Dear Branch member,

This issue includes: news about this year's meeting programme, web competition results and BCS goes blogging, and early warning of our open evening in November. Be sure to put November 29th in your diary for what should be an excellent and informative session on Identity Theft.

We start our 2007/8 programme with a highly topical session on Green IT, sponsored by OneClick Technologies. We hope to see you there.

After this summer's extreme weather, the first session of our 2007-8 programme is highly topical. Although the falling prices of server hardware have created an illusion of falling operational costs, the cost of computer hardware can now be dwarfed by the infrastructure required for power and cooling. Zahl Limbuwala, chair of the BCS Data Centre Specialist Group will discuss these issues and describe the model built by the DCSG which can forecast the carbon and cost benefits of migrating to a virtualised or grid environment.

As well as sponsoring the pre-meeting refreshments, OneClick Technologies will be showing demo models of their IntelliPanel and IntelliPlug devices, and offering discounts to branch members. Check our program page for details after the meeting. We also hope to raffle off some of the demo kit after the meeting.

From a record number of very high quality entries, Faringdon Community College just pipped a team from Abingdon School to win the Oxfordshire Schools Silver Challenge Cup. Faringdon had built a site brimming with advanced features: RSS feeds, home-written Content Management, Web 2.0 technology, paying good attention to internet safety, bandwidth, and cross-browser compatibility. Details of the prizegiving event and all the other excellent entries are on the results page.

BCS has "stealth-launched" several blogs. Find them at http://www.bcs.org/blogs or use the MyNewsfeed display option on the branch home page to display a blog or newsfeed of your choice in the right navbar.

At the end of August, we sent a poster and a folded business-card size summary of our 2007-8 meeting programme to all UK resident BCS members who belong to Oxfordshire Branch. If you weren't on the list, details are on our downloads page for you to download and print.

You can also download the meeting details as iCal entries individually or combined from our programme page.

We have just, as a branch, joined the Oxford Trust. As well as supporting an excellent local project, we qualify for member rates on room hire at Science Oxford. The Oxford Trust is set up to encourage the study, application and communication of science and technology. Their members include individuals, companies and schools. The trust runs workshops for primary and secondary schools, holds public exhibitions and seminars, and develops initiatives in support of the local high-tech industry.

We have exclusive use of the exhibition space and "Hands on" exhibition at Science Oxford. This event is an opportunity to provide feedback on what you, our members, would like from the BCS as well as a chance for you to find out what we already do for our membership, with a focus on the Young Professionals Group (YPG). We are especially eager to meet current YPG members or potential young professionals: our aim is to find out what you wish from the BCS now and in the future. This is your chance to network with our branch members and meet your Committee. There'll be raffles and mini quizzes during the evening with various prizes. Refreshments will be provided.

More details to come in next month's eBCSOxon newsletter and on our website.

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