[kwlug-disc] Cory Doctorow tickets!

[Paul Nijjar]

So it seems that Doctorow tickets are not going as briskly as the
organizers hoped. The last I heard they had given away about 150 of
the 400 tickets. So if you have contemplated abstaining so other people
could attend, you should just come out. (However, only get tickets if
you actually plan to attend. No-shows don't help anything at all.)

Could you help spread the word about these events on your social
medias, with your friends, and in your other user groups? I feel
confident that lots of people in this region would be delighted to see
Doctorow speak if they knew he was coming, but I worry that people
don't know that he is coming. It will be embarrassing if we cannot
pack a 400 seat theatre to see him.

- Paul

On Tue, Nov 21, 2017 at 10:13:41PM -0500, Paul Nijjar wrote:
> Hey ho, 
> 
> So it looks as if there are tickets available for both the evening
> event (which will be a lecture) and the afternoon event at the KPL
> (which is mostly a book signing). Tickets are free, but please get a
> ticket only if you will come. No-shows are a pain to deal with, and
> the organizers want to have a full house.
> 
> Here is the ticket link for the full talk: 
> 
> https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/cory-doctorow-tickets-39834896247
> 
> The talk is now open to the public, so you do not need to be a UW
> member to attend (and you may let others know as well). 
> 
> Here is the link for the KPL talk (which links to Eventbrite): 
> 
> http://www.kpl.org/85-queen-afternoon-cory-doctorow-ticketed-event
> 
> Also: there might be some people needed to help volunteer at the event
> (registering ticket holders, getting a queue of people without tickets
> so that they can attend if there is space, etc). Is anybody available
> Monday evening to help with this? I do not know for certain that they
> need help but it is plausible. Having a laptop or tablet that you can
> use for registrations would be helpful. 
> 
> 
> 
> Here is the abstract for Doctorow's talk:
> 
> ------------------------------------------
> Dead canary in the coalmine: we just lost the web in the war on general
> purpose computing
> 
> This is the decade in which the unstoppable temptation to solve your
> problems by breaking everyone else's computers really starts to chomp on
> our collective butts. The World Wide Web Consortium just gave in to
> Netflix's demand to break every browser in the world in order to make it
> incrementally harder to pirate TV shows, while this year at a summit in
> Ottawa, the Australians demanded that all the world's crypto be
> sabotaged to make it incrementally easier to conduct mass surveillance.
> 
> The general purpose nature of computers, capable of running any program
> that anyone can conceive of, is an iron law of nature, not a fetish of
> mulish nerds who refuse to acknowledge the importance of catching bad
> guys or watching TV in the proscribed manner.
> 
> The technical nature of this problem, the complexity of its contours,
> and the awful fallout from ill-conceived "solutions" make for a toxic
> brew. Any time you have a  problem that is boring, complicated and
> important, you have big trouble (this is the origin of the climate
> change crisis!).
> 
> Computer scientists and technical people have a solemn, urgent duty to
> drag their less-informed peers into this debate, before it's too late.
> After all, a car is computer you put your body into, and so is a campus
> building, a skyscraper, and a Bombardier CS300. A pacemaker is a
> computer you put in your body, and so is a cochlear implant and an
> implanted defibrillator. A phone is a computer before whose cameras you
> parade naked, while speaking your most sensitive secrets and living out
> your most private moments.
> 
> If we don't get computers right, everything else will go terribly,
> horribly wrong.
> ------------------------------------------
> 
> 
> I have not publicized the talk on kwlug.org but I might do so later
> this week. The people at UW want to get their own posters up for the
> event too.
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> http://pnijjar.freeshell.org

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