For the past couple of years, I’ve been involved in organising semi-regular gatherings around the country that focus on movement building within the tech activist community.  One of the highlights of the year has been a two-day camp on a farm in the hills above the Wye Valley to do workshops and discussions.

This year’s event takes place from 11th to 13th June and is called BarnCamp 2010.  With it we’re specifically targeting the wider UK activist networks with the goal of increasing awareness and strengthening both the network and the skills base within it.  With two days of workshops on topics ranging from renewable energy to foraging for food to citizen journalism to using free software for activism, up to three nights of camping, open space sessions, evening entertainment and great vegan food all taking place on a beautiful farm co-op high in the Wye Valley, I am sure that it’s going to be really good.

To make the thing a real success will mean a wide breadth of knowledge and backgrounds, with people coming from all corners of the UK activist network. So why not come, get involved, learn some new skills, meet some new people, visit the countryside and have fun.

It’s not free unfortunately, although the low fee does include food and camping and if you think you’d like to come, please do book as places are limited.  Also if you pay in advance, it’s cheaper!  For more information about the event, details of the workshop programme so far and more importantly how to book, please visit this web site.

It’s Tuesday again now and a whole week has just flown by!  I remember last Tuesday, on the eve of the big march in Copenhagen thinking “Blimey, I’ve not even been here half the time and we’ve not even had the big one!” and now here I am, it’s a whole week later, I’m back in Oxford and all that is behind us. (more…)

It’s been an inspirational five days of amazing demonstrations.  From the massive 100,000+ people that took to the streets on Saturday’s dec12 demonstration, to the night-time freezing-cold vigils outside the Valsby detention centre for activists who were wrongfully detained, to yesterday’s Canadian Tar Sands and No Borders protests and the solidarity shown when people were inadvertently caught up in last nights raid on Christiania, the determination and solidarity of those here in Copenhagen has been stunning.  (more…)

Arrived last night in Copenhagen to help out with alternative media here in Copenhagen and struck by the size of this beast, which reflects the enormity of the issues at stake here.  Copenhagen is not a big city and so it’s relatively easy to get from one place to another, but with numerous different conferences, from the main COP15 Climate Talks and surrounding sub-conferences at the Bella Centre, to the alternative Klimaforum09 set up by the Danish authorities for NGOs and other social movement groups, to the daily protests, to the many spaces for activists and protesters to stay at (and the hotels for the delegates) to the Candy Factory, where a mass bike workshop is recycling bikes left around the city for activists to use, to the kitchens set-up to feed activists, it’s all a little overwhelming. (more…)