[penguicon-general] A couple of thoughts about programming

[Tracy Worcester]

I'm not sure I could pull together a full-time science track, but I'm
definitely willing to volunteer to at least try to pull together a
proto-track.  I will note that it is, once again, likely to be medicine
heavy, given my biases.  (:

...Tracy

On 4/24/07, Matt Arnold <matt.mattarn at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Cathy,
>
> This is a good place to discuss it. The only way for Penguicon to get
> the kind of programming one wants to see, is to ask the general
> population of attendees to provide it. The schedule is largely
> crowdsourced-- in other words, it consists of whatever volunteers step
> forward to do. That grassroots method is why we had a hundred program
> participants this year.
>
> That having been said, there is a way to formally encourage there to
> be more programming of one kind or another. That is to recruit a
> deputy of the programming department to run that programming
> subdepartment.
>
> For instance, I had computer, literature, gaming, anime, music, sword,
> webcomic, and food deputies. I handled the science/futurics/crossover
> programming myself.
>
> Some deputies organized more programming than others, but what
> mattered is that the quality was quite high and we tried to spread out
> each track and keep it from clumping up. Some of these were light,
> such as costuming, but at least they were not nonexistent. We would
> have been very weak on media programming had not Ferrett's wife Gini
> Judd (a Nifty Guest) saved my bacon by coming up with some ideas for
> that. I suspect that when you talk about having game, music, and anime
> tracks, what you mean is panels talking about these topics. Volunteers
> to come up with topics they would like to speak on would absolutely be
> welcome. It's great to come up with ideas on the list, get some people
> excited about them, and get those excited people signed up to speak.
>
> The science track has been increasing year by year, although mostly in
> medicine. This time we had our first Science GoH Christine Peterson,
> who spoke on Life Extension, and Nanotech Safety. There was also
> "Cellular Visions: The Inner Life Of A Cell", and The
> Brain-As-Computer Metaphor. I'll be very pleased if we continue this
> trend.
>
> To segue onto a related topic, crossover has not been mentioned here.
> Although concom roles are highly fluid this time of year, the incoming
> conchair and I have been talking about whether or not I want to head
> up programming again, but at the very least I would like to be the
> deputy for crossover/futurics programming for 2008. This would be one
> of the hats I would wear. (Minister of Communication plays to my
> strengths, was never really replaced, and is a role I intend to
> reprise.)
>
> One thing I realized from several comments over the course of the year
> is that different people mean different things by "crossover
> programming" but they often don't realize there are other definitions.
> I frequently hear from prospective panelists, "I can't be on that
> panel because I only know half of it", and I tell them the other
> panelists know the other half and getting them together to learn from
> each other is the whole point. That's how I know a crossover panel
> when I see one.
>
> Since the two main tracks of Penguicon are computers and science
> fiction, a more restrictive definition involves events at the
> intersection of real-world technology with inspiration from futuristic
> imagination and vision. Look how The Future Of Spyware was a panel
> with a security expert and a science fiction author. The podcasting
> panel was simultaneously about the computer tech of podcasts, and the
> fiction content some of them offer. The presentation on the current
> project of self-replicating 3D-printers was so visionary it was a
> realization of the political and economic renaissance many SF stories
> look forward to in the 21st century, but the hacker community is
> making it real.
>
> Others definitions are more restrictive, but no evaluation of the
> state of crossover programming can be effective without an
> understanding of what one means by the term.
>
> -Matt
>
>
> On 4/24/07, Catherine Olanich Raymond <cathy at thyrsus.com> wrote:
> > This year's Penguicon had a boat load of program items of a bunch of
> different
> > kinds. Some cons refer to similar types of items as program "tracks."  I
> was
> > thinking today about the "tracks" we had, and a few we *might* want to
> > consider adding for 6.0.
> >
> > By my count (which could easily be wrong) these are tracks we had:
> >
> > *  Technical Track (items about Linux, or computer/technological
> issues);
> >
> > *  SF Track (items about fannish stuff);
> >
> > *  Martial Arts Track (courtesy of Aegis, mostly, but I thought I saw at
> least
> > one Tai Chi workshop, so that adds to the variety);
> >
> > *   Food Track  (impressively successful; the Dark Chocolate Tasting
> ended
> > after about 40 minutes because 9 of the 12 varieties of chocolate I
> brought
> > to sample were already all gone);
> >
> > *   Gaming Track --i.e., special events associated with gaming.  This
> > included, impressively, not only Celebrity Munchkin and the slate of
> GMed
> > games but also the miniatures workshops.  It might, or might not, be
> > interesting to add a few gaming-related panels to the schedule too.  (
> E.g.,
> > a "new developments" or "upcoming products" panel, which maybe some game
> > manufacturers would want to do).
> >
> > And here are a few tracks it might be worth adding:
> >
> > *  A costuming track.  We had, I think, two costuming panels.  Possibly
> there
> > isn't more demand for more, but it may be worth checking out.
> >
> > *  A science track.  Neat developments in the world of science.  A good
> number
> > of the General Technics folk are professional scientists (Bill Higgins,
> > Jordan Kare, Charles Lane, Brother Guy, to give a few examples off the
> top of
> > my head) and have given panels/talks at SF conventions in the past.
> >
> > *  An anime track.  Since the anime room was so dead this really may not
> be
> > worth doing.  If we feature an anime GOH next year, we may want to
> consider
> > supporting him/her with some related panel items.
> >
> > *  A music track?  This should, I think, include filking, but could
> include
> > performances by pro and semipro musicians (not just The Great Luke Ski,
> > please!) or even panels about things like the history of filking or
> > music/technology crossover issues (e.g., DRM).
> >
> > We already have a bunch of workshops (writing, belly dance, martial
> arts,
> > minatures) and I think this is a trend to continue, though I think it
> would
> > be inappropriate to consider them a "track" per se.
> >
> > May as well do some brainstorming while everybody's still high on the
> sucess
> > of the con....
> >
> > --
> > Cathy Raymond <cathy at thyrsus.com>
> >
> > "You've got to have the proper amount of disrespect for what you do."
> > -- George Mabry
> >
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> >
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