Thinking about the Future

A brief brain-dump on getting to Beijing

It's a long way! Almost 30 hours, door to door, from sunny East Yorkshire to rainy Beijing. Emirates impressed as an airline, although with (much) better entertainment system Manchester-Dubai and (much) better food (and metal cutlery!), Dubai-Beijing. Let's try for good food and good entertainment on the way back, eh?

Nadeem was a life-saver at Dubai, waving his magic card to get all five members of the Talis contingent into an executive lounge for breakfast, showers, and a comfy seat for our three and a half hours in Dubai. Palm trees in the terminal, but not a camel to be seen.

In Beijing, the new-ish airport is truly immense... and all built in the time it took the committee to decide what colour the floor tiles should be at Heathrow T5.

Finally reached our hotel at about 2am this morning... to be told our rooms weren't available. Much debate ensued, which eventually saw us shipped to a different hotel for the night. Now back where we should be, and grappling with the foibles of Chinese internet policy; some sites (like this hosted blogging service) work when you wouldn't expect them to, and other entirely non-controversial locations appear blocked. The corporate VPN is proving unwilling to cooperate at the moment, which makes getting at mail a challenge.

Right, off to finish a presentation for tomorrow...

Hi Ho, Hi Ho... it's off to China we go...

Another month, another trip.

Tomorrow, Tom, Nad, Rob, Chris and I are off to China for WWW2008. We're on two separate planes from the UK to Dubai, but meet up there for the onward journey to Beijing on Sunday morning.

We've got quite a presence in the Linked Data on the Web workshop on Tuesday, which Tom is co-chairing, and then Chris has a paper on Friday. It looks as if I'm moderating a panel straight after his slot on Friday too, which should be fun.

Chinese firewall rules etc permitting, I hope to be blogging proceedings on Nodalities and at my latest blogging venue; the Semantic Web blog over on ZDNet. There might even be some contributions on other media channels; more on that later!

Prepare for lift-off...

It's the day before Ian and I set off for the Web 2.0 Summit and associated activities in San Francisco, which means it's time to overload the National Grid charging iPods, headphones, cellphones, pdas, laptops, and the rest.

It's also time to start clock-watching for British Airways' online check-in to open just after lunch... as SeatGuru suggests there are only four 'green' seats in our cabin... and we want two of them.

I wonder if there are any good films/movies on the flight? First, though, to tackle the list of jobs that really ought to be done before I fly...

See some of you when we land tomorrow evening...

Technorati Tags: Talis, web20summit, web2con, web2summit

I am still here...

...just devoting blogging effort to sites such as Nodalities rather than here.

San Franciso for a whole week next week with Ian Davis, so maybe that will lend itself to some blogging here... and there.

Web 2.0 Summit, Sun, Metaweb, Radar Networks, Open Content Alliance, the Apple Store, and a whole load more...

Technorati Tags: Talis, web2summit

North America, here we come

Another month, another trip with Rob.

This time we're taking in a couple of North American capital cities, doing Ottawa and Washington back-to-back. Oh, and Toronto. But only because Air Canada appear not to fly direct between the two on a weekend, and I'm not convinced that moving from one claustrophobic aluminium tube to another at an airport counts as visiting a place.

I'm clearly destined never to see Ottawa when the canal is fit for skating on...

So for anyone in Ottawa, and anyone in or heading to DC for ALA; see you there!

As for me... I'm off to log the trip with dopplr.

Technorati Tags: ALA, Talis

Danny Ayers

I've been itching to tell people about this for a while. Now officially mentioned on the new web site's news page, and in our new CTO's blog. Lots of 'new', but still plenty of 'good old...', and room for a whole heap more 'new', too, so watch this space!

For those who don't know Danny, check out the podcast... ;-)

Technorati Tags: Danny Ayers, Talis

Congratulations to Ian Davis

Some great and well-deserved news concerning friend and colleague Ian Davis enters the public domain...

And I agree with every word. Read the lot, but the last two paragraphs bear repeating;

“So here’s the pitch from the new CTO: if you want to face the challenge of creating something world-changing; if you like the idea of a company that controls its own destiny and is small enough for you to change it; if you never want to stop learning; then I want to hear from you.

Come and find me at XTech this week, or grab one of the other 8 Talisians that are going and get the lowdown on what it’s really like to work here. If you can’t make XTech, then email careers@talis.com and tell them I sent you :)”

Technorati Tags: Talis

Off we go again

WWW2007 was great last week, and there's plenty of coverage on Nodalities and elsewhere.

I can't help feeling, though, that Tim had the right idea in heading off up a mountain for a day...

XTech starts in Paris tomorrow, so it's time to finish off my presentation, pack, and head for Humberside Airport and my flight.

See you all there...

Technorati Tags: Linked Data, open data, xtech, Talis, WWW2007, XTech2007

Getting to Canada

Finally in Banff, Alberta, for the Web conference.

Yesterday was a long day; out of the house about 0600 UK time, and down to Heathrow. Boarded plane, which then proceeded to sit on the ground for almost two hours before taking off. I was next to a friendly baby (at least I was when the cabin crew weren't kidnapping her to play in the kitchen or show her off to the pilot), and Rob was sat in front of the most miserable old couple, who seemed to hold him personally responsible for their lack of leg room.

Once in Calgary, it was then two hours in a (ridiculously hot) little bus to arrive at the hotel and discover that I was in one (small) room last night, and moving to a (better, allegedly) different room today for the rest of my stay.

Rob had a bigger room last night, and a stunning view that Flickr really doesn't do justice to.

Quick dinner, then bed more than 24 hours after leaving my own bed earlier that day...

Now in Tim Berners-Lee's keynote, fighting for wifi with the rest of the room.

More later, after copious coffee!

Technorati Tags: Talis, WWW2007

Let the travels commence

May is one of those absolutely insane months, where the conference organisers of the world unite in order to cram in as many events as possible before (presumably) the tourist season prices the good venues out of their reach.

I could provide a scarily long list of all the events we Talisians thought about attending this month, but honestly can't remember them all. We have selected a number of them, though, and my two kick off after next week's Bank Holiday as Rob and I jet off to the Web conference, way up high in the beautiful Canadian Rockies.

Given previous experiences with Air Canada, I'm making sure I have plenty of my own entertainment along... and my nice new headphones to block out the world.

After next week's panel convening in Canada, it's off to France the following week for a speaking slot at XTech.

Both events look great, and I look forward to meeting up with various people while I'm there. I also hope to line up a good pipeline on the current series of podcasts, which I am really enjoying.

Although disappointed not to see some of the people at Semantic Technology the week after, I am definitely glad to be spending some time at home... and not crossing the Atlantic and all of North America twice in a fortnight.

Travel-related mutterings on here as usual; proper event commentary on Nodalities. Glad we have a long weekend here in the UK before that little lot kicks off...

Technorati Tags: Podcasting, Semantic Web, Talis, Talking with Talis, Web 2.0, Web 3.0, WWW2007, XTech2007