plans. I can’t wait to see you all there!

Posted on July 28, 2008 - by jono

LugRadio Live UK 2009 Confirmed

For those of you who were not at LugRadio Live UK 2008, I am pleased to announce that after a last-minute change of heart, there will be a LugRadio Live in the UK in 2009.

Now, some of you may be claiming this was all a big PR stunt, but I am afraid you credit us with too much intelligence. Basically Aq and I had a conversation on the Friday before LRL about whether we should do another year, largely fuelled by the excitement that was building. Then we went to the pre-LRL party and got inundated with requests for another year.

So, the following day, on the first day of LRL, the four presenters went to a Starbucks and we had a quick meeting to discuss it and decided that we thought it would be doable to do another show next year. Much of the reason for agreeing to organise another show is that LRL really is a unique atmosphere – there is simply nothing that matches it, and the idea of never having that atmosphere again was a sad prospect. We also had a huge amount of support and help – with nearly 30 crew and a core team of 5 or so organisers, it all came together nicely.

Oh, and to clarify, we are still final in our decision to stop doing the podcast – there won’t be any more normal LugRadio shows, but there will be a live recording at next year’s LugRadio Live UK 2009.

So…bring on LugRadio Live UK 2009!

Posted on July 17, 2008 - by jono

LugRadio Live This Weekend!

This weekend is LugRadio Live UK 2008 at The Lighthouse Media Center in Wolverhampton. The weekend looks a little like this:

• Friday – 8pm – LugRadio Party @ The Hogs Head, Stafford St
• Saturday – 10.30am – LugRadio Live UK Day 1 doors open @ The Lighthouse Media Center, Fryer Street, Wovlerhampton
• Saturday – 5pm – Recording of the last ever LugRadio show!
• Saturday – 8pm – LugRadio Party @ The Lighthouse Media Center, Fryer Street, Wolverhampton
• Sunday – 10.30am – LugRadio Live UK Day 2 doors open @ The Lighthouse Media Center, Fryer Street, Wolverhampton

25+ speakers. 20+ exhibitors. LAN gaming. Free swag. Great community atmosphere. £5.

Bring it on.

Posted on July 3, 2008 - by jono

Thanks

Wow. That is the only way of describing how we all feel in the LugRadio team regarding the response to Monday’s news that we are wrapping up LugRadio. I have been, in a word, stunned at the incredibly generous and kind comments that we have been receiving. It was incredible to see so many comments on that blog entry, as well as Aq’s write-up, the LugRadio forums thread that announced the news, and the mountain of email to the show email address.

I have read every one of those comments, posts and emails and I am stunned at the incredibly kind things people have been saying. Some of the things that people have said have really made us all feel incredibly proud of the show. I love the fact that many of you said that LugRadio helped you get enthused about free software and the community, and many of you said that you feel part of something with LugRadio. A long time ago, Bruno, a LugRadio community regular said “LugRadio is my LUG“; it seems he is not alone in that sentiment based on many of the messages we have received.

So with all the thanks we have received and well-wishes for the future, I want to use this as an opportunity to say thanks to every one of you too. As some of you will know, I am rather fond of communities, and I am incredibly proud of the LugRadio community. It has demonstrated all the traits of a good community; it is a friendly, welcoming environment, and one that has never been short of people enthusiastic about getting involved. Heck, the foundation of LugRadio is a testament to this, with every single show being mirrored by a large number of contributors – this was a conscious decision that we made from day one to help make the show possible, and low-and-behold the community once again stood up and helped. Not only that, but had community contributions with sys-admin work, the planet, the facts database, the clan, the forums, the IRC channel, at LugRadio Live, with ideas for the show, emails and more.

There is though one little story though which I would like to share with you that really demonstrated to me what the LugRadio community is capable of. Back when we were organising LugRadio Live 2006, we spent months preparing for the event. It was twice the size of 2005, two days instead of one, three stages instead of two with more talk slots, had far more activities and events going on and involved a lot more coordination, sponsorship and more. We worked our respective arses off to get everything in shape, and the community was psyched up about it. People had booked flights from all over the world to attend, hotels were reserved and we were a few weeks away from the big weekend. Then, one evening while doing some recording, I logged onto the LugRadio Forums from my studio computer and noticed a comment that a rail strike was scheduled for the weekend of LugRadio Live. Crap. I can safely say that in 28 years of being on this planet, I have never been so angry as I was in that moment, and was fuming at not only the incompetence of the people who run the rail network but also the union deciding to throw their toys out the proverbial pram. Who the hell did they think they were? Did they not consider other people who rely on the rail network? Were they aware of how disruptive this was going to be? I stood there and envisaged all of our hard work slowly going down the drain as people could not get to LugRadio Live.

In all the commotion, the LugRadio community…unasked…and unprompted, jumped right into action and started organising car sharing, investigating alternatives and getting a plan in place. Discussions happened, wiki pages were created, capacity was developed. We even had someone volunteer to pay or a nationwide coach service out of his own pocket. When I went to work at OpenAdvantage the following day with a black cloud hovering over my head, I was touched by just how much the community had pulled together. In my mind, this is the definition of what this is all about – we are all coming together to not only do incredibly cool things with technology, culture and new perspectives, but there is a noticeable atmosphere of people looking out for each other. The greatest communities in the world are not just places where you feel empowered, they are places in which other people empower you.

…oh and for the curious, the conclusion of this tale was that when I got into OpenAdvantage that day I called the rail network officials and the union and gave them equal doses of my derision. Fortunately, said strike was called off and everyone lived happily ever after. I even shaved off that insane beard at that LugRadio Live. Retrospectively, that was a deeply wise move.

So in conclusion, thanks everyone for everything you have been saying to us, we really do appreciate it.

Come to LugRadio Live UK 2008 for one last shindig

So everyone, with the show wrapping up, you absolutely, utterly have to come along to LugRadio Live UK 2008 on the 19th and 20th July 2008 for our farewell LugRadio Live. Of course, its not just our last recording of a show – there will be three stages of speakers, a full exhibition, parties and other fun for the weekend. Its only a few weeks away, so get booked into a hotel and come and join us.

Posted on June 30, 2008 - by jono

The End Of LugRadio

DIGG THIS!

Today we announced that we have decided to call it a day with LugRadio. Our last show will be LugRadio Live UK 2008 on the 19th and 20th July 2008 at The Lighthouse in Wolverhampton. We announced this in the latest episode of LugRadio, Season 5 Episode 21 – go and have a listen to the show to hear more.

In a nutshell, we have decided that LugRadio has had a good run for the last four years and five seasons, and a show such as ours has always faced the risk of getting old and tired unless the formula is changed to keep it fresh. This growth and evolution has happened to a decent degree over the seasons as we introduced interviews, musical comedy skits, points based segments, competitions, focusing on different types of content etc, but as we near the end of Season 5 we came to the conclusion that the show was nearing its natural conclusion. From the beginning, when we have discussed if and when LugRadio was to finish we were always determined to take it out on a high, and this is part of the reason we feel now is a good time. The last thing we would want people to say is “yeah LugRadio was fantastic, well apart from that dire sixth season“. We feel we have had five good solid seasons under our belt, so now is probably a good time to wrap things up.

Now, as with when Matt left, some people are bound to jump to conclusions why we are calling it a day. To clarify:

• We have not fallen out. We are all still best friends.
• Severed Fifth is not why I am leaving.
• Adam’s business dreams is not why he is leaving.
• Aq has not decided to join a travelling circus.
• Chris has not set up a cult around the Network Block Driver. Actually, that’s a lie. He has.
• We have not been acquired by the Linux Action Show and Jupiter Enterprises.

A am massively proud of what we have managed to achieve. Over 100 shows, 7 full-time presenters and countless guest presenters, 200+ hours of audio, 100+ guests, 2million+ downloads, 1000+ forums members, 40000+ forums posts, 5 live events in two countries, 5000+ emails to the show and an incredible community of people who have surrounded the show, discussed it, got involved in some way, and otherwise given us all an immense enthusiasm to keep doing LugRadio. I am also proud of every one of my co-presenters over the years – Steve “Sparkes” Parkes, Matt Revell, Ade Bradshaw and the current roster of Adam Sweet, Chris Procter and Stuart “Aq” Langridge. I am particularly proud of Aq, my best mate and someone who has been my partner in crime in LugRadio since Season 1 Episode 1.

The thing I am most proud of about LugRadio is that it shook things up. It has always been raw, unexpected and at times uncomfortable to listen to. We always set out to do a show on our terms, knowing full well it would not be everyone’s cup of tea, but we forged ahead and I am proud of how the history looks.

Everyone has their favorite moments, and I just wanted to highlight just a few of mine:

• Our many incredible guests – Nat Friedman, Jeff Waugh, Eric Raymond, Miguel de Icaza, Mark Shuttleworth, Matthew Garrett, Rob McQueen, Sacha “Sago” Goedegebure, Alexandre Juillard, Havoc Pennington, Colin Walters, Quim Gil, Greg Kroah-Hartman and many more.
• The many strong debates Aq and I have launched into on the show. We have a somewhat unusual style of debating and some people have been worried we were on the verge of falling out, which has never happened. I know, its odd, and something that started back in 2001 at LUG meetings. It never stops being fun.
• The Gong-a-thong was an idea that Aq and I concocted late one night while on the phone. The first time we did it in Wolverhampton, we both stood at the side of the stage and it was a very surreal, proud and frankly hilarious moment. We replicated such insanity in San Francisco with Aaron Bockover and it was another comedy gem. The final gong-a-thong will happen at LugRadio Live UK 2008 in a few weeks.
• Ade’s random stories, and strange expectations of life. Who can forget Ade asking if any of us looked at our arses in the mirror, expecting a fully reasoned and learned discussion about said activity. Oh, and Ade’s perspectives on women in technical roles and his idea of compliments to a lady in a nightclub (“You sit well for an old girl…“). Bonkers.
• The booting of Matt Lee and GNU/FSF on the show and his admirable efforts at retort. Oh, and RMS refusing to come on the show as we use the words “Open Source” in the description of the show.
• Theatrics and comedy skits – The National Lottery segment, musical efforts (Pigeon Street, Lion Sleeps Tonight), Mrs Mudchild appearing because Matt was late for the show, Stallman only wanting a kipper, the What The F**k Book Truck, Filthy Gamble and more.
• LugRadio Live USA 2008. Wow, what an experience – a lot of fun, and a lot of work, but well worth it.
• LugRadio Live And Unleashed – there is nothing like doing a show in front of hundreds of people. It is a lot of fun and a real buzz.
• Sparkes availing us of his many stories, particularly the girl taking the piss out of his shoes in Wolverhampton. When I was editing his best bits segment I had tears streaming down my face laughing.
• Filming the LugRadio Live 2007 promo videos. It was a lot of fun making them. Actors, we are not.
• The emails. Our emails were always eclectic. Sometimes random, sometimes wise, sometimes hilarious, sometimes deeply offensive, but always inspiring. We loved every one of them, even the ones we thought were crap.
• The competitions – Stupid Hat For Corporate Tat, Look Queer In The New Year, Pimp My LugRadio, Asa Raskin’s Hat Dilemma and more.
• Bruno’s talk at LugRadio Live 2006 about how much we all swear in LugRadio and his rather amusing delivery and graphs.
• Matt’s impressions, particularly his Irish leprechaun impression. Specifically, Matt’s leprechaun impression that he used to impersonate Lucky Charms when at Skycon in Limerick.
• The Finger Of God.

It is certainly going to be unusual not having my mates around to my house every two weeks to record a show, drinking endless amounts of tea, taking an average of 15 takes to record an intro (really), regularly ribbing each other about everything under the sun, and then releasing a show and hearing about how it was received by our community.

So, the last episode of LugRadio will be recorded in front of a live audience at LugRadio Live UK 2008 on the 19th July 2008 in Wolverhampton. Why not come and share it with us, and the Saturday night we will be toasting to four years surrounded by our friends from the community; I can’t think of a better way to get off the roller-coaster.

Also see Aq’s write-up.

Posted on June 3, 2008 - by jono

LugRadio Live UK 2008

UPDATE: Go and Digg this story!

Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls, I am pleased to announce the first collection of confirmed speakers for the legendary LugRadio Live UK 2008 that is happening on the 19th and 20th July 2008 at The Lighthouse Media Center, Chubb Buildings, Fryer Street, Wolverhampton, WV1 1HT – astute readers may have noticed the venue has changed – thats right, we are now back at The Lighthouse.

If you are unfamiliar with LugRadio Live, where have you been living? LugRadio Live is the leading open source, free software and free culture event in the UK, and every year brings together three stages full of incredible speakers, a raft of exhibitors and a lot of fun. LugRadio Live is a very different event, and something often described as a “rock conference” – it presents an incredibly social and fun event where the focus is on meeting cool and interesting people and having a great time. And all of this costs just £5 for the full weekend to get in.

First Confirmed Speakers and Exhibitors

So, lets get started with the first batch of confirmed speakers and exhibitors. Work is progressing apace to continue, but we can announce the following so far:

Speakers:

• Chris DiBona (Google)
• Max Spevack (Red Hat) – The Fedora Project
• Christian Schaller (Collabora Multimedia) – GStreamer
• Steve Lamb (Microsoft) – Green IT
• Robert Collins (Canonical) – Bazaar
• Benjamin Otte (GNOME) – swfdec
• Rob McQueen (Collabora)
• Edward Hervey (Collabora Multimedia) – PiTiVi
• James Hooker – Taming the Dragons
• Kevin Sandom – Grouphug – Clustering with an evil twist!
• Barbie (MessageLabs) – Understanding Malware
• Daniel James – Mobile multimedia production with Free Software
• Emma Jane Hogbin – Form an orderly queue, ladies
• Bruno Bord – Baguette on Snails
• Ben Thorp – Supporting World Domination
• Rufus Pollock – FFFI
• Sam Birchall – Philosophy and AI: Modelling Human Cognition
• John Carr – Laying Down the Pipes: connecting your desktop with Conduit
• William J Giddings – Tcl/GTK bindings, using the GNOCL extensions for Tcl
• Agostino Russo – Wubi, the Windows Ubuntu Installer
• Martin Meredith – Keysigning Party
• …and another 10 or so to confirm…

Exhibitors:

• Bytemark
• Icculus
• Ubuntu UK
• Open Rights Group
• www.tinker.it
• KDE
• Linux Outlaws
• 64 Studio
• Linux Emporium
• Chris Hayes
• …and many more…

Call for speakers and exhibitors is still open – contact us at show AT lugradio DOT org if you would like to speak or exhibit, but get in quick, space is filling up. Oh, and exhibiting is completely free, just in case you wondered.

Other Fun Stuff

Not only do we have a rip-roaring schedule of speakers and a juicy collection of exhibitors packed into the venue, but we have lots of other fun stuff too such as:

• <to be announced’s> Lightbulb Talk Gong-a-thong Extravaganza – following in the fine footsteps of Adam Sweet and Aaron Bockover, we have another Open Source celebrity MCing a collection of short lightning talks while stood in front of a large gong in a very small pair of underpants.
• The Mass Debate – again we will put together some leading lights in the free software world to bang heads and debate the important topics that you can ask about.
• LugRadio Live and Unleashed – the LugRadio team will again present a live show in front of the LugRadio Live UK 2008 audience, and in this show…anything can happen!
• Nutsacks – becoming something of a staple part of LugRadio Live, we will again provide bags of incredible swag that you get for free when you enter the venue. We are working on some excellent nutsack fun and games.
• Partaaaay! – on the Friday and Saturday evenings there will be parties in which you can have a few drinks, talk to other attendees and get to know the speakers, the LugRadio presenters and the crew.
• LAN Gaming – we will have a large LAN gaming setup where you can go and blow the crap out of other geeks…
• Much, much more – we have lots of things up our sleeves, rest assured…you will have a great time…

Travel and Hotels

If all of this is sounding like a lot of fun to you and you want to come along, thankfully Wolverhampton is a pretty easy place to get to. It is very well connected by trains and has an airport (Birmingham International) 30 minutes away. There is also a large car park opposite the LugRadio Live UK venue which makes parking very convenient too.

in terms of accommodation, we have a raft of hotels, most of which have special deals for LugRadio Live UK 2008 visitors. Go and see this page for more details.

Spread The Word!

LugRadio Live UK 2008 is very much a community event, and we are looking for as much help as possible to spread the word about it – if you are planning on coming along, put one of these rather nice buttons on your website and link it to http://lugradio.org/live/UK2008/:

More information as we get it…

Posted on April 22, 2008 - by jono

LugRadio Live and Hardy Time!

I haven’t had much time to blog – work has been insanely busy recently.

LugRadio Live USA 2008 was an utter blast – everyone seemed to have a great time, and it was a lot of fun. Thanks so much to everyone who helped with the organisation and thanks so much to Google, Dice, LinuxQuestions and Linux Pro Magazine for their help. Thanks also to the SCALE guys in particular for their help – they really did help a lot to spread the word. The weekend seemed to run pretty smoothly, Aaron Bockover did a stunning job in the Gong-a-thong, the live show was huge amounts of fun, and there were a bunch of excellent talks and much discussion going on around the venue. It really did feel like the UK atmosphere translplanted in a very large room in the US, and that was always the core goal – to get the atmosphere right, and we were all really pleased with it.

So…Hardy is released on Thursday! Woo! Its been a pretty hectic release schedule, but the release is feeling really great. It is always hugely satisfying around the time of a release to sit back and look at what needed to happen to make the release reality, not just in terms of development, but documentation, user groups, parties, and of course the excellent work that is done upstream. I never cease to be inspired by what our community achieves.

Oh, and while I am here and speaking of parties, there is a UK release party going on at De Hems in the West End from 7pm on Thursday – the great and good of the UK Linux Ubuntu scene are sure to be there!

Posted on April 8, 2008 - by jono

LugRadio Live USA 2008 Evening Social Events

LugRadio Live USA 2008 is THIS WEEKEND!

35+ Speakers. 40+ Exhibitors. A man in a thong. Lots of fun. Its gonna be great, and it is only $10 for the whole shebang. You can still pre-register and win prizes!

Now, some details about the social events in the evenings…

For those of you getting in on the Friday, we will be having a gathering at the The Thirsty Bear at 8pm. I have spoken to the pub and they say it can be busy in there on a Friday, so you may want to go and eat first and then come to The Thirsty Bear for drinks. The address is:

ThirstyBear Brewing Company 661 Howard St. San Francisco, California 94105

Telephone: 415-974-0905 Fax: 415-974-0955

On the Saturday night we will be having the official Lugradio Live USA 2008 party at Jillian’s, and Google, our gracious and generous main sponsor will be providing a healthy bar tab to help the night get off to a cracking start. We will be meeting in there at 8.30pm – this gives plenty of time to go and grab dinner after LugRadio Live USA 2008 has finished on the Saturday, and then get over to Jillian’s for the party. The address is:

Jillian’s 101 4th Street, Ste 1070 San Francisco, CA 94103

Telephone: 415-369-6100

We look forward to seeing you all at the social events!