With its brash motto and minimal website, Manchester 2600 seems the very model of a secretive underground society:

It is aimed at everybody with an interest in computer security, telephony, hacking, phone phreaking, cryptography, internet security/privacy issues, urban exploration and related subjects.

People from all walks of life are welcome, from both the ‘white hat’ and ‘black hat’ sides of the computer security world (you might be surprised at some of the people who have turned up in the past).

Though the Green Room on Whitworth Street used to be its venue of choice, the Bulls Head, opposite Piccadilly Station now hosts Manchester 2600’s monthly gatherings.

The Friday meetings begin at 7.30pm and continue ‘for as long as at least two participants are able to maintain an intelligent conversation’. So maybe not the uber-serious society I had them down as…

Critical Mass, the communal bike ride club/society/gang/thing, returns with its monthly outing this evening. And this time there’s a theme: ‘Dress in outrageous 80s clobber or as your fave goonie for a crazy fancy dress ride around our city.’

The ride begins at 6pm outside the Central Library (I caught it heading down Princess Street shortly after last month) and, in a show of solidarity, apparently hundreds of synchronised events will take place around the world.

Here’s a reminder of why Critical Mass exists:

It’s for anyone that rides a bike;
It’s a celebration of getting round the city without polluting it;
It’s about every journey being an adventure instead of just sitting on a
boring bus or in a stressful car;
It’s about cyclists riding together to demand more respect from other road
users;
It’s a way to meet other cyclistas

See their Myspace for more information. And I’ve got more bike-related shenanigans to follow…

The newly renamed Northwest Vision + Media has announced the follow-up to its entertaining Digital Futures conferences and seminars, which took place earlier in the year.

Its Digital Academies will comprise two three-day residential courses at Manchester’s City Inn in July. Here’s how they’ll work:

We will support a handful of creatives and entrepreneurs to work in partnership with the region’s top production houses on real projects adapting innovative content for new formats, applications and platforms.

Successful candidates will receive professional industry advice and coaching in the application of creative thinking, idea development, pitching and selling. They must have bold ideas and new approaches to creative content.

The production houses in question are Multi Media Arts, Hat Trick North, Channel M, Centini and All Out Productions. Between them their briefs, available on the Digital Futures website, cover online, mobile, radio and - primarily - television platforms.

Thirty successful candidates will be selected for the academies - five of whom may be invited to continue their work with paid placements. Proposals should be submitted by July 4.

This one pretty much speaks for itself:

Naked Bike Ride 2007 Manchester

June 8 at 7pm we will be riding naked to protest oil dependency.

We will meet at 6pm at The basement, 24 Lever street, then ride naked through the streets of manchester.

Hope to see you Bare!

Meg Fenwick
Manchester Naked Bike Ride Coordinator

Full details available on World Naked Bike Ride’s Manchester wiki entry. You can also watch a documentary about the event on YouTube and see a few photos of what to expect on June 8 [not quite safe for work].

It was inevitable really. Set up an exclusive, expensive festival for the arts and a low-budget alternative will soon follow. I suggested as much back in November, and Gareth McCann has since come up with the ingeniously simple name: Not Manchester International Festival:

If every event that happens in Manchester from 29 June to 15 July carries our web address on all its promo material then everyone who’s looking will know where to go to find out everything else that’s happening. And what’s more, everyone who’s putting something on will be promoting not just themselves but everyone else who’s putting something on. So it’s not just great publicity but good karma too.

Gareth was motivated to set this fringe of sorts up after a play he’d written, Lovers Talk, wasn’t commissioned by MIF, meaning no publicity boost for its premiere (Britons Protection, 29 June).

Other promoters have already signed up - including the likes of I’m so Indie (my band wouldn’t play Manchester International Festival even if they asked, which they haven’t) at Dry Bar and the Castle pub on Oldham Street, which will host 20 bands in two days.

Not Manchester International Festival has received coverage on Manchester Confidential and Gareth has started a blog and set up a Myspace too. Good luck to him.