Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Comings and Goings

Just got back from a relaxing week on Hatteras Island which, other than Ocracoke Island, is my favorite spot on the Outer Banks. It was a fantastic relaxing vacation with lots of family time and more than one cut-throat game of Uno. ProTip: my children are vicious card players, do not trust their innocent faces.

As mad as summer was (swim team - I'm looking at you) school is right around the corner and we're getting ready to settle into a new rhythm. It also means I get to reclaim a bit more writing time in the day and finally focus on the projects that have, sadly, been feeling some neglect.

But first, I have done things and will be going places!

I had a blast guesting on a few podcasts: On Radio Free Skaro #380 I joined Steven, Warren and Chris for a commentary on THE CRIMSON HORROR, one of my favorite epiosdes of Season 7B.  Then I bumped into Sean and Steve at the The TARDIS Tavern where we chatted about Season Six's THE GOD COMPLEX, the brilliance of which is often overlooked in favor of the showier THE DOCTOR'S WIFE and THE GIRL WHO WAITED. We may have also touched on gender issues and the backlash against a female Doctor but hey, this is me - would you expect anything less? ;-)

This week is the biggie - The World Science Fiction Convention, aka WorldCon aka LoneStarCon in San Antonio. I'll be doing a few panels:

It's Time to Crowdsource a Firefly Movie
Friday 19:00 - 20:00
Crowdsourcing a cult movie like a Firefly sequel should be a given, right? So if Veronica Mars can raise 5 million, how much could be raised for Firefly? And why hasn't it been done yet?
Angela Standridge, (M), Jeanne Mealy, Joy Bragg-Staudt, Deborah Stanish

Geeks in Popular CultureSaturday 10:00 - 11:00
The changing portrayal of geeks in media, comics and pop culture in general.
Michael Underwood (M), Lynne M. Thomas, Jason M. Hough, Deborah Stanish


Oddly enough, I will NOT be chatting about Doctor Who at WorldCon but such are the vagaries of programming (and I don't envy them their job).  I will be talking about it a little at the Hugo Award Ceremony on Sunday where Chicks Unravel Time is up against four other fabulous books for the Best Related Work Award. I mean, I'm sure Doctor Who will come up in conversation a little. ;-)

This is my first WorldCon and I'm really looking forward to the experience. There are people I can't wait to see again, people I'm looking forward to meeting "in real space" for the first time and people that I didn't even know I've been missing my whole life. Such is the way of the con. 

In October I'll be at New York Comic Con for "50 Years of Doctor Who" held on Saturday, October 12 at 11:15. This will be a fun panel with Ken Deep, J.K. Woodward, Barnaby Edwards, Graeme Burk and Robert Smith?

And, of course, in November I'll be at Long Island Who with all sorts of fabulous people - but more on that as we get closer.  In the meantime, go buy tickets now before the prices go up at the end of this month!

There are a few other cool things in the works that haven't quite been formally announced yet so I'll hold off.  And of course, there is LOTS to talk about with Verity! but I think I'll save that for another post. 

Finally, it's almost September! I know it's only phantom crispness in the air (Summer never knows when to leave the party after all) but I can feel the changing seasons in my bones and it is good. 

Monday, August 5, 2013

Currency, Words and the Power of a Collective: Why I Observed #twittersilence



Yesterday an awful lot of people chose to go silent on Twitter.  An awful lot of people chose not to.  I chose to be silent. 

#Twittersilence itself was complicated.  There was no real organization and no clear agenda. Were we being silent to protest the heinous and violent threats that women receive on Twitter? Were we being silent to send a message Twitter, and social media a large, that these threats need to be taken seriously as opposed to being the natural result of being part of the internet.  Was it a show of solidarity to the people, not just women, that they are not alone in their outrage?

Yes.

I can't speak for others on why they chose to participate but for me, it was a numbers decision. While I like to think that common decency prevails at a corporate level that's not reality. The reality is that until mainstream media got their hooks into the story of Caroline Criado-Perez's ordeal after having the audacity to campaign for a woman to appear on a bank note, Twitter execs pretty much threw up their hands and said there was nothing they could do.  

But once the rumble became a roar and more women started coming forward and more people started talking about it Twitter decided that, whoops, you know what?  Maybe we can do something about it.  That is the power of a collective

But, dear readers, I'm a cynic. Social media sites don't exactly have the best track records when it comes to dealing with threats of violence- usually sexual – against women.  Facebook has tap danced around this issue saying these threats are simply "crude humor".  But do you know what stings? When the bottom line is threatened.  Or, in the case of Facebook, when activists went straight to the money – the advertisers.

Twitter is a little different.  Yes, there are "promoted' tweets but the real currency of Twitter is words.  Twitter is marketplace where users are both the consumers and producers. Twitter provides the infrastructure for this exchange but without the producers and consumer it is just an empty shell.   We ARE the content.

So, I removed my currency for a day.

Do I think some idiot hiding behind his laptop and anonymity saw I wasn't tweeting yesterday and rethought his life choices?  Please.  But you know what? #twittersilence was a trending topic and even if you disagreed with the delivery the message was the same – we (we the "humans", not we the "women", to paraphrase NPR's Linda Holmes) are not simply going to "deal with it".

I read a comment this morning that said if all the reasonable voices leave, Twitter will be no better than 4chan.  

Exactly. 

I'm not going to debate how socially relevant you think 4Chan but, is the Library of Congress archiving 4Chan's forums?  Do you see 4Chan messages scrolling across the bottom of your television screen during key broadcast events? Twitter has power and we're the ones who give it that power. 

I don't expect the internet to be filled with puppies and rainbows.  I know people disagree with me, and that's good.  Discourse is what makes the internet a valuable tool.  Name calling?  Puerile but whatever, it happens.  Threats of physical and/or sexual violence?  Not acceptable.  

Yesterday, that was the message I sent.  I hope Twitter follows through on its promises.  I hope social media at-large recognizes that this is unacceptable and these threats should be treated as hate speech and given the same level of consideration.  I hope people look at the message of #twittersilence, whether participants were silent or chose instead to tweet positive messages, and realize that we, the collective, have power.