Since the Web 2.0 tornadoes have all but touched down in London, OpenMute along with a number of partners thought it was a good time to set up a social event which looked at new technical developments and projects as well as contemplating the Network Effect more generally.

OpenMute originated out of Mute magazine in 2002, gradually becoming a fully fledged sister organisation with four years of FLOSS development and project work under its belt.

Our work at OpenMute leads us into the intricate realms of designing complex web applications, developing FLOSS collaborations between organisations and advocating FLOSS as part of a wider free culture and media democracy agenda.

As developers of web based software for alternative media, for us Web 2.0 is at one time attractive - a coming of age of the Net - and at the same time a potentially horrendous calamity in which the juggernaut of corporate media is offered an artifically 'democratic' environment in which to reproduce itself at drastically reduced costs.

At Minibar there are a wide variety of things going on and projects will have their feet in different camps: a social networking group, which might not use FLOSS but happily use open content licences; a proprietory-minded network administrator, engaging with FLOSS for a particular project. The cocktail of internet cultures can only get deeper...

As protagonists we decided to step in and promote the ideas we share with other FLOSS groups, for example new projects to develop consortiums for peer investment and/or shared technology – as suggested by Greenman of UK's Drupal.org.uk – instead of going anywhere near VCs or IPOs.

When the Web 2.0 season is over, which, just like 1,0, it will be, the FLOSS and free culture community should be left stronger, not stranded like those poor ponies who had a brush with fate yesterday, 7th December [ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/6190026.stm ]

Hoping to see you at this or future months' events.

Simon

MiniBar2 - announce

You think about creating the next Last.fm, flickr, or Web 2.0 start up? You think London lacks opportunities to meet up and discuss those ideas?
For those who don't have time to attend a full BarCamp, some of us have come up with MiniBar, a chance to snaffle some free beer while discussing p2p, Creative Commons, web applications, social networking and general Web 2.0 mayhem & fandango.

After having 130+ of London's web crowd the 2nd MiniBar will happen at the same place on 8th of December.
For a review and some pictures of the 1st MiniBar see: http://www.openbusiness.cc/2006/11/22/minibar/

This time we will have Saul Albert, Mikey Weinkove from 'The People Speak' presenting a very cool "mobile social networking" project - for a preview look at: http://directionless.info

We also have an Open Call: If you do an interesting web 2.0 (or maybe 3.0) project and look for input, ideas, help with development send us a line and you can present for 5 minutes.

Free Beer is brought to you this time by Panther Express http://www.pantherexpress.net/

The MiniBar concept:

It's fun, it's free and you don't have to bring a sleeping bag. Come to Corbet Place for an early Friday evening get together the at Truman Brewery (off Brick Lane, next to Spitalfields Market and Liverpool Street Station). There's a (normal sized) bar, a DJ, and some nice people to chat to. Who knows, you even might find out something you didn't know.

The meetings will happen at the same place every month.

The meeting is organized by the people behind CreativeCommons England & Wales, OpenBusiness.cc, OpenMute.org and ShiftSpace.cc.

When?

Friday 8th of December 2006 17.30. Talk at 18.30 -- and from then on, freeform. Arrive early before we drink all the beers.

Programme
17.30-18.30 Drinks and Social Tagging
18.30-18.45 Presentation by Directionless.info and others
18.45-19.00 Q&A
19.00-20.00 Mingle with Drinks
20.00 onwards: Keep on drinking.. / DJ

Where?

Corbet Place, Old Truman Brewery
E1 6NH, T 020-77706100

Travel:
Shoreditch tube - 6 mins / NE
Liverpool Street Station - 11 mins / SW
Aldgate East tube - 12 mins / SE
Liverpool Street tube - 13 mins / SW
Aldgate tube - 14 mins / SW

More Travelinformation on http://www.tfl.gov.uk

Sponsors?
Panther Express http://www.pantherexpress.net/

Register?

Send an email to: info AT openbusiness.cc

Contact?

info AT openbusiness.cc