The good people behind OpenTech 2005 (23 July 05, Imperial College, Hammersmith) have announced a provisional schedule, and it looks great. I’m chairing the first session in the seminar stream:

Practical Open Content 11.30am – 12.20pm

Chair: Suw Charman

Paula Le Dieu – Science Commons

Tom Chance – Remix Reading

Steve Coast – OpenStreetMap

Rufus Pollock – announcement of Free Culture UK

My only disappointment is that this means I’ll be missing one of my all-time favourite speakers, Danny O’Brien:

Living Life in Public 11.30am – 12.20pm

On the Net, you can go from obscurity to slashdotting to global fame to obscurity without making a penny. You can have privacy or influence, but not both. You can be famous for fifteen people, but not keep a forwarded email a secret. Danny O’Brien talks about the decoupling of fame and fortune, and the new security of obscurity.

Danny and I have chatted briefly about this subject before, and I was really looking forward to seeing how his idea for the talk had evolved. Guess I’ll have to beg someone to record it for me instead.

Another tough choice will be:

The Future is Open (or should be) 3pm – 3.50pm

Chair: Ben Hammersley

Jeremy Zawodny, Yahoo Troublemaker

The last few years have seen interest surge in “open” technology, standards, formats, and APIs. Why is this important for those who use and write software, those who create and enjoy digital media, and those building new businesses? Jeremy will make some informed speculation where is all this headed and talk about what Yahoo doing in these areas.

vs.

Where’s the British EFF? 3pm – 3.50pm

Chair: Danny O’Brien

Does the UK need a membership digital rights organisation? And if so, what cool-sounding acronyms haven’t already been taken?

Panel discussion with:

Cory Doctorow, Electronic Frontier Foundation

Ian Brown, European Digital Rights

Rufus Pollock, Open Knowledge Foundation Network

Woe is me. Alas, alac and woe. And alas again.

So, if you’ve nothing better to do on 23 July – and trust me, you don’t have anything better to do on 23 July – you should come along. Will be a great day, with suitable amounts of disorganisation and chaos to keep us all amused in the breaks.