The live stream of the Hugo Award Ceremony from Chicon 7 was interrupted when a bot used by service provider Ustream flagged the inclusion of properly-provided clips from Doctor Who for copyright infringement. This not only affected the general internet stream, but also the stream to Dragon*Con. Ustream was unable to reverse the automated decision in time for the remainder of the ceremony. Chicon 7 is working with Ustream to make the full ceremony available and ensure this situation does not arise for future Worldcons.
I apologize to all those who come to this site looking for news for now having anything up in a timely manner for the past week. Unfortunately, as I was vice-chairing Chicon 7, the 70th World Science Fiction Convention, I didn’t have the time (or, frankly, the internet access) to make my usual updates. I will be trying to post news from the last week from Worldcon, Dragon*Con, PAX, and other sources over the next day or two. My apologies for any inconvenience. -Steven H Silver
The Going Under/Get Up and Over Fan Fund is seeking European fans who would like to stand for the privilege of traveling to Swancon in Perth, Australia, to be held from March 29-April 1, or to Au Contraire in Wellington from July 12-14, 2013. Nominees will need three European and two Australasian nominators and should inform the GUFF administrators of their intentions, provide a 100 word statement and put up a bond. Deadline for nominations is October 11, with the candidates announced on October 13.
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Kevin Standlee reports that René Walling has resigned as the chairman of the Hugo Award Marketing Committee. With an earlier resignation by Kate Kligman, this leaves the committee at three members with Standlee serving as acting president. Standlee invites anyone interested in serving on the committee in the future to contact him and plan on attending the meeting of the Mark Protection Committee at Chicon 7 on Thursday August 30 at 6:00 in the Wright Room.
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In the wake of the Readercon Board of Directors’ decision to ban René Walling for two years due to harassment charges in contravention of Readercon policy, five members of the Readercon board have resigned and the con com has extended the ban as a lifetime ban. Readercon will elect a new board and develop a new policy for dealing with harassment based on widespread input. In addition, Readercon has announced a refund of memberships for Readercon 24 (2013) for those who feel the convention is not right for them based on recent actions.
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San Diego has announced that they will no longer be bidding to host SMOFCon in 2014, citing potential plans for holding a different event the following year. After the San Diego announcement, Colorado Springs announced plans to bid for SMOFCon in 2015.
Following complaints of harassment, the Readercon board has announced they are banning René Walling from attending for a period of two years. The board has deviated from its previously published policy of instituting a lifetime ban against harassers (established in 2008) due to their belief that Walling is regretful of the incident. Walling was the co-chair of Anticipation in 2009 and writes for Tor.com. Many fans and authors have proclaimed disappointment and anger over the board’s decision to deviate from their stated policy.
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The Philip K. Dick Festival will be held at San Francisco State University the weekend of Sept 22-23, 2012. Jonathan Lethem, who edited the Library of America’s three volume edition of Philip K. Dick will be the festival’s guest of honor. The festival will cost $35 for a single day or $50 for the weekend.
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Filed in Awards, Conventions, Paying forward | Steven H Silver, 12:41 pm | Comments (0)
Tags: Ann VanderMeer, Canada, Jeff vanderMeer, Karin Tidbeck, Nene Ormes, Sweden, World Fantasy Con, World SF
Swedish authors Karin Tidbeck and Nene Ormes have been named the recipients of the World SF Travel Fund, which will permit the two women to travel to Toronto, Canada to attend this year’s World Fantasy Convention, with additional assistance from Cheeky Frawg Books, run by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer. The selection board was comprised of Lauren Beukes, Aliette de Bodard, Nnedi Okorafor, Ekaterina Sedia, and Charles Tan. Lavie Tidhar and Sean Wallace administer the fund.
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The Utah in 2014 bid won the right to host Westercon 67 in an unopposed election. The event will take place at the Marriott Downtown at City Creek in Salt Lake City, Utah from July 3-6, 2014. Guests of honor include Cory Doctorow and the team behind the Writing Excuses podcast (Mary Robinette Kowal, Brandon Sanderson, Howard Tayler, and Dan Wells). The chair will be Dave Doering.
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