Hi there to all of you who are coming along to the Skunkworks Connectathon!
##Why is Skunkworks different this year?
Due to some changes in the way the EHI Live is being run following it changing hands last year, we decided to change how we run the Skunkworks section of the show. We wanted to provide an area for people to safely experiment with integration and connections between real-life, full-scale health applications, services, infrastructure, and apps.
##What’s going to happen?
We’re creating an unconference-style open space, in which we can:
- show and tell what resources or services we have available to connect to (this could be a REST service or other infrastructural component, a client application, an app, anything)
- talk with each other about how to integrate, describe the things we need and
- sit together and actually connect stuff right there and then, find out what works, what doesn’t, all while having the team that you’re trying to interoperate with right there in the room to help and solve issues.
- have fun, make connections, swap ideas.
##Where is it?
It’s at EHI Live, on Tuesday 3rd November and Wednesday 4th November. We’re located on stand D11, right next door to HANDI, who in many ways share a similar ‘interoperability and connecting’ ethos, so we may even get some HANDI app developers joining in.
##What is provided?
We will have many of the things from Maslow’s Hierarchy Of Needs:
- shelter from the elements (the NEC)
- tables and chairs
- electricity (but please bring some 4-way adapters if you will need several sockets)
- wired and wireless internet and LAN (please bring your own Ethernet cables if you need wired)
- coffee (from my local roastery up in Leigh, Lancashire - Tank Coffee)
What else do you need? (if you think we have forgotten something important do please let me know at marcusbaw@gmail.com ASAP 
)
##Who’s going?
So far we have confirmed teams from:
- Code4Health - NHS England’s health IT literacy prorgamme
- NHS Open Source Foundation
- NHS Spine Team - who will be bringing Spine In A Box (the entire NHS Spine services running in a sandboxed development environment on a laptop for us to connect to)
- Clinical Calculator API - the team who recently won the NHS Obesity Data Challenge will be there to extend and integrate their API for providing clinically-assured clinical calculations
- openMAXIMS - a full-scale open source hospital PAS and EHR, deployed in several UK NHS Hospital sites
- LiveCode - a simple-to-use yet highly capable app creation platform for iOS, Android and Desktop apps
- BrissKit - Biomedical Research Software as as Service open source integratable platform
And there are more attendees in the pipeline, to be announced soon. And your team don’t need to be on the list to join in, just turn up, plug in, and connect stuff! (you don’t even need a team, you could come on your own with a laptop and sit and code)
##And Then What?
- Connecting apps, services, systems, databases and other stuff together in the name of open standards and interoperability is fun enough in its own right, yeah?
- For those who participated in the Connectathon there will be an opportunity to present what you have made to the other teams, at the end of the 2nd day, and there will be a prize, the winner will be selected in a haphazard and arbitrary way.
- It will be almost impossible to participate without making some good connections and friendships across the eHealth industry, develop collaboration skills, build team confidence, and generally enjoy yourselves.
##OK, OK, where do I sign up?
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You sign up for free EHI Live tickets here http://www.ehilive.co.uk/forms/visitor-registration/
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And RSVP on here http://www.meetup.com/skunkworks/events/222935805/ so we roughly know how many to expect!
Let’s make this event so good we can do an even bigger, even better event next year!
Marcus Baw
Malcolm Newbury
(organisers)