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
Don't forget, the next Penguicon SMOS Dinner is tomorrow, February 6th, 5-8pm, at The Castle Bradaki (http://bit.ly/Castle)
If you don't know where that is, please email our Chair at Penguicon.org.
What is it? SMOS Dinners are where you can come and have a good time. There will be food and drink and merriment. Also there will be SMOS-ing, since that's what happens when any two of us are in the same room together!
Seriously, if you like (or think you MIGHT like) hanging out on the convention weekend, you should come and have fun with us during a SMOS dinner
This SMOS dinner will feature a pasta bar. Several different kinds of sauce, pasta, and veggies for mixing and matching. Plus a tossed salad and bread. Please feel free to bring something to drink, an appetizer, or dessert for sharing.
I am pleased to announce this year's Hack of Honor: i3Detroit!
Of course, it is more of a social hack, a hackerspace, loaded with many smaller hacks than our recent Hacks of Honor, but I feel that this matches with both our new DIY track for people that Make and Craft, and our overall philosophy of making things ourselves, in whatever form and fashion.
For those of you that don't know this local group operating in Royal Oak, here is a short blurb from their "About" page at www.i3detroit.com
i3 Detroit is a collaborative environment for people to explore the balance between technology, art and culture. We feel the best way to create this environment is to bring like mind people together that share a common passion for technology, art and culture.
The community is run by it’s members through voting. All founding members have worked together to create a set of by-laws that all members and non-members are required to follow. The goal is to provide a safe and fun community environment.
We hope to continue to become a community resource by hosting various classes including but not limited to electronics, programming, crafts, Photography, cooking and all other skills that members or others are willing to share. We want to create an environment that promotes learning in a fun non-traditional format.
As the collective continues to grow we hope to build relationships with other Hacker Spaces that are willing to collaborate on projects and classes.
What does i3 stand for: Imagine, Innovate & Inspire
I love this article, it hits so many parts of how and why I like to be creative.
My mission in life is to be able to develop infrastructure that lets humans be creative. I feel that very tangibly inside my self. When I taught school that's what I did. When I made tutorial videos that's what I did. Adam, Zach and I are taking creative infrastructure to a new level by putting the tools of manufacturing into the hands of creative people. Everyday, even the long days packing boxes, we get excited about empowering people around to world create amazing things with our machines.
The next Penguicon SMOS Dinner is February 6th, 5-8pm, at The Castle Bradaki (http://bit.ly/Castle)
If you don't know where that is, please email our Chair at Penguicon.org.
SMOS Dinners are where you can come and have a good time. There will be food and drink and merriment. Also there will be SMOS-ing, since that's what happens when any two of us are in the same room together!
Feel free to bring food and/or drink of your own, please coordinate via chair@penguicon.org if you do.
The next Penguicon ConCom Meeting is on February 6th, from Noon to 3pm, at The Castle Bradaki (http://bit.ly/Castle)
If you don't know where that is, please email our Chair at Penguicon.org.
Please feel free to come to any and all ConCom meetings. Like many Open Source projects, we're run entirely by volunteers and certainly appreciate assistance.
Have a great idea that you would love to put into action, but don't have the finances? The AASFA board wants to finance your brilliant ideas. Our second foray into grant giving will take place at ConFusion next weekend. Here's the board President's email on it:
Have a cool idea you want to do during ConFusion?
Don't have the money to make it happen?
Go to the AASFA Board's panel at 7pm on Friday, where we're giving away grants for cool things you want to do during the con!
Applicants will be required to explain their idea to the Board in front of a live studio audience and answer questions about it. (If you've seen the BBC program Dragon's Den, or the US's Shark Tank you get the general idea.) The Board will then vote on whether to fund it or not. When we did this at ConStruct, most ideas got funded -- but some didn't, and you should be prepared for some tough and entertaining questions along the way.
If you're funded, you get the cash on the spot, so you can go off and get what you need. That's why we're doing it Friday night.
Ideas must:
Be for something executable at the con
Be for something that's open to the con membership, i.e. not a private event or party (it does not have to be suitable for all ages, so you could do something adults-only or something for KidFusion)
Be legal
Be cool enough to get funded!
Some of the things we funded at ConStruct were a Miracle Fruit tasting panel, a pervasive game that ran during the rest of the con, and a puppet making workshop.
Hope to see you there!
-- Joe and the rest of the AASFA Board
There it is, in a nutshell. I can say this, when we did it at ConStruct, it was a lot of fun. The actual process was very entertaining, and the results were fantastic. People really came through with some awesome ideas. I am excited about this new, larger run at it and I hope you all bring your awesome ideas for us to see and fund at 7pm in Salon E just before Opening Ceremonies.
Please get me your GOH names by the end of next week so that I may contact them and set up liasons for them. If you already sent the name to me great, send it again. I want to make sure I have all GOHs accounted for. I would like each track head to send me an email by the end of next week whether you have a GOH or not. If you do not have a GOH, just say "I don't have a GOH." This is so I know every section is accounted for. If you already have Nifties, send them as well. They will be my next focus...
So, if your track has a GOH, send me the following:
Name Website (if they have one) Picture Bio Email address
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 2010 already.
Detroit Troy Marriott 200 W. Big Beaver Rd. Troy, MI, 48084
When: January 9th, 2010 at 12:00 PM EST
Notes: A programming meeting will follow directly after the ConCom meeting (2:30-3:00PM start timeish) at the same location. Attendees can ask the front desk of the hotel with regards to figuring out which meeting room we'll be in.
So anyone at PenguiCon ever hear of the guys at Stardock.com they've got a few games under their belt, and some utilities, and the important part, is that they recently expanded into Plymouth, MI. (Think I heard about them on radio one night...) Might be worth looking into for... item/prize support, demo disks, etc. etc.
I thought this may be of interest to the community.
Cory Doctorow reports that Canadian SF author Dr. Peter Watts was stopped and searched in Port Huron while returning to Canada after a trip to Nebraska. Dr. Watts reportedly got out of the car to question the nature of the search and was beaten, pepper sprayed and arrested on a felony charge of assaulting an officer.
A three-member team has translated Ubunchu!, Hiroshi Seo's manga about the Linux operating system variant Ubuntu, into English with Seo's permission. In this "slapstick school comedy," three high school students — the fervent UNIX user and club president Akane Kisaragi, the hardcore gal-game otaku vice-president Masato Midō, and the dōjinshi-drawing Mac fan Risa Shīna — are learning how to use Ubuntu in their systems adminstration club. Seo has posted one chapter since last April, although he promises to release the next chapter soon. (The manga runs in ASCII MediaWorks' Kantan Ubuntu! (Easy Ubuntu!) spinoff from Weekly ASCII magazine on an occasional basis.)
Story from April of this year, but worth looking into - could make for interesting panel-fodder.
Recall the ACME Deliveries of Penguicons past? Have an idea (or two, or three) for a delivery at the next Penguicon? 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(?) ideas. So there is a post and poll asking about such things.
I sent a message about a week ago to the official site, since I'm registering from Canada and cannot use the regular form. I have not yet heard back. Is this normal? Should I reapply?
Episode 9, featuring the new cohost, is up and ready for download in .mp3 (51.3MB) or .ogg (45.0MB) formats. Check out the website for some great ringtones to download.
If you have invited anyone for a GoH or Nifty, PLEASE shoot me an email and let me know. I am having a hard time keeping track of who is coming because I am not being kept in the loop. The PenguiCon.info has listings of past GoHs and Nifties that may help you get an idea of who you want to attend. And if you need any help in contacting people, let me know. I am good at tracking down people....
There will be a Penguicon ConCom Meeting on Sunday, November 22nd from 12PM EST to 2PM EST (It really starts at Noon, we'll talk casually AFTER if need be!) at Yanni & Brian's House. Please email Yanni for directions at literature@penguicon.org.
Penguicon recently had some conventional mail issues that might have lead to some people having mail returned undeliverable. If this happened to you please resend the item using the following address: Penguicon P.O. Box 40869 Redford, MI 48240-0869. On the same note if you are getting ready to mail something please double check the address against this one, the address you have might need to be updated. Also please be aware that this address is new as of November 16th so if you sent something in the last few days it might get returned to you, please resend it. Penguicon is sorry for any inconvenience that this issue has caused anyone.
We'll be hosting a room party on Saturday Night, to include LN2 Ice Cream and some beverages. If you're going to WindyCon, shout out!
If you're going to WindyCon and would like to help at the Room Party, please contact me, either here in a comment or via email (I'm the "chair", and we're at "penguicon.org").
happy