There is no hacker word of the week this week.

The feature this week is the recording of the live interview I conducted with Cory Doctorow at the New America Foundation (where I now work.) We talked mostly about his new essay collection, “Context” but as usual the conversation ranged widely from there, especially when we opened up to audience questions.

My thanks to both Cory for his time and John Taylor Williams for getting me this audio.

View the detailed show notes online. You can grab the flac encoded audio from the Internet Archive.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Share

The crew responsible for this video did a great job capturing the purpose, outcomes and experience of being involved with this first group of hackers to anchor a hackathon in the halls of the EU Parliament. They produced a couple of accompanying videos focusing on the start and end of the hackathon, both of which were the portions that took place within the Parliament building in Brussels.

As Caroline de Cock explains in the video, the hackathon was organized around two goals, internet quality and government transparency. I helped organize the work on the former, working to select the participants and staying up as much as I possibly could through the 24 hours of hacking and attendant activities to offer my expertise on the source code of the network measurement experiments hosted by Measurement Lab. (Yes, that is the project I’ve mentioned as being a large focus of my current day job.)

We are already talking about next year. Stay tuned, there may be related activities between now and then working on these same two fronts, sponsored and organized by those of us behind the EU Hackathon.

Share

In the intro I gave another brief travel update as I am leaving right after releasing this episode for Brussels to participate in the EU Hackathon. I have booked my travel to Paris for the first full week of December. Speaking of events, Cory will be in DC November 22nd and I will be interviewing him at a live book event followed by Q&A. Another event, which I won’t be attending, but looks worth checking out is the Indiana Linux Fest.

The hacker word of the week this week is fontology.

The feature this week is a rant on how copyright is becoming toxic. This is partly informed by currently events and partly by my current and recent reading.

View the detailed show notes online. You can grab the flac encoded audio from the Internet Archive.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Share

In the intro, a reminder that I will be at the Ohio Linux Fest this weekend. If you are going to be there, come and find me!

The hacker word of the week this week is flush.

The feature this week is a discussion of my experiences traveling to Budapest, Hungary for Transfabric, focusing on the event itself. If you want to hear my personal impressions, in rough form, I recorded about ten minutes each night I was there.

View the detailed show notes online. You can grab the flac encoded audio from the Internet Archive.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Share

I don’t expect Ohio Linux Fest to be as diverse as Transfabric but I am sure I will meet people coming to Linux from many different backgrounds and for many different reasons. One of the key personal lessons for me from Transfabric was realizing the extent and important of the differences around a common focus where it is often too easy to take for granted what motivates people to Make. At a Linux fest, focusing on a tool I use every single day of my life, it would be even easier to unknowingly have a blind spot filled in with my own assumptions and biases.

I count myself rather fortunate for being able to experience these two events back to back. The fact that I am now much more keenly aware of how short a short flight it will be to travel just a couple of states away, that I won’t have to carry my passport or exchange currency already puts me into a different state of mind approaching what would otherwise be a familiar, even a comfortable experience. Hopefully the much simpler nature of the trip itself will allow me to focus on paying more attention to those things I take for granted in the Linux community.

I have no set schedule for the fest, just following my interest. I hope to be able to maybe capture an interview or two but haven’t had time to approach anyone ahead of time. At a minimum I expect to be able to do some networking that will bear fruit as future interviews and segments for the podcast.

Last but probably most important I know that some listeners and readers will be in attendance at Ohio Linux Fest. If you haven’t already, send me an email. I will be getting in Thursday night and leaving Sunday night so there should be plenty of time to meet with anyone interested in doing so. I haven’t signed up for any of the goings on Sunday and don’t have to be at the airport until later so maybe if there is enough interest we can pull together an ad hoc meet up over lunch.

Share

The DC event is being hosted by my employer, the New America Foundation, and will feature a couple of my colleagues, Tom Glaisyer and Rebecca MacKinnon. I’ll be in attendance for at least part of the evening.

The book looks fascinating, offering cases studies across many disciplines for how Creative Commons licenses are being used successfully. Sounds like an excellent reference to bolster the usual set of high profile instances commonly used by free culture advocates. I hope the event offers some highlights of the work that went into the book and a chance to learn more.

Share

In the intro, a warning about the rougher nature of the event audio in the feature, a heads up that there won’t be new podcasts on Sunday 6/5 or Wednesday 6/8, a welcom to any new listeners from Balticon, and a correction from Randal.

There is no new hacker word of the week this week.

The feature this week is the recording I capture of my copyright panel at Balticon 45 this past weekend.

View the detailed show notes online. You can grab the flac encoded audio from the Internet Archive.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Share

I’ve struggled with science fiction conventions in general for the last couple of years. I owe a great deal to the organizers who have invited me, offering me tons of opportunities for valuable public speaking experience. Coming largely from the technology and policy worlds I’ve always felt a bit of an outsider. The common thread of podcasting has not always helped. In some ways it has made it harder because of the assumptions my peers make about what it is that I do and how I go about it.

This year I think I finally managed to strike a comfortable balance both personally and professionally. My new job may have something to do with it. In my mind, my recent shift to working full time in public policy as a technologist is thanks in no small part to the public speaking I’ve been able to do and the almost six years I have been podcasting. I am uncertain how many of the over capacity crowd who showed up for my copyright panel knew of this latest step in my career until I mentioned it in my introduction. Make of that what you will but my own knowledge of my new situation helped when I felt almost overwhelmed at the start speaking to such a large, interested audience all by myself, unlike years past where I’ve had some great panelists to help share the load.

Just as likely contributing to the general positive experience I had is the possibility that I’ve just learned to let go of some of my expectations and second guessing. At the polar opposite from the near panic inducing crowd for the copyright panel, my FLOSS and tech geek birds-of-a-feather was really only attended by a couple of good friends. A few other friends and acquaintances spotted me in the bar and wandered over without realizing why I was there. I didn’t feel the need to push the conversation strictly to the topic, especially since the event was unofficial. I probably could have promoted it more strongly if I really wanted a larger, more focused turnout. Regardless, I simply enjoyed the time with the folks who were there, whatever it was they wanted to talk about.

The new podcast I have been doing with my good friend John Taylor Williams may also have contributed to my greater enjoyment and ease. The home brew panel I was on because of Living Proof went well with the only criticism I heard being that it really should have been two panels so that an hour each could be dedicated respectively to beginning and advanced topics. I would be up for that next year especially as I will have that many more beers under my belt. Outside of the programming, I suspect my being increasingly known as a home brewer, a beer enthusiast and a podcaster who talks about these subjects may have also made it easier for some folks to approach me. I get that the tech and policy geekery can be intimidating which I why I usually don’t bring it up unless specifically asked.

I’ve long since made my peace with the fact that conventions are simply too hectic to spend anywhere as much time with my far flung friends as I would like. All the same, I was delightfully surprised with how many friends I did see. Often that renewal of friendship or acquaintance went well beyond the simple exchange in passing that is the much more common occurrence. My volunteering load was much lighter this year, some of that by design and some by accident. I am sure that also helped me have a better social experience. I will definitely consider my experiences this year when deciding on how much I want to shoulder at Balticons future.

On the whole I have to put this Balticon well towards if not at the very top of my list of science fiction convention experiences. That positive ranking even includes the almost whole day of the convention I missed due to feeling very shabby (a likely touch of food poisoning exacerbated by a series of misfortunate decisions the evening before.) No one thing really stood out but overall I enjoyed myself immensely and feel I acquitted myself well (with the exception of the panel I missed due to being MIA) as a program participant. I have plenty new experiences (one inspiring one in particular) from this convetion that I hope will serve me well at future ones as well as at the new venues, events and engagements where I will find myself thanks to my new day job.

Share

My panel schedule this year is lighter than in years past but includes reprisals of two of my favorites. On top of my official participation, I will be volunteering on behalf of the con’s official podcast to help record author readings. This is one of the reasons I love volunteering at Balticon, getting to meet authors of every stripe and level of achievement. As an averred SF reader hearing them read selections of their works in their own voices is excellent compensation for the time and effort spent helping to record them for posterity.

• Brewing Your Own Beer at Home
  Saturday, 1PM to 2PM in Derby
  “Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.” – Benjamin Franklin 

  Our panelist of novice and master home brewers take you through the basics of making your own craft brews at home. They will also explore the DIY philosophy that got them involved in home brewing, podcasting, open source software, etc.

• Copyright in the Digital Age
  Saturday, 2PM to 3PM in Derby
  What you don’t know is costing you moneyA discussion of the benefits and dangers surrounding cultural production on a globalized, digital platform. Technology has a long history of shaping our cultural arts. Around 1900, technological reproduction had reached a standard that permitted it to tangibly reproduce all known works of art, profoundly modifying their role and effect in the artistic process. Laws were made to strike a balance between an individual artist’s incentive to create, and the virtues of a public domain, where others can experiment and improve upon previous ideas. In today’s “Digital Age”– an era defined by the ability to make copies and share information at the speed of light– art, music and literature that participate in the online ecosystem are being perceived differently, taking on a new aura. Ironically, the artistic material that is produced and shared online; that which forsakes the Barnes and Nobles and Virgin records shelves to exist only in non-tangible form, is now deemed “Content,” rather than art. But “content” implies that it is a thing– that it can be contained, bought and sold. What consequences might this re-branding of art and creative work hold for future generations? What is the fate of our cultural creative commons?
• Open Source Software for Everyday Use
  Sunday, 2PM to 3PM in Derby
  What we use at home and at work to free us from software giantsDo you feel that your creativity is held back because you can’t afford programs like Photoshop, Final Cut, or Microsoft Office? Our panel of experts have freed themselves from the bonds of expensive closed software ecosystems and you can too. Whether you’re just fed up, want to try new things, or can’t afford to pick up the software you want, there is an open source alternative available to you. Find out what packages our panelist use, how to find software that fits your need, and how to join the amazing communities that spring up around open source software.

  Chances are you probably use some OSS, and you don’t even know it. Our panel of open source developers and evangelists discuss the facts and help you find the OSS packages that can free you from outrageously high costs, bizarre licensing practices, and poor interface design. Come and learn ways to save yourself money, improve your productivity, and secure your computer. You don’t have time or money to ignore OSS anymore. Set yourself free.

In addition to my official commitments and volunteering, once again I will be convening the FLOSS and tech geek BoF. My co-host and the producer of the Living Proof Brew Cast and I will probably host the BYOBS for beer geeks and home brewers again though we haven’t discussed the details yet. I am positive it will be by invitation only like last time so come and find either John or I early in the convention to receive the nod and learn the location.

Share

For the past two years at Balticon, the annual convention run by the Baltimore Science Fiction Society, I’ve organized an unofficial and largely ad hoc gathering of FLOSS and general technology enthusiasts. (Here’s my announcement from last year.) Turnout has been small but dedicated and I enjoy doing it as a bit of a warm up before getting into the con proper.

I will be convening the birds of a feather again this year, in the same place around the same time. Instead of two hours, I’ve decided to simply offset it by half an hour from the official schedule and hang around for an hour. Why offset it? For the same reason I scheduled it for 2 hours in years past, so folks can join even if they have other commitments. If enough people show and want to keep the discussion going, there is no reason we cannot continue the conversation.

What: Birds of a feather, a term from technology conferences that simply refers to an off schedule or unofficial gathering driven by mutual interest rather than a specific topic or event

Where: The Paddock Bar (You cannot miss the hotel bar, even if you’ve never been to the Hunt Valley Marriott, it is straight through the lobby. Also it is a public space so if you are in the area but not attending the con you can still join us.)

Who: The bald hacker (me) with the Tux table sign and small, bean bag penguin

When: Friday, May 27th from 9:30PM to 10:30PM (longer if there is interest)

Why: Because there is a not surprisingly high proportion of FLOSS and tech geeks amongst the usual con going crowd

Hope to see you there!

Share

On April 28th at 3D/DC, the 3D printing community will descend on Washington, DC to show policymakers what they are up to. Panels will introduce the 3D printing community to the DC policy community, and explore some of the policy issues that this disruptive technology will implicate. During a demonstration phase, you will be able to see this technology in action first hand, and speak one-on-one with people and companies on the cutting edge.

I will be there, for the new day job no less. The event is free and open to the public but does require an RSVP.

3D/DC: 3D Printing Comes to the Nation’s Capitol, Public Knowledge

Share

Listener feedback was from Craig who wrote asking for more info on TIA and Jort with a great suggestion on using game style mechanics and feedback to motivate exercise. Jort’s anecdote reminds me of the work of Jane McGonigal who has a new book out.

The hacker word of the week this week is flag day.

The feature this week is a talk I gave at MITH about the International Amateur Scanning League. I used one of Dan Bull’s videos, the one about WikiLeaks, in my presentation as well as sharing clips from the FedFlix collection that IASL helped digitize. The clips were The Real Person, a smoke jumper training video, the Longines Chronoscope episode featuring Eugene Black of the World Bank, and The Big Picture installment covering the Army talent show.

View the detailed show notes online. You can grab the flac encoded audio from the Internet Archive.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Share

A friend of mine, Justin (@justgrimes), at UMD had been working with MITH to try to get Carl Malamud to give a talk about the International Amateur Scanning League, the public digitization volunteer effort to which Justin and I have been contributing time since last Summer. I was cc’ed as a possible alternate should Carl be unavailable.

For those that follow Carl on Twitter (@carlmalamud) you know that while he is in the DC area on a pretty regular basis, he’s almost always completely committed time-wise to meeting Congressional and White House staff for his day job, Law.gov, the effort to free the text of our body of laws for access online. I am happy to step up in his stead to speak about IASL, the volunteer based, public-private partnership that Carl started.

The folks at MITH have just posted the details of my presentation, which will be in the McKeldin Library on Tuesday the 15th from 12:30PM to 1:45PM.

“The International Amateur Scanning League, Unlocking the Federal Archives One Work at a Time” by THOMAS GIDEON

The federal government has produced and continues to produce a staggering amount of material, most of which is released directly into the public domain. The policies and processes for providing broad access in the age of the internet are still catching up both to that volume and new technologies. Experiments in public-private partnerships have been tried with varying degrees of success. Even the most successful are burdened with odd limitations and restrictions. A small group of volunteers working directly with the National Archives are trying to change that.

The talk is free and open to the public if you are in the area and can make it out. Otherwise, MITH will be recording it to release on their podcast later as will I. In fact, if I can get it edited up that Tuesday night, I should be able to release it as the feature in next Wednesday’s podcast.

There are more details, including links to directions, at the MITH event page.

Share

In the intro, I talk about SCALE 9x for which I have two free passes for the first two people to send me an email asking after them. I also play the official promo for the expo.

Listener feedback is from John, Charles and Mike in response to my rant on the pseudocommons.  John framed his question on his blog.  Charles and Mike contributed their thoughts in the comment thread for the episode. Charles also commented on my interview with Gabriella Coleman, to which she replied with some excellent sources for further reading. Charles has started his own new blog to further explore some of the ideas that informed his comments on the pseudocommons rant.

The hacker word of the week this week is fix.

The feature this week is some event recording I captured at Wiki X DC, the local tenth anniversary celebration for Wikipedia. These are just two talks out of an entire day’s worth given by Archives staffers and Wikipedians. I was there on behalf of Fedflix to talk about that project.

The first talk I have was given by Jill Reilly James. She works with online public access at the Archives where she is a staffer (though her talk isn’t an official statement by the Archives just her own views). She talks through using the existing and new search interfaces. Jill also blogs at Narations, the official Archives blog about online public access.

The second talk I have was given by Sarah Stierch who is working on the Wikiproject for Public Art. She mentions the SIRIS database, a site discussing the “morally correct” statuary at Union Station, and Tony Smith.

View the detailed show notes online. You can grab the flac encoded audio from the Internet Archive.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Share

Awarded every year since 1992, EFF’s Pioneer Awards recognize leaders who are extending freedom and innovation on the electronic frontier. Past honorees include World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee, security expert Bruce Schneier, and the Mozilla Foundation and its chairman Mitchell Baker, among many others.

This years recipients are transparency activist Stephen Aftergood, public domain scholar James Boyle, legal blogger Pamela Jones and the website Groklaw, and e-voting researcher Hari Krishna Prasad Vemuru. Vemuru is the security researcher jailed, now out on bail, for his investigation into e-voting systems in India.

Candidates are nominated by the public and selected by a panel of judges. The full list of judges is in the announcement but among them are Cory Doctorow, a good friend and role model of mine, and Barbara Simons, with whom I am acquainted through her current work with the ACM.

The award ceremony will be held on November 8th, at 7:30PM, at the 111 Minna Gallery in San Francisco. Cory Doctorow will be the host and also attending, along with the recipients and several other notable folks, a VIP event beforehand.

If anyone reading this will be at the award ceremony and interested in covering the event for my podcast, let me know.

Transparency Activist, Public Domain Scholar, Legal Blogger, and Imprisoned E-Voting Researcher Win Pioneer Awards, EFF

Share

After some confusion at the registration line yesterday, I made my way into the ridiculously crowded show floor to find Ed. The exhibit tables were packed into a medium sized ball room but easily could have more comfortably fit into a space twice as large. I made my way through the entire set of tables until I found Ed at pretty much the last table I checked.

We had a fantastic discussion, a solid hour of audio, which I look forward very much to sharing in a couple of weeks. We also got a pretty good stream of folks coming and going from the expo to watch as we chatted. There is a break in the audio that I may leave intact where both of our trains of thought are derailed by a larger group. I have to thank Ed for being so generous with his time especially as he was working at the expo, selling copies of his books.

After I walked back to Ed’s table, I did one more circuit around the show floor looking for artists I know. A couple of the web comics I read had mentioned in the week prior they would be at the show. The only one I found was David Malki of Wondermark. He is an incredibly nice guy and was very indulgent as I gushed about his work. I was instantly taken with the set of books produced by Dark Horse collecting his work. They are absolutely gorgeous and overflowing with extra content and gags in the same vein as the comic itself. I picked up the first hard cover volume, which David signed, along with a few new stickers to adorn my laptop. I will definitely be picking up the other hard cover volumes from his site and look forward to his new book, “Machine of Death“.

The most surprising thing about the book is how much my wife enjoyed it. Malki’s humor can easily be described as surreal though at times that would be an understatement. I thought it might be too much for her sense of humor but seeing the tears streaming down her face from laughter just a few pages in, I knew I had misjudged her appreciation of the absurd. Or underestimated Malki’s ability to appeal more broadly. My desire to acquire his other books is now at least as strongly driven by Andrea’s desire to catch up with the web comic as my own desire to enjoy the extra flourishes he installs in the print version.

I could have spent more time on the show floor or even checked out more of the programming at the Expo but was still feeling burned out from Dragon*Con. If Ed returns to the Expo next year, which seems likely, I may plan a longer day trip to not only catch up with him again but to absorb more of what the world of web comics has to offer.

Share

In the intro, a quick end of month update on the podcast’s finances and you can find all my posts from Dragon*Con past and present using the dragoncon tag.

There is no new hacker word of the week this week.

The feature this week is the panel audio from the Creative Commons and legal issues panel I moderated at Dragon*Con 2010. I was joined once again by Randy Chertkow of Beatnik Turtle and Courtney Perry, lawyer and now law professor. The new panelist this year was Brian Ibbott of Coverville who was very generous in sharing his experiences as an early and still active music podcaster. In the discussion we mention both “Free Culture“, by Lawrence Lessig, and “The Public Domain“, by James Boyle.

View the detailed show notes online. You can grab the flac encoded audio from the Internet Archive.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Share

This year’s Dragon*Con was a productive convention for me. I have two features worth of audio to edit and master for releasing in the coming weeks. I also participated in recordings for Technorama and View from the Quad. I’ll post links when those episodes are released. I had many long and interesting discussions off the mic. I hope to be able to follow up on some of those threads throughout the coming year. Despite the paucity of hands on and how-to programming this year, I was approached several times while volunteering and happy to share my technical experience with some up and coming podcasters.

I think my wife said it best, over lunch this afternoon before we got under way. This year was the quietest, calmest Dragon*Con of all the ones I’ve attended. In some ways, that was a good thing. I didn’t feel over stressed at any point and got plenty of rest. The crowding was a bit tough in spots, so the calm also acted as a good psychic buffer. In other ways, it was a bad thing. The socialization seemed far more sporadic, I think because we were missing the social glue provided by my dear friends Chooch and Viv who couldn’t make it this year. I did get to see all of my friends and acquaintances who I knew to be there but the partying and carousing of last year never quite cohered in the same way.

While the podcast track had a few standing room only panels, something just felt missing there too. Maybe it was the second year of being in the shadow cast by the growing and deservedly awesome skeptic track. I have some seeds of ideas, mostly notions for growing my own involvement in the podcasting track beyond those aspects on which I have focused to date. Logistics, staffing and gear are well in hand, the problems of the past long solved. It should have occurred to me last year to start expanding my attention to other areas where I can now help.

I had been on the fence in the months leading up to Dragon*Con, mostly because of the cost but also because of absent friends. I can say I have no regrets sticking with my plan to attend, far from it. As with each year past, the con has presented me with a new face and associated new experiences. I do feel that I am increasingly better able to keep my expectations at bay, contemplating the con as it unfolds including the lessons it provides. In that regard, the con was once again a rewarding and enjoyable personal growth opportunity. I am strongly leaning towards coming back for a sixth year to explore further facets of this immense and complex con experience.

Share

Immediately after my volunteer shift this morning, I moderated the Creative Commons and legal issues panel. I was extremely happy to be joined once again by Randy Chertkow of Beatnik Turtle and Courtney Perry. We were joined by Brian Ibbott of Coverville who was more than glad to share his experiences working with collection societies to legally use the cover songs he shares in his show. Once again I was surprised, and delighted, that the conversation with the audience ran right up to the time limit and clearly could have gone on unabated for another half an hour. I want to thank my panelists once again and everyone who came out to learn more about the topic.

The big event for today was the Parsec Awards. I have to give massive credit to the steering committee and the MCs, George Hrab and Christiana Ellis. The show was tightly run, a joy to attend. The category for which I was a finalist was won by Skeptoid which is hosted and produced by Brian Dunning. The category was packed with awesome shows amongst whom I was honored and delighted to be counted–Skepticality, the 365 Days of Astronomy, and the Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe as well as Skeptoid.

I did not make it out to the TWiT/Sword and Laser meetup as planned and I apologize to anyone who was there and looking for me. That is often the way cons go in my experience. Even with a simple plan, things change, conversations run long. You often choose to capitalize on time with people you only get to see infrequently.

On the other side of following serendipity, I had not expected to catch George Hrab’s live show. After a full day of volunteering before heading to the Parsecs and dinner, I didn’t think I’d have the energy to make it. I’m glad I did. George is a consummate pro and his show was both rocking and hilarious.

Share

The podcasting track room feels much more organized this year. I showed up first thing this morning to find things in good order, not needing much attention. The track kick off was standing room only with an all star panel including P.G. Holyfield, Veronica Belmont, Len Peralta, Tom Merritt, Brian Ibbott, and Bobby Blackwolf. I enjoyed the couple of panels for which I worked as staff, a good mix of live shows and how-to content.

After finishing my shift, I re-grouped with the wife and we had a nice sit down dinner again in the hotel restaurant. There were no stars evident but we were there much earlier than last night. Afterwards we waited in one of main programming’s infamously long lines to see the MST3K/Cinematic Titanic crew. We were a little disappointed that after the Q&A they didn’t do a live show but they are on plenty of panels throughout the rest of the weekend. Only for the size of the line I doubt we’ll see them again but they are definitely not skimping on participation.

The last event for me was Chuck and Kreg’s live Technorama. Late on Friday is a tough slot, especially as a lot of folks are drawn into the first wave of parties throughout the con. I think they acquitted themselves well and had some fun and funny material. When everyone in the audience knows each other and the podcasters on the dais, it tends to be a lot more casual and as many jokes crack from the audience as from the stage.

Tomorrow is going to be a long day. With the con fatigue setting in so unusually early, we’re spending a quite night in. Hopefully our noisy neighbors won’t be too much of a problem with my first 10AM volunteer shift tomorrow. I have two one-and-one-half hour shifts followed by my sole panel as participant. I have one free slot between then and the Parsec Awards ceremony scheduled to run two-and-one-half hours. At this point, I may or may not make it over to the Westin to catch the last bit of TWiT/Sword and Laser meetup. As I said, tomorrow is my longest day of the con.

Share

It amazes me how much earlier the con gets going in earnest each year. Last year, I walked the main floor of the Marriott with Chuck and Kreg from Technorama snapping pictures of early cosplayers. We reprised that with the pair of them donning their own costumes, as MiB. It wasn’t just the fans, though. Before we all headed to the Marriot, as Kreg and I waited in the Hilton’s restaurant for our non-staff friends to trickle in from the nigh apocalyptic lines for pre-registration, we were witness to a half-cast reunion of Firefly with a couple of alumni Stargate cast thrown in for good measure. If I don’t make it out of the podcasting track room this year, I won’t feel cheated.

I hope everyone else who is here is already enjoying the head asplosion inducing awesome that is Dragon*Con for themselves. For everyone else, we promise to share lots of pictures and no s%!^ there we were stories.

Share

I already talked about how this time last year marked the start of my daily blogging habit. It seems like a good time of year for me to start new practices. I’ve undertaken three in the last few weeks that seem to be sticking well. They are small things, not directly related to my hacking or other pursuits but helping to maintain and improve my overall health and mental well being. The coming week may present a bit of challenge as any con, let alone Dragon*Con, is chaotic and can be highly disruptive to daily routines.

Tomorrow, I will get to re-connect with friends I see about once a year and am getting excited about the prospect. In fact, since programming doesn’t start in earnest until Friday, tomorrow will be all about the opportunity to hang out with friends. Since Balticon is my local con, I don’t typically arrive early for it and miss out on this window driven mostly by out of town travelers. It is my turn to be the out of town con-goer and I am looking forward to it.

Share

Not surprisingly, Dragon*Con feels deeply steeped in personal traditions. I’ll be working with the same group of excellent volunteers. I’ll be reprising my discussion of copyright, Creative Commons and legal issues for podcasters with the same core of well informed panelists. Randy Chertkow, of Beatnik Turtle, and I will once more try to find a quiet spot at some point during the weekend to catch up on a year’s worth of music, innovation, and a little bit of tech. I’ll be seeking out the same amazing falafel place in the nearby mall. We’ll be circulating through some of the same room parties and enjoying the live broadcast of the Masquerade Sunday night.

My schedule this year is light, outside of my staff commitment. You can see where I know for sure that I’ll be below or on my Google calendar. Best way to find me during the con is to check in at the podcasting track room, 204 in the Hilton, or via Twitter.

Podcasting Track Kick-off
Friday 1PM, Hilton 204

Volunteering
Friday 2-5PM, Hilton 204

Technorama Live!
Friday 10PM
(I’ll be in the audience, supporting my good friends Chuck and Kreg)

Volunteering
Saturday 10AM-1PM, Hilton 204

Creative Commons and Legal Issues
Saturday 1PM, Hilton 204

Parsec Awards
Saturday 4-7PM, Hyatt Regency V

TWiT/Sword and Laser Meetup
Saturday 6-8PM, Westin Sundial Bar
(I’ll make it out for as much of this one as I can, given the conflict and the distance between the Hyatt and the Westin)

Volunteering
Sunday 10AM-1PM, Hilton 204

I am trying to keep my expectations light. This year’s WorldCon has drawn away many friends and acquaintances and several others are not making it out to either convention for a variety of reasons. It would be easy to give in to the notion that Dragon*Con will be a ghost town but that is not fair to those people who are still going. It would also discourage remaining open to serendipity, getting to know mere acquaintances better, making new friends, finding the kind of surprises that are much of the joy of any kind of travel, let alone con-going.

If you are going to be at the con, find me and say, “Hi!”

Share

If you missed HOPE like me, the media captured of the talks is making its way online. I saw on Twitter earlier today Jason Scott, of TextFiles.com and Get Lamp fame, mention that the audio is starting to appear on the official site. Look at the bottom of each talk’s description for links to audio in lower and higher quality MP3. In years past, the organizers of HOPE have also published video bia BitTorrent, hopefully that will show up soon too.

Another conference of interest was the one put on by the Open Rights Group in the UK, ORGCon. The topics all hit my own particular sweet spot including copyright and digital media, privacy, and some of the lousy new policy to come around recently, especially the Digital Economy Act and ACTA.

Compared to HOPE, it is a bit more understandable for those of us stateside not to have made it across the pond for what looks like an awesome event. I recall clearly some fascinating live tweeting on the day. Now if you are interested you can view video of the various talks. Almost as good as being there, especially with speakers of the caliber of Jamie Boyle.

Share

If you’re going to be at either the Summit or the training day let me know. Better yet, come and find me and say hi. If you are in the San Francisco area or can get there easily, I will have two evenings more or less to myself while in town. I have recommendations for a couple of brewpubs. If anyone wants to gather for a meetup, let me know and I’ll organize something.

Share

In the intro, thanks to new donor, Scott, and a request that existing donor Ryan contact me so I can send him his merit badge. Also, there will be new feature cast this week. I need to catch up on writing features for the show and I will be attending two events in DC this week: What Does Light Taste Like and Decoding Digital Activism.

This week’s security alerts are researchers form collective in response to Microsoft’s dismissal of a security concern and REMnux, a linux distro designed for reverse engineering malware.

In this week’s news new quantum states could lead to new approaches to quantum computing, the Apache web server conquers the world, another constructive criticism of transparency, and the NSA is looking to implement domestic surveillance of our infrastructure though they are quick to deny any active monitoring.

Following up this week, two UK ISPs are taking the Digital Economy Act to High Court.

View the detailed show notes online. You can also grab the flac encoded audio from the Internet Archive.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Share

Alex Payne: The headliner that everyone’s been talking about is concurrency. We have a handful of languages on the Camp roster that exist largely to address concurrency problems. Solutions could involve allowing people to spread computations over multiple physical machines in a pretty transparent way, or by providing different single-machine or single-virtual-machine concurrency paradigms. It’s an interesting problem. There’s a lot of conflicting takes on how relevant it is.

Payne also gives the nod to the perennial favorite driver for new language development, ease of maintenance, primarily through making code more readable. I love how Mac framed that first question, too, evoking language invention as a form of higher order hacking on problem spaces.

Payne teases some of the languages that will be discussed. Even if not all of them are immediately practical, the experience of learning about them and the inevitable comparison and contrast will no doubt be very insightful for a good variety of every day aspects of programming.

Share

In the intro, thanks to my friend Chooch for saving my bacon with the event audio I am sharing as this week’s feature. Also, with regards to the show’s 5th anniversary, I realize I pretty much said my peace on the subject last week. Just trying to keep that spirit of being receptive to surprise alive going forward.

I will save this week’s feedback, of which there is rather a lot, until next week.

There is no hacker word of the week this week.

The feature this week is a recording of the talk Cory Doctorow gave at this month’s CopyNight, here in DC.

There are no detailed show notes for this episode. You can grab the flac encoded audio from the Internet Archive.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Share

I wish I had the funds to be able to make it up to New York next month. If anyone going wants to call in with a convention report, please email me at feedback@thecommandline.net. I have decided to forego some of my usual science fiction conventions next year in order to attend more technically focused events. HOPE is on my list for 2011 since I’ve always wanted to go and it is just a half day train ride away, hopefully I’ll finally be able to swing it.

Share

The CopyNight DC event with Cory Doctorow last night was an unqualified success. I want to once again thank our very generous co-hosts, New America and Public Knowledge for provided the space and video streaming and refreshments respectively.

It is hardly any surprise that the event was packed. I have it from James at New America that we received just over two hundred RSVPs for the event, just about as many as for an event New America hosted earlier in the same day with one of President Obama’s economic advisors.

Cory’s talk was engaging and thought provoking. New America has already made the archived video available, which I’ve embedded above. The audience questions were equally as fascinating as the talk and the general feedback I received afterward as folks were waiting to get books signed and at the happy hour was incredibly positive.

I want to thank Cory for giving us a big chunk of his time on a very busy trip. His thoughts certainly enrich the discussion around achieving a balanced copyright and on access to an open network more generally. I appreciate his help in drawing attention to the Open Technology Initiative at New America, to Public Knowledge and to CopyNight, both the one here in DC and the many other instances around the globe.

Share