Apologies for the quiet in this space. Blogging is a bit like exercise, when you get out of the habit it’s tough to get back at it.

I do want to pass on some Northern Voice related news:

* Registration is ahead of the pace of previous years, so it’s reasonable to expect we will fill up again. Fifty bucks for two days of social software festivities!

* Actually, it’s two days and an evening. We’ve added an opening night party, Thursday, 7:00pm at Heritage Hall. There’s spaghetti for everybody (Go Boris Go!), and Lee LeFever will be talking about how he blogged and podcasted his year-long trip around the world. Admission is free, though we’re asking for a $5 donation to cover food costs.

* The schedule has been posted. I’m honoured to convene a session with D’Arcy, Jon, Chris, and Sylvia… and whoever else I can convince to show up. Hopefully it will be closer to a Hootenanny than a typical panel yak-up.

* There are some fine Moose Camp sessions shaping up. I’m sure PhotoCamp will once again be a huge success. And Scott has taken the lead on a Mash-Ups for Non-Programmers session in which we will endeavor to actually build some kind of data mashup — we plan to take at least two hours to do it.

* One of the neat ideas organizers came up with this year was to offer six travel bursaries of $500 each to broaden the accessibility of the event. The criteria for awards is on the site.

Last year was exhilarating and exhausting. I’m excited and tired just thinking about it, I very much hope you’ll be part of the party (figuratively and literally).