Posts Tagged ‘ICON’

ICON 35 Author Guest of Honor – Cory Doctorow

Monday, January 11th, 2010

Cory Doctorow is a science fiction novelist, blogger and technology activist. He is the co-editor of the popular weblog Boing Boing, and a contributor to Wired, Popular Science, Make, the New York Times, and many other newspapers, magazines and websites. He was formerly Director of European Affairs for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a non-profit civil liberties group that defends freedom in technology law, policy, standards and treaties. In 2007, he served as the Fulbright Chair at the Annenberg Center for Public Diplomacy at the University of Southern California.

His novels are published by Tor Books and simultaneously released on the Internet under Creative Commons licenses that encourage their re-use and sharing, a move that increases his sales by enlisting his readers to help promote his work. He has won the Locus and Sunburst Awards, and been nominated for the Hugo, Nebula and British Science Fiction Awards. His latest novel, New York Times Bestseller Little Brother, was published in May 2008, and his latest short story collection is Overclocked: Stories of the Future Present. In 2008, Tachyon Books published a collection of his essays, called Content: Selected Essays on Technology, Creativity, Copyright, and the Future of the Future (with an introduction by John Perry Barlow) and IDW published a collection of comic books inspired by his short fiction called Cory Doctorow's Futuristic Tales Of The Here And Now. His next novel is Makers, due from Tor Books in October, 2009.

He co-founded the open source peer-to-peer software company OpenCola, sold to OpenText, Inc in 2003, and presently serves on the boards and advisory boards of the Participatory Culture Foundation, the MetaBrainz Foundation, Technorati, Inc, the Organization for Transformative Works, Areae, the Annenberg Center for the Study of Online Communities, and Onion Networks, Inc.

In 2007, Entertainment Weekly called him, "The William Gibson of his generation." He was also named one of Forbes Magazine's 2007 Web Celebrities, and one of the World Economic Forum's Young Global Leaders for 2007.

He is presently working on a new young adult novel, FOR THE WIN (about union organizing in video games).

On February 3, 2008, he became a father. The little girl is called Poesy Emmeline Fibonacci Nautilus Taylor Doctorow, and is a marvel that puts all the works of technology and artifice to shame.

ICON 34

Saturday, October 17th, 2009

Only seven days until ICON 34 kicks off. Start planning out your weekend now with the latest and greatest pocket program:

www.iowa-icon. com/programmings chedule.pdf

ICON 34

Wednesday, October 14th, 2009

The ICON hotel block will end tomorrow. Get your room ASAP so that you 1) get the discounted rate and 2) help ICON fill our room block with fen (rather than getting mundanes mixed in).

Only 9 DAYS before ICON 34 starts! See you there!

ICON 33

Tuesday, October 28th, 2008

Join us this weekend at the Coralville Marriott Hotel & Conference Center for ICON 33!

Dates: Friday, October 31, 2008 through Sunday, November 2, 2008
Time: All Day

Coralville Marriott Hotel & Conference Center
300 East 9th St.
Coralville, IA 52241 USA
Phone: (319) 688-4000

A Call to Save ICON

Thursday, October 12th, 2006

Fen!

We've got trouble.

Right near Iowa CIty

We've got Terrible Terrible Trouble.

And it starts with N and it ends with N and it spells NO ICON

For over 30 years we have made for ourselves a home, a gathering a place to share stories and art and fun and friendship. A chance to meet other like-minded folk, who appreciate the joys that we have found in all the forms of fandom.

But we are having trouble keeping this society alive. Sociologists report that all forms of communities are failing in America. The blame is put onto all the distractions that have made it possible to stay at home and be isolated. My stamp club and my comic book reading friends all report the same trend. Nobody wants to do anything that requires effort or participation or time!

I've always felt that the rewards of fandom are directly proportional to the effort you put into it. I've also felt that a convention should be inclusive enough to accept the wide range of genres and all their forms.

The challenge we all face is this: Icon has lost about $6,000 for each of the last 4 or 5 years. Our three options are

  1. Cancel the con.
  2. Cut expenses
  3. Increase attendance.

These are all hard problems to solve. But we can solve them by working together.

A meeting will be held at ICON this year, like the meeting that was held at last year's ICON. We need YOU to come forward with ideas, with energy and with a commitment to do something to keep us going. If you enjoy this activity as much as I do, then join us.

Dennis Lynch
Survivor: ICON 1-30