It's Sheffield Barcamp this weekend, and I've been wondering about doing a talk / leading a discussion for a while. I would really love to talk more at geek events in general, now uni is nearly over I feel it's time I contribute more rather than just absorb. I want to do this not only because I want to give more back to the community, but also to help me find my focus and USP for the future.

So I'm been thinking about a lot of ideas for talks I'd like to try over the next year. The obvious candidate is my dissertation. I'm highly likely to want to discuss this at Barcamp as it's my last chance to do so before the hand-in, and I think some feedback from the tech community would be really interesting to write about when I evaluate it. It started out as a generic "Why are there so few female software engineers?" and has turned more into something about education, interest and confidence. In general I've found doing the research really interesting and I'd love to share some of the quirkier ideas I've found.

Linked to the end of uni idea, and following from some interesting and frustrating conversations over Twitter, I'd really like to talk about my time and experience at university, what is taught well and what isn't and where student, lecturer and employers wants meet and clash.

Another idea I toyed with for a while before deciding time and interest were probably against me is something to do with internet sexuality. How has the sudden influx of sexual information and easier access to niche sexual communities changed perceptions of sex and 'healthy' sexual habits and behaviours. For a while I was interested in taking a psychology masters and sexuality and queer theory are my main interests in this field. I would love a way to be able to link this to my software development skillset in some way but I have no idea how. An obvious problem is that people do take offence or are uncomfortable discussing this topic in a public space and I'd need to do more research in order to have a solid point to make and present.

If worst comes to worst, I'll just bring cookies. Maybe pie.