THE WORSHIPFUL COMPANY OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGISTS FELLOWSHIP
© Photography by Chris Histed
The WCIT Cutter takes part in the Tudor Pulling River Procession
T he Cito crew were in action taking part in the Tudor Pull at the end of April , organised by the TTRA ( Thames Traditional Rowing Association ). This ceremonial all-day water-born procession from Hampton Court to the Tower of London is some 25 miles . It ’ s further than the Great River Race but we only had four rowers as opposed to six and the barge was dressed in its full regalia so much greater wind resistance … good exercise . Fortunately the weather was fine and we had the great honour of escorting the Royal Barge Gloriana .
Henry the VIII had a great affection for the Tower as he had spent much time there as a child and used to send a personal gift to the governor every year . Hence the tradition the ceremony is based upon . We had the great honour of having the Senior Warden , Chris Histed , as our passenger and his son Felix , an accomplished rower himself , coxing us down .
For those of you interested in rowing in an event or trying a trip out in the barge please contact me , John Gavin , and we will happily make arrangements .
Contributed by Liveryman John Gavin , Bargemaster
Projects & Pro-Bono Panel
Information Technologists Provide IT Support to the Woolmen
W e were recently approached to help automate the annual sheep drive by City of London Freemen across London Bridge . This quaint “ right ” exercised by City of London Freemen has become , largely due to the hard work of a Past Master of the Woolmen , William Clarke , an annual event that appears as a major City tourist draw . However behind the scenes it is the largest annual fundraiser for the Worshipful Company of Woolmen ' s charitable activities .
The problem P & P were faced with was how to automate the booking process which , having become a significant ticketing event , is still done by good-old Excel and lots of manual labour . Our task was to find a low cost solution to a large annual ticketing and booking system that would permit the Woolmen to run the event without being dependent on the goodwill of a single Past Master , while managing the growing demands of having more participants and larger sponsors .
We looked at several solutions , in particular ready-made theatre booking systems and other events . Two issues arose , the first was cost ; there were no systems that provided a means to carry out booking without a charge . Secondly we realised that by its nature we were likely to hold personal data of prominent City of London Freemen and that we would need to abide by European Data Protection laws to ensure that data was safe . This ruled out most public cloud solutions .
The solution now adopted was to find a software developer prepared to produce the product for a nominal fee , in exchange for being recognised as a sponsor , whilst hosting would be provided by a WCIT Freemen who is a director of a private cloud infrastructure company .
The system should be operational now and at a total cost to the Woolmen of below £ 1000 ….. See you on London Bridge !
Contributed by Freeman Steve Smith , Secretary to the P & P Panel
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