What a fantastic offer. I should bite his arm off, Stewart. I'm one of the PLUGgers who visited a while ago and the datacentre is fascinating. Quite futuristic in its secure areas and air locks - and I still remember the multiple coloured cables running under one's feet and the giant diesel generator firing up during power outage testing.
Thanks once again for inviting us that time. It was a memorable visit and your talk will be a memorable occasion for the students. Brian > On 19 Jan 2015, at 23:41, Nick Mailer <ni...@positive-internet.com> wrote: > > Hello, > > Nick here. I'm a founder and director of The Positive Internet Company. We > run a datacentre just outside Peterborough - Positive Park - that I know some > PLUGgers have visited. I'm very happy to give an enthusiastic talk to your > students about the Free and Open Source IT we have used in our business for > nearly 20 years. > > Also relevant to your request, perhaps: before founding Positive, I worked a > lot in school ICT, wrote for the TES on computing and was a contributing > editor to ECT Magazine. > > WAY back, in 1993, I wrote the first general UK book about the Internet > called "The UK School Internet Primer", where my ex-computer science teacher > and I were trying to proselytise this new "Net" thing to schools. This led to > my organising the country's first School Internet conference in 1995, where > many teachers first met and encounters it. I was also sponsored by RM to > produce the country's first Internet INSET packs called "Learning the > Internet". > > I'm happy to talk to your students about how I went from being an English and > Philosophy undergrad JUST as the Web was being born, to taking summer jobs in > nascent ISPs to, eventually, co-founding my own hosting company that now > powers some of the most popular UK sites, including the Ricky Gervais podcast > (for which we co-won the Guiness World Record), to serving all the recorded > music you hear on any BBC station or TV program, and in helping the world's > largest insurance company run some of their most secure services: all in a > datacentre we built ourselves just down the road in the Fens! > > Finally, I was also a co-founder and campaigner in this: > http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campaign_for_Unmetered_Telecommunications > > So there's LOTS to talk about :-) > > >> On 18 Jan 2015, at 13:35, Stewart Robertson <stewart.r...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >> Dear All, >> >> I've been a member of Peterborough LUG for many years now although not so >> active recently... >> >> I currently work at Ken Stimpson Community School in Peterborough and was >> wondering if I could interest anyone in volunteering to come to the school >> and give a short chat/presentation about anything ICT/Computing/Computer >> Science/Programming/Technology related? >> >> As passionate as I am about promoting the importance of IT and potential >> careers available in IT it's never quite as powerful as when delivered by an >> external speaker. >> >> We can be flexible with content/dates/times/student ages/student group sizes >> and would be extremely grateful if anyone was to volunteer. I can guarantee >> the students listening will be polite, respectful, supervised and nothing >> like the stereotypical Secondary student portrayed on Waterloo Road! >> >> For you personally you get the benefit of knowing you have had a positive >> impact on young peoples lives and could well be the reason for them choosing >> a career in IT. >> >> If you work for a local business and need to persuade someone 'higher up' to >> give you the time to visit, an article about the event will be written up >> and put in the school newsletter that is sent to every parent. >> >> I look forward to hearing from you. >> >> Stewart >> _______________________________________________ >> Peterboro mailing list >> Peterboro@mailman.lug.org.uk >> https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/peterboro > > -- > All postal correspondence to: > The Positive Internet Company, 24 Ganton Street, London. W1F 7QY > > *Follow us on Twitter* @posipeople > > The Positive Internet Company Limited is registered in England and Wales. > Registered company number: 3673639. VAT no: 726 7072 28. > Registered office: Northside House, Mount Pleasant, Barnet, Herts, EN4 9EE. > > _______________________________________________ > Peterboro mailing list > Peterboro@mailman.lug.org.uk > https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/peterboro _______________________________________________ Peterboro mailing list Peterboro@mailman.lug.org.uk https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/peterboro
