The day for me started early on Saturday with a walk into town (Oxford’s buses being resoundingly useless), still it was a lovely sunny day and I had some good tunes on my mp3 player so I didn’t mind working on my tan for a while.

Anywho, got to the Oxford Club in time for registration and for the slots to be put up… a dizzying array of very interesting possible discussions were soon put up.

Obviously I couldn’t go to all the sessions, but those I did go to were fantastically useful.

Highlights were a thought provoking, passionate and mature discussion of women in technology, and education in general. Additionally, met a bunch of very cool people who I hope to keep in touch with!

The beeper has just gone on my oven so I must tend to my food. Suffice it to say, I found the event both highly enjoyable, stimulating and very very useful.

Props to all the people who worked so hard to make this happen, you are all awesome!

Same time next year?

Image by Sylwia Presley

As the UK enters into an election year, and with legislation such as the infamous Digital Economy Bill being rushed through parliament, and all parties promising to clean up politics, 2010 looks to be an exciting year for transparency related issues.

I am therefore delighted to confirm that Barcamp Transparency will be happening again later this year, with more speakers, more interesting conversations and more beer afterwards!

Transparency isn’t just a hot topic in the UK of course, so we are currently actively putting together plans for holding similar events elsewhere in the world.  If you would be interested in helping out, please get in touch!

Finally, it has come to light from the conversations that we have been having that there is a need for an online community space to help organise these events and let people from around the world discuss and collaborate on transparency related issues.

Therefore, I am delighted to say that we are currently putting this together and that Ben Werdmuller (of Elgg fame) has agreed to become our Community Manager!

Get in touch and let us know what you want to see in the future!

Judging by the feedback I’ve been getting throughout the day you guys enjoyed it as well, but please let me know if there’s anything that we could do better next year!

Of course the event wouldn’t have been possible without our sponsors… Google who were kind enough to cover the cost of the venue (and thanks to the Oxford Club for being so good to us on the day!). Thanks to our other sponsors – 1000 heads, Proactive, Outmap, Moo and TerminateTheRate.org as well.

Also, thanks to our media sponsors: Global voices, Mashable and JackFM.

Most of all, thanks to all of you who came!

There were plenty of interesting conversations had, and we’ve already spawned a couple of interesting projects – do write in and tell me about yours, we’d love to do a followup!

Check out our flick group, and if you have any photos feel free to upload them to the group pool.

Anyway, I’ve rambled on…see you next year!

The weekend kicks off tonight at 7pm BST (6 GMT) with our virtual event – find us on Friendfeed!

Tomorrow, those of you who are coming down the night before are welcome to join us in the Gardener’s Arms from about 7pm for food, beers and a bit of socialising… look out for the group with Barcamp Transparency posters (thanks Ben Werdmuller for designing those!).

Don’t forget to @mapkyca on Twitter if you get lost!

Finally, the main Barcamp Transparency event kicks off at 10am on Sunday in the Oxford University Club on Mansfield road. Detailed instructions for getting there can be found on the Barcamp Transparency website!

See you there!

This is a free event, but we need to get an idea of how many people are coming, and a rough list of contacts so that we can furnish you with things like Wifi keys etc.

Anyway, tickets are being served by Eventbrite like our virtual event, go get yours!

To give us some idea of the numbers coming we have tickets available on Eventbrite, so go grab yourself one!

Our main avenue is the event Friendfeed account here: http://friendfeed.com/barcamptransparency

We have prepared three virtual rooms for you to discuss issues related to:

1. Open government – http://friendfeed.com/ff-bct09opengoverment
2. Cyber-activism – http://friendfeed.com/ff-bct09cyberactivism
3. Social media ethics – http://friendfeed.com/ff-bct09socialmediaethics

Later this week we will be releasing the first batch of tickets for the main event using the same system, more to follow so watch this space!

I am pleased to announce that the Barcamp Transparency UK sponsorship pack is now available! Many thanks to @sylwiapresley for putting this together!

Please help by spreading the word as much as you can, and if you represent an organisation that is interested in sponsoring us for any amount then don’t hesitate to get in touch!

I can honestly say that the whole event came as an invigorating breath of fresh air and I want to say a great big thank you to all those who helped organise the event – as well as all those who attended!

For the uninitiated the first rule of Barcamp is that everyone needs to get involved which leads to some very exciting, sometimes heated, but always useful discussions.

One of the things that I am particularly excited about is the support there was for doing a Transparency camp in the UK… so much so that its actually happening!

The whole event has left me energised and enthusiastic. I have a stack of people I need to contact and a stack of really cool projects to read up on.

This is how conferences should be.