[penguicon-general] A couple of thoughts about programming

[Catherine Olanich Raymond]

On Thursday 26 April 2007 3:24 pm, you wrote:
> On Wednesday 25 April 2007 10:19 pm, Catherine Olanich Raymond wrote:
[snip]
> > Agreed.  I'm not particularly good at thinking up program items, though,
>> which is why I chose to make a conceptual statement and see what kind of
> > responses resulted.
>
> Eh, it's easy.  

For you, maybe.  That's one reason I threw out the challenge.  :-)

> Off the top of my head, things we didn't have this year 
> (and NOT mentioning computer stuff, which would be cheating for me):

Go ahead and cheat! We need more computer stuff!  But I'm not the one to come 
up with it!


> Sword and Sorcery in the modern world (Tron, The Matrix, Kill Bill,
> Bulletproof Monk, Underworld, etc...  And yes Tron's a sword and sorcery
> epic: http://landley.livejournal.com/6926.html )

Right, I remember your post.  This is a good idea.  There's other things you 
could call this type of panel ("The Hero Archetype in SF and Fantasy," for 
one) but your label is good as any.  Who gets put on such a panel would  
depend in large part on who ends up on the ultimate GOH and Nifty list.

> Fun with Whipped Cream

Kinda agree with the people who think this should be a private activity.  
Unless you have ideas about how to have fun with whipped cream *with* your 
clothes on?

> Intellectual Property Law for Creative People.

I was on a panel a few years ago (at ConFusion, I think).  I forget what we 
called it, but the real subject was ways artists could make money with their 
art without needing IP protection.

> Science Fact in Fiction.

This sounds like an interesting idea, but again one I'm not qualified to 
develop.

> Historical Costuming.

That's not one panel; that's a potential panel area that could generate 
multiple panels.  However, I *am* qualified to develop ideas on this theme.  
What I don't know is level of demand, and who else would be willing/able to 
staff same.


> But wait, there's more: managing expectations in XXX.

Meaning?????


> Obscure Geekdoms.  (Road geeks http://www.ray-field.com/roadgeek.htm ,
> Mycology http://www.fungi4schools.org/Beginners_page.htm, Phone Phreaks,
> gun geeks, civil war reenactors...  

Interesting that this area doesn't get hit as a panel topic while the related 
area, of how many fandoms overlap SF fandom (SCA, media, anime, etc.) gets 
hit all the time).  I'd be willing to be on this panel.

> Who can we get to tell us about 
> something they're excited about?  Heck, get Tracy to talk about her nursing
> degree...)

> The Ribbon Panel. 

I have this theory that fen are starting to use ribbons the way mundane 
business people use business cards.  They're a way of getting acquainted, and 
people will usually give you theirs for getting one of yours....


> Munchkin: The Larp.

Well we have SJG's Munchkin RPG as a guide for this, and my friend Mike Young 
has written a generic mechanics system for running LARPs (it's called Rules 
To Live By, or RTLB, and it's kind of a GURPS for LARP).  All you'd need are 
a few GMs....)


> Body Painting.

Definitely a fun activity to have.  Maybe a workshop idea.

> Massage for medical students.

Or "Medical Massage for Non-Medical Students; therapeutic uses of massage for 
the non-specialist?"  Tracy?  Is this possible or just fantasy?

> Punch and Pi.

 What?  Who?  

> Serial storytelling.

Missed a chance to have this when the Looney Labs folk were here.  They have a 
form of it; they call it "Nanofictionary."

> "Just what the doctor ordered": Find an actual ER doctor, give them beer,
> and have them tell us the strangest things they've seen.

I'll stay away, thanks, but the horror fans among us would probably enjoy 
it.  :-)

> Specifically, she blinded me with physics.
>
> Ok, that's 5 minutes.
>
> > I'm perfectly willing to be recruited for program items.  I'd be happy to
> > do the Dark Chocolate Tasting again next year.  (Or let Tammy Coxen do
> > it, and run something different.  Maybe cheese?)
>
> Cheese!  That's it!  We'll go somewhere that there's cheese!

My mention of Tammy was intentional irony, since she did a cheese tasting at 
this year's ConFusion.  My reference was an implicit proposal that we switch 
roles for P 6.0.  (The place I bought the chocolate sells gourmet chocolate, 
but Cheese is one of its specialties, and they'll sell it to you 
shrink-wrapped in heavy plastic, so no refrigeration is necessary until you 
open it....)


>
> Anybody suggested inviting Aardman yet?

Who is he?

>
> > It's also possible to have one person speak on a subject.  If the person
> > is knowledgeable enough, and knows how to work with an audience, that can
> > be a great programming item (Eric and Rob Landley, among others, have
> > done good ones).  But it isn't a panel.  :-)
>
> I don't distinguish much between panels and presentations.  And if you have
> zero presenters but lots of interest, it's a BOF.

Fair enough.  The terminology doesn't matter, as I said to somebody else in 
this thread.  What matters is that the item is good.  The only reason I 
mention the issue is that there are ideas that really *should* be panels but 
end up as one-person presentations because there aren't enough people to make 
it a panel.  

>
> We need an online BOF signup, ahead of time, on the web.  And to do that,
> we need a signup thing that can confirm somebody's registered for the con,
> so we need an interface to the prereg system...

Excellent ideas.  They fit in with the general theme we hit in the 
first "Intro to Penguicon" panel, which is that this con is about *doing* fun 
stuff, not sitting back and waiting to be entertained.  

-- 
Cathy Raymond <cathy at thyrsus.com>

"You've got to have the proper amount of disrespect for what you do."  
-- George Mabry