Gosh, it was a busy day yesterday, and in all honesty I haven’t quite assimilated it yet!

The day began (albeit a little bit late) at the young but fantastic Oxford Geek Jam, where we all got together at the Jam factory to hack on some code.

What we were working on this time was an automatic string tagging and contextual linking api for arbitrary strings. I’m sure one of the other guys could provide a link for this!

I left the code jam early in order to get to my next commitment of the evening – the #oxtwestival!

Live music, political poetry, auctions and raffles. All good fun, and as I mentioned before all for an excellent cause!

I’m delighted to report that (thanks I hope in part to my rather ad-libed auctioneering attempt ) we broke our target – details to follow I’m sure!

Anyway, I need to head back fixing this blinking migration script, so all I have left to say is a BIG thankyou to everyone who came, performed, tweeted and donated! Because of you some families in Africa will have safe water and sanitation!

Thanks! You’re awesome!

Amused by this video made by my co-organiser @ernmander over at the Oxford twestival blog.

Very well made (even that bit with the long haired chap) and asks you a very important question – have you got your ticket yet?

Oxford bloggers is a new site spawned from a conversation at last week’s highly successful Oxford Tuttle which seeks to aggregate blogs from those based in and around Oxford.

This is pretty cool, and will help further bring together the thriving (but until recently somewhat underground) Oxford technology and innovation scene, currently centred around Oxford Geek Nights and the Oxford Tuttle.

Things are really starting to come together in Oxford, with some really interesting projects and companies being started. Hopefully dispelling the myth that you need to be in the valley to do anything fun.

Anyway, welcome Oxford bloggers!

Logo from the Oxford Bloggers website

I am really pleased to announce that tickets for the upcoming Oxford Twestival 2009 are shortly going to go on sale.

The Twestival is a charity event being held in Oxford, featuring live music & fantastic networking opportunities in an informal setting.

We’re excited to bring together Oxfam – a ground-breaking global charity that was born in Oxford – with the Catweazle Club, a weekly event that has featured some of the city’s best performance artists.

Proceeds will go towards the Oxfam Mali clean water and sanitation project which will help provide safe drinking water to families and their villages in Mali!

In northern Mali, the lack of safe drinking water and poor sanitation contribute to very high rates of illness and malnutrition – especially amongst young children. You can help keep around 45,000 people safer thanks to an extensive health awareness campaign and by providing 8,000 people with clean water and sanitation facilities.

So, please go buy a ticket (only £5 if you buy in advance) and help change people’s lives!

On September 13th, the Twestival (twitter organised festival) will once again be returning to Oxford.

The event will be held in The Cape of Good Hope in exactly a months time.

It is set to be a very interesting event with beer, song and raising money for good causes!

I hope to see you there!