A slightly chaotic start (not quite as bad as say The Cheltenham Festival) largely due to me completely forgetting to set up the wall before the end of the introductions :P

But talks are under way, people are still arriving and lunch is being cooked.

I’m just setting up the Sunday grid as I type.

Popularity: 97% [?]

Cogapp are looking for an enthusiastic programmer to join their expanding technical team. You can speak to Mat Walker or Tristan Roddis over the weekend, and they’ll have some recruitment cards that you can pick up. Here’s the job-spec:

You should have at least one year’s experience working as a programmer in web technologies, including dynamic sites, and a demonstrable ability to learn new skills quickly. You must be a graduate, though not necessarily in computer science. You should be interested in a variety of languages and systems.

Intelligence and aptitude is more important than specific skills/experience, although Cogapp use mostly LAMP, Python, some ASP and .NET.

Familiarity with version control (Subversion, CVS, etc.) or content management systems (Drupal, MODx, Plone, etc.) would be an advantage.

Based at their offices in the centre of Brighton, you will work on varied and interesting projects (including web development, touchscreen kiosks and interactive installations). Clients include major national museums in the UK and the US, charities, government departments, and major financial corporations.

You will be part of a small and friendly team who work closely and collaboratively both on the immediate requirements of Cogapp’s clients, and exploring new developments in digital media. Plus you’ll get cake every Thursday.

Salary 14-19K, depending on experience.

See http://www.cogapp.com/jobs for application instructions.

No agencies.

Popularity: 87% [?]

Premasagar Rose is going to be helping people broadcast video from the talks at BarCampBrighton2, using Yahoo Live. This will allow people to tune in from all over the world and join in the sessions.

He first tried this out at SemanticCampLondon and had people watching from other countries discussing the topics of the talks and asking questions.

This time, he’s put together a Greasemonkey script that enables (rudimentary) group functionality for Yahoo Live, so it’ll be easier to see who’s streaming video from the event. So, please bring a webcam (external cams preferred) and become one of our broadcasters.

Prem will blog in more detail about this later.

As well as the potential video streams and the Backnetwork for attendees, there’s also an #barcampbrighton IRC channel for the event up and running on irc.freenode.net. Our friendly bot magnus_volks will be logging the channel and uploading transcripts to the barcampbrighton website from tomorrow.

Popularity: 83% [?]

Sussex University campus map (PDF)

If you’re driving, head for the Sports Centre car park (P5) on the map. It’s free to park for the weekend.

Falmer House map (PDF), with BarCampBrighton2 rooms shown in yellow (ground floor), red (1st floor) and green (2nd floor)

When you first arrive on Saturday, head for the Falmer House building, where you’ll be registered and then directed to the “Regency” room where we’ll be serving breakfast (bacon, sausage and veggie baps plus cereal and coffee/tea) and doing the introductions.

Popularity: 53% [?]

Keep an eye on your email, as we’ve just sent out a link to your event name-badge. We’ll supply the lanyard, but you need to print your badge and put it in a suitably sized plastic wallet that you can hang from the lanyard. You know the type, we’ve all got them lying around.

The name badges are important; you’ll need to keep them visible at all times during the weekend and once registration has closed, they will be your ticket in and out of the building.

We have *loads* of lanyards, but only a 50 or so spare plastic wallets, so please, please try and supply your own where possible.

Whilst you’re rooting through your email, look back a few days for your Backnetwork activation email; only about half of you have created accounts. The Backnetwork collates blog posts and photos from all the attendees and lets you build a micro-formatted network of relationships.

Once registration and the introductions are over, we’ll also make the weekend’s schedule editable so you can post the details of your talk, along with any slides or links, so it’s well worth getting your account set up.

Photo by Ben McLeod

And finally beer. Mmmm. Beer. I’ll be drinking beer in The Globe at about 6.30pm on Friday night; please feel free to join me if you’re around. If anyone fancies a post-event beer or two on Sunday or you just fancy catching up with what happened over the weekend, then we’re planning on being in Grand Central (just opposite Brighton train station) on Sunday from 7ish.

One last thing; Jon Linklater-Johnson is looking for a place to stay on Friday night. If worst comes to worst, he might have to shack up with a bunch of stags and hens, but if you could offer him a comfy sofa to crash on, then he’d probably give you a part in Semantopoly.

Popularity: 61% [?]