To those of you familiar with the Linux and Free/Open Source community Think of a weekend long Linux Users Group meeting with hundreds of other geeks, which also just happens to have nationally acclaimed guests, a LAN party, its own wireless network, hotel room parties, lots of folks talking about Science Fiction and Fantasy, a place to buy cool t-shirts and buttons and such, amateur singing, anime, a costume contest, and free caffeine and snacks always available.
To those of you familiar with Science Fiction conventions Imagine all the convention features you know and love, with the
addition of wireless internet access, computer game tournaments, people who know
about online publishing / books on demand / digital art, a programming
track involving computing topics and another one focusing
on the crossover between Science Fiction and computing. Imagine seeing your favorite creative visionaries meet the innovators who are creating the future you read about in SF.
Tech Guest of Honor: Jono Bacon, Ubuntu Community Manager for Canonical
Tech Guest of Honor: Benjamin Mako Hill - Debian/GNU, MIT Media Lab, Free Software Foundation, Ubuntu, Wikimedia
Author Guest of Honor: Vernor Vinge, Multiple Hugo winning science fiction author, computing visionary
Author Guest of Honor: Tamora Pierce, fantasy author, co-founder of Sheroes Central
Webcomics Guest of Honor: Randall Munroe of xkcd Gaming Guest of Honor: Keith Baker, creator of Ebberon world for Dungeons and Dragons
Hack of Honor: The Giant Singing Tesla Coils
A few weeks ago, I posted about stopping sexual harassment at conventions. Today, my friend Carrie is picking up the ball and running with it in what she is tentatively calling Project asc!!, a formalized effort to halt this growing problem.
Penguicon considers this to be important, too. So much so that we are working with Carrie to make Penguicon 2010 the launching pad from which this can be fed and flourish, because what is good for our attendees is good for us; and treating people well is always good for the attendees (despite what I might profess when I'm dealing with your hotel-related emails).
So please, go check out Carrie's Project asc!! write-up, and look for signs of the project around the hotel. More importantly, look for the updated sexual harassment rules in the program book and attend the panels discussing this important topic.
Most importantly—so much so that it gets its own paragraph—know that you can take your feelings of discomfort and/or harassment to Operations, to the ConChair (Randy), or to me and they will be addressed.
I look forward to all of you joining us at Penguicon to make our atmosphere of family more Brady Bunch and less creepy-uncle that you avoid around holiday gatherings.
There will be a Penguicon 2010 ConCom meeting on Saturday, April 10th from 12PM to 3PM at the Troy Marriott. Pre-Meeting is from 12PM to 1PM with the formal meeting from 1PM to 3PM.
Please send any items that need to be added to the agenda (or any questions) to ConChair -at- Penguicon -dot- org.
Recall the ACME Deliveries of Penguicons past? Have an idea (or two, or three) for a delivery at the next Penguicon? Know someone who ought to get something, even if you aren't sure just what? Have an idea that isn't a delivery but might involve the ox?
ACME Delivery needs to know what ought be to sent and to whom to send it. Or even other nutty (or brilliant) ideas. So there is a post and poll asking about such things.
Haven't you started scheming yet? It's March 2010 already.
Oh the ribbon? There are few. The "ACME" ribbon is for anyone willing to wear it, while the supplies last. The "ACME CUSTOMER" ribbon only goes to those who have the (mis?)fortune to receive a delivery. And the "ACME SUPPLIER" ribbon goes to those who supply items for delivery. "ACME CUSTOMER" you can't really do anything about as it happens or it doesn't. But you can become an ACME supplier. Oh yeah, Orvan has a couple ribbons of his own, but you'll just have to wait until the convention to see about those.
Hi everyone. I just wanted to introduce myself as the new Head of Operations. I'm Christine Bender and I'm taking over this year from Mara who is moving on to be Head of Programming Ops. I'm just now getting settled in and am working on getting my info added to the wiki. I've been on the fringes of fandom for many years and worked on the staff for Penguicon 3.0. I'm excited to be taking over and looking forward to being involved. I'll be at the SMOS dinner tonight, so please introduce yourself to me if I don't know you yet. Thanks!
While WAGON Webcomic Battle will have space in the Artist's Alley of the convention throughout the weekend, our offical Tournament activities will take place in the gaming area of Penguicon where we will be doing demos and teaching people how to play. While our schedule may change, the rough plan is as follows:
Game Demonstrations Friday 5-7 Saturday 11-1, 3-5
WAGON Tournament Saturday 7-9
WAGON Tournament Overflow Sunday 11-1
Essentially we will be running demos Friday evening and most of Saturday, with the tournament itself being held Saturday evening. If we happened to have a large enough crowd that we can't get it finished up on Saturday, then the final rounds will take place Sunday before the end of the convention. The rules of the tournament will be dictated by the number of participants, structured in tiers that may begin with short game rules (Ref-provided standard deck shared, 3 Panels) before we move on to normal rules (40 card decks, 5 Panels).
Sign-ups for the tournament will begin in the Artist's Alley as soon as we get our spot and set up our table, and we will being selling decks for anyone who does not already own their own cards along with other gaming supplies. We are also planning to put together a little collecting contest for all that sign up for the tournament, letting you seek each other out and win tokens from each other from random encounters throughout the 'con. A special prize will be provided to the player who collects the most tokens by the end of Penguicon!
We have a small problem. Tomorrow's meeting did not get a general announcement, as we have all been very busy getting things done.
It is at the Troy Marriott, from Noon to 3pm.
There is a SMOS dinner roughly following it (Actually from 5-8pm) at the house of our LIterature Track Head in Clawson. (email literature@penguicon.org for info)
Please let me know ASAP if there will be a problem attending the meeting. I will not blame you for not making it on short notice, but let me know and send me updates via email if possible.
Dale Dougherty and Sherry Huss would like to invite you all to a Maker Faire Detroit - Community Planning Meeting, Wednesday, March 10, 2010, 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM. The meeting will be held at the Main Branch Detroit Public Library, 5201 Woodward Ave., Detroit, MI.
In addition to providing updates on the event, the goal of the meeting is to continue to generate ideas, form working groups, and continue to connect with people and organizations that would be interested in bringing Maker Faire to Detroit.
If there are others that you know would like to get involved, please feel free to invite them. This event is open to the public and we'd love to connect with people, groups, and organizations that should be involved with Maker Faire.
If you've attended a Maker Faire Community Meeting in the past, and want to talk about specifics of your curated area, we'll have our Maker Faire team onsite to work with you. Otherwise, we look forward to receiving your submission to the Maker Faire Detroit "Call for Makers" which will go live on March 15th, 2010 at www.makerfaire.com
SMOS dinner THIS Saturday March 6th at Doma Decker! 5-8pm, we'll provide a main course and some beverages. Please bring something to share, be it a drink, a side, or a really really good performance.
Email yannikuznia at gmail dot com for address and/or directions.
ETA: Yes! There will be vegetarian-friendly main course!
If you want some ribbons, and will be at PENGUICON to get them, please submit an order by March 17.
Please send orders to ribbons@penguicon.org. Please include the word "ribbons" in your subject line.
Put: 0. Your Name (if different from email name) 1. Text you want on the ribbons. 2. Color of ribbon, and color of print (available ribbon colors can be seen here: http://web.me.com/rllarsen70/Site/Colors_Available.html. Please note that text colors are not displayed; they are listed in text at the bottom) 3. the quantity you want.
They will cost $3 per line of text (setup) plus $0.17 per ribbon (quantity).
At the Instructables Restaurant, which launched as a pop-up event at the historic Theatrum Anatomicum of the Waag in Amsterdam, patrons receive not only creatively-cooked food but also instructions for preparing everything they see, eat and use--including the furniture.
For example, someone seeking the recipe for the Tom Kha Gai soup they just enjoyed can either claim it at the restaurant or download it online; and anyone interested in making their own versions of the restaurant's recycled 50-gallon barrel chairs can do likewise.
As an aside about open source hardware, pick up the latest Wired magazine to see a large section on DIY culture and just-in-time small-scale production, as well as Open Source hardware.
MakerBeam is an open-source metal building system. There's a technology called T-slot (example here) that is widely used for industrial automation, robotics and machine enclosures.
MakerBeam has defined a standard called Mini-T which is a miniature version of T-slot. It's small enough to work as a model building system, and precise and strong enough to build real machines and robots with it.
You've chosen to do this as open hardware. Why?
Short answer: because we want it to succeed.
The usual model for starting a business like this is to design it, protect your IP, and use the proprietary IP to capitalize the company in exchange for some percentage of ownership.
We're turning that completely around: We are giving our designs away under Creative Commons licenses. To fund the manufacture, we're offering various rewards to people who back the project, including Alpha and Beta kits for people who want to help us develop and grow.
If someone lent us $10,000, we'd have to pay it back with interest or sell some part of the company. By raising the money in pledges, we can satisfy everyone who has pledged without taking a step that puts the project in debt.
Since we don't have to securitize that debt, we don't have to have restrictive IP. It's a win on top of a win.
Also, we're making components, like nuts and bolts or polished rods. We want people to use them without restrictions, and not be concerned that their supplier might change terms or go under. Anyone can extrude their own Mini-T, so the only way it's disappearing is if the demand for it ceases.
As the convention season quickly aproaches, The World Aliance of Geeks Online Network is proud to announce the first ever WAGON Webcomic Battle Tournament! This benchmark even is set to take place at Penguicon which takes place April 30th to May 2nd in lovely Troy Mchigan. The kind people of the convention have generously provided us space to run demo games and teach our fellow conventionites how to get their game on before the event itself takes place... so if you're going to be there for the 'con and don't know how to play, not a problem it's easy enough to learn!
Not only will we be playing some card games, but quite a number of Card Carrying Member of W.A.G.O.N. are expected to be in attendance as well including Adam Smithee of The Apple of Discord, Fes of PSI, Mark Savory of Autumn Lake, Jason Dunstan of Ardra, and Kez of The War of Winds. Come and meet some fantastic webcomickers, check out some exclusive swag, and maybe get your WAGON cards signed by the artists themselves.!
All this and more as the event devlopes, including prizes and a trophy in the works for the tournament winner. Please feel free to contact us with any questions or comments you may have about this or any other upcoming events, and keep an eye our for more news in the future!
We are in need of 3.5"s and 5.25, any color and condition will probably do. We need LOTS! We're putting together an awesome workshop here in the Eco track about re-using these obsolete pieces. Email me at Ecogeek@penguicon.org if you can get us some.
This year's Author Guest of Honor, Karl Schroeder, joins Alastair Reynolds and past Penguicon Guests of Honor Vernor Vinge and Charlie Stross in discussing the Singularity at Boskone SF convention.
I'm not sure if I missed something but is the Penguicon General Mailing List down? I clicked on the link to update my email address on one of the posts in my inbox and I'm getting a 404 Not Found error. Just wondering.
Yes indeed, the World Alliance of Geeks Online Network makes it return this year to Penguicon, and our collectible cardgame plans to hold it's very first tournament at the event! Come on by and check out WAGON Webcomic Battle... learn to play, meet a number of the webcomickers involved in the game that will be in attendance, and get in on the action. More news as the event forms up!
We are seeking ideas for panels and demonstrations for Penguicon's new DIY track. We are already working on a variety of fun tech craft panels, with the help of some of the members of the Hack of Honor I3Detroit, but we also would like more traditional crafts as well.
We would love to see crafts that include: sewing with conductive threads, recycling/upcycling crafts, duct tape crafts, musical insturment makers, modding action figures or vinyl toys, ceramics, glass, leatherwork. We are particularly interested in crafts that would interest a geeky audience, whether it is by subject matter (like gaming, science fiction, or technology) or by technique.
If you are a Crafter or Maker who is interested in presenting some ideas for panels, please reply to this thread, or email me (Melanie) at earthenwood@gmail.com or you can contact Skennedy at atdt1991@gmail.com
If you are not interested in presenting anything, but have an idea of something you would like to see in the DIY track, we want to hear that as well!
Please be in touch by February 25th so we can get our programming scheduled. Thanks!
happy
At the Instructables Restaurant, which launched as a pop-up event at the historic Theatrum Anatomicum of the Waag in Amsterdam, patrons receive not only creatively-cooked food but also instructions for preparing everything they see, eat and use--including the furniture. 
MakerBeam is an open-source metal building system. There's a technology called T-slot (example here) that is widely used for industrial automation, robotics and machine enclosures.