I’m looking forward to today’s event which is taking place at The Melting Pot from 10am onwards.

I think it is a good idea to incorporate people’s tweets about the event as it happens, so I have set up a Cover it Live event which will import relevant tweets.

For those interested the hashtag is #scotweb2. If I get the chance, I will also update the @Scotweb2 Twitter account from time to time. The CiL panel will also import any tweets from our personal accounts, @doctorvee and @alexstobart.

I hope you find the event useful and enjoyable.

To view the Cover it Live panel in a pop-up window, click here.

There will be a second Scotweb2 event this June. Among those attending: digital content marketing firm w00tonomy, Alistair Tibbett from Greener Leith, Iain Henderson from Mydex, Pezholio, Jadu and Learning Pool.

The event will take place on 19 June at the Melting Pot on Rose Street in Edinburgh. For more details and to sign up, click here.

Digital Enabler Dave Briggs is organising this one

LocalGovCamp is an event for anyone interested in social media and its relevance to local authorities. It will take place on Saturday 20 June at Fazeley Studios in Birmingham.

To book, visit http://localgovcamp.eventbrite.com/ – RSVPing on Facebook isn’t enough to get you in!

The event is being run as a ‘barcamp’ or unconference. That means its an open, participatory workshop-style event. There are no fees, and advance organisation around venue, catering and promotion is done by volunteers.

There is no advance agenda. Content (eg presentations, discussions, demonstrations, workshops etc) is suggested and scheduled on the day by participants. Session length is whatever’s needed, spin-off conversations develop, and if there’s time and interest, follow-up sessions can be slotted in.

If you want to join in – it may sound weird but it works – go to www.localgovcamp.com to sign up (hurry, these things are popular!). If you’ve got a topic idea you can post it there to test interest in advance.

LocalGovCamp is being supported by lots of individuals and organisations, among them we are especially grateful to Birmingham City Council for hosting the event.

Stewart Kirkpatrick from w00tonomy, Christian Storstein from Scottish government and I organised a gathering last Friday at Microsoft’s beautiful offices ( awesome photos – Ed ) in the old GPO building on Princes Street in Edinburgh.

There were about 45 there and the average age was 331/3.

Sarah Davidson, Director of Communications at the Scottish government made the opening remarks, then there were break out sessions on video, free our data, wordpress and social media.

Thanks to Pete Martin for his piece on social media from The Gate

Proceedings were smoothed by the copious amounts of food and drink ; a lot of contacts were made and the event moved on to the Guildford Arms after 2030 when Microsoft finished their working week.

Thanks to Caroline, our host at Microsoft for being so patient, and a wonderful host.

Peter Ashe at the NHS has kindly posted, and the super hero at City of Edinburgh Council otherwise known as James Coltham as well

Video content will follow.

And will anyone who is a Glasgow Tweegie kindly send us the link

Next events

T-camp on April 23 at the Melting Pot – Register here ( up to 15 seats )

ScotWeb2 on June 23 at the Meting Pot – Register and buy ticket here ( up to 60 seats )

See you there ( and do try to come from Carlise or Newcastle ). It is 2 hours ish by train.

Social Innovation Camp Scotland

Social Innovation Camp is a project that aims to use social technology to achieve social change. Now it is coming to Scotland, with an event being held at the Saltire Centre in Glasgow from 19 to 21 June.

Here is how the event is described on the Sicamp website:

From a Friday evening to a Sunday afternoon, we’ll be bringing together some of the best of the UK’s software developers and designers, together with those at the sharp end of social change. They’ll have just 48 hours to build some web-based solutions to a set of social problems – from back-of-the-envelope idea to working prototype, complete with software.

You can read more about how Social Innovation Camp works here.

They’re looking for ideas from 30 March so if you’ve had a world-changing idea bubbling away inside you, now’s your chance to collaborate with others on it and make it happen.

You can follow Sicamp on Twitter and join the Social Innovation Camp Facebook group to keep updated.

Future of Web Apps is an event: “For Web Developers, Designers and Entrepreneurs and anyone with an interest in the power of the web.” It’s going on tour in the UK. The “Edinburgh” event will be at Sun Microsystems in Linlithgow on 27 May.

There will be a workshop on cloud computing and an afternoon of web apps chat and networking. Among the speakers will be representatives from Microsoft, Amazon, and Moo.

Those interested in government and web 2.0 will be interested to note that one of the speakers will be Stefan Magdalinski, who now works for the digital printing company Moo but was previously involved in the groundbreaking community tools WriteToThem, TheyWorkForYou and UpMyStreet.

Here is a heads up for anyone interested in cloud computing. I recently found out about CloudCamp Scotland.

A CloudCamp is an unconference for those involved in cloud computing to exchange ideas. The first CloudCamp Scotland will be held in at the Appleton Tower, Crichton Street, Edinburgh on 25 March 2009.

Readers may be interested in a new event for those interested in the use of the web in the Scottish public sector. This barcamp will be held in late March in Edinburgh. Signup and more information is here.

What

An informal meeting (a BarCamp) of people interested in the Scottish Public Sector and the web. There will be open discussions on a number of topics (see below) led by someone with an interest in those fields. There will also be food and drink. While there will be people from roster agencies present they will not try to sell you anything under pain of being defenestrated from Microsoft’s fine offices overlooking Waverley Station.

Why

The digital landscape is changing fast. Web 2.0, social media, open source, the credit crunch, website rationalisation all present new challenges we all must face.

Should we be working together?

What skills are organisations going to need in future?

Who has already done it?

And how do you actually do this stuff?

Hopefully this barcamp will go some way to establishing connections and help share experience so we can all do our jobs better.

When

Friday 27 March 2009, 1700-1900

Where

Conan Doyle Suite, Microsoft offices, Waverley Gate, 2-4 Waterloo Place, Edinburgh, EH1 3EG

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Sponsors

Microsoft Scotland

Sessions (provisional)

• Social networking
• Mobile
• WordPress
• Video
• Freeing our data
• Analysis

If we did one of these, who would like to attend ?

Peterborough hosted the first ; perhaps Glasgow, Hamilton, Edinburgh, Inverness the first in Scotland ?

From today, tickets are available for the first ever Edinburgh Twestival. The Twestival concept began as a one-off meetup in London in September. It was a huge success and the concept has now spread worldwide, and Twitter users across the globe will be meeting up on 12 February and raising some money for charity: water.

The Edinburgh event will take place at Hawke and Hunter, 12 Picardy Place, Edinburgh. Tickets are £7 and all proceeds will go to charity: water. It promises to be a great opportunity to put faces to avatars, with the promise of live music and a raffle and auction with some rather tempting prizes. I will be there. Be quick if you want a ticket though — they seem to be selling quickly. You can buy your tickets here.

For more information, check out the Edinburgh Twestival webpage. You can also follow EdTwestival on Twitter and keep up with the event page on Facebook.