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HeadOfProgramming for Penguicon2007, MinisterOfCommunication for Penguicon2005 and Penguicon2006, Program Book for Penguicon 2004 through 2006
My first ScienceFiction convention was the first Penguicon. I've been helping to run it ever since, and have been a frequent panelist and presenter there in recent years. I'm on the board of directors of the AnnArborScienceFictionAssociation which runs ConFusion, and cofounded the Macomb/Oakland Fandom Organization (MOFO for short). I am a transhumanist, speak Lojban (see LojbanPresentation), a coffee lover (see CoffeeRitual) and own too many back issues of WIRED Magazine to count.
Probably my most precious physical possession is my Palm Tungsten E, which you could almost call my exocortex. I prefer to read Fictionwise ScienceFiction e-books on the screen of my handheld computer rather than buy them on paper. I'm a fan of CoryDoctorow and personally got him as a GoH for 2005, and fan of ChristinePeterson and CharlieStross who I got as GoHs for 2007.
I invented PanTropia and played it on a Hoberman Sphere at CafePenguicon and at Penguicon 2005. Speaking of games, I am also a fan of the 2006 Gaming GOHs from LooneyLabs.
I do not come from the tech side of the convention, and have not programmed since I copied BASIC out of the back of Compute! Magazine in the eighties, but I know HTML and Cascading Style Sheets. I run UbuntuLinux on two desktops and a laptop (and I really like SymphonyOS a lot), but I also have one happy computer each of Windows and Mac, on which I run a lot of OpenSource software. You can take my FireFox for Windows, OpenOffice for Windows, and TheGimp for Windows, when you pry my MicroSoft computer from my cold, dead hands.
I have expert-level knowledge of Photoshop, Illustrator, In Design, Quark X Press, and Macromedia Freehand. I've been using TheGimp more and more instead of Photoshop. I think InkScape and Scribus show promise as OpenSource replacements for Illustrator and In Design, but are not yet ready for prime time. In the meantime I'll keep playing with them and bug-testing them.
At PenguiCon 2.0 in 2004 I was on the PanelDiscussions “Cyber-Age Mythology” and “The Future of the Divine” with SF author SarahZettel and a panel with CathyRaymond about creating a costume at the last minute called “Help! I Forgot My Costume.” At PenguiCon 3.0 in 2005 I was on the PanelDiscussion “Collaborative Online Fiction” with SF authors CoryDoctorow and JohnScalzi.
I recently wrote post on my blog about what open source software and science fiction might gain from each other at Penguicon.
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