Are you planning to attend the Worldcon in Chicago over Labor Day weekend?

Any interesting events planned?

The program is not settled, but I have told the concom I will give a talk about a SETI conference I attended in Green Bank, West Virginia. I imagine I'll wind up on some science and space panels.

I have one friend who, while the rest of us are talking about SF and fantasy in the Hyatt, will be spending most of her time at the Chicago Jazz Festival a couple of blocks away.

Won't be there, unfortunately. If I were, I'd split the difference with the jazz festival, probably. But it would be nice to hear your panel/talk.

My Chicon schedule, though nominally subject to change, has been posted here.

One Heinlein-related item: I'll be giving a talk on Friday, 31 August, at 9 PM.


Warning: the pocket program says this occurs on Sunday morning; that information is outdated.

In addition, there is a Kaffeeklatsch with me at 1:30 PM Friday-- just a conversation between me and however many people care to come meet with me. There may or may not be actual coffee. I checked the Kaffeeklatsch box on the questionnaire, an action which, in retrospect, seems presumptuous. But they gave me one.

My other Worldcon events:

Ozma Plus 50: My Week Among the Searchers for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
Curiosity: The Mars Science Laboratory (with Guy Consolmagno of the Vatican Observatory)
Inner Space vs. Outer Space
(one of the other three panelists will be Tad Daley, who made the "Heinlein and the Bomb" panel so exciting at the Centennial back in 2007)

Should be fun.

I wish I could be there. How much of Worldcons are now being videoed for the web?

To the best of my knowledge, very little.

The Hugo ceremony on 2 September will be streamed, and there will be a teletype feed of commentary as well. Don't know whether the recordings will be available for later viewing.

Chicon will have a hookup to do a few co-panels with Dragoncon in Atlanta, each con contributing half the panelists. I can find no indication that these video feeds will be available to the public.

One can sift Youtube and podcast sources to find a considerable number of recorded convention panels. Heck, I have a DVD of my own "The Science of 2010 (The Movie, not the Year)" that I should probably put online somehow. But Worldcons are not quite geared up to do this as a regular thing. Yet.

Might be good to lobby San Antonio and London, or even volunteer to help with such a project, if you can.