Saturday August 25
Generation next - a masterclass with Cory Doctorow on the future of copyright,
blogs and science fiction.
“
I'd rather stake my future on a literature that people care about enough to
steal than devote my life to a form that has no home in the dominant medium
of the century.” (Cory Doctorow, Giving it Away, Forbes.com)
Given that fans of science fiction were early adopters of technology, digital
rights activist, blogger and science fiction novelist, Cory
Doctorow sees cyberspace
as the ideal home for the genre. The award-winning author has published three
science fiction novels, which are available for free download from the internet
(craphound.com). Leading by example, Cory has championed the need to bring
copyright issues in line with the online environment of the 21st Century, arguing
that e-books should be seen as a way of winning new audiences rather than losing
sales. Leave the hardcopy world behind and join Cory on a journey into the
world of cyberspace and find out how to navigate your way through e-publishing,
digital rights and find out the best ways to generate and direct traffic onto
a blog. This cyber star will also share his insights on writing techniques,
critiquing and understanding the science fiction market.
Event code 202
Notes for participants
Level of experience required: None specified
Genres & themes: Science fiction, blogging, digital rights
Submission policy: None required
Venue: City Museum - Spring Street entrance, opposite Collins Street, city.
Click here for their website
Times: 10am - 4pm *
Prices: Full: $195 Concession: $175
Concessions are Age Subscribers, Unemployed, Pensioners, Victorian Writers'
Centre members, Arts Hub members and Australian Writers Guild members, Seniors
and Students.
Bookings: Malthouse box office
Ph: (03) 9685 5111
Fax: (03) 9685 5112
In person: CUB Malthouse Theatre
113 Sturt Street, Southbank VIC 3006
Provisions: Morning and afternoon tea and writing materials will be provided.
Lunch: BYO
Numbers: Restricted to 15 per class
*Please be on time
*Cory Doctorow, Eddie Campbell and Shaun Tan at the Melbourne Writers' Festival
2007*
Saturday 25 August 2007
Last chance to read
Extinction looks imminent for short story. The multitudes that once roamed
across the pages of most of our newspapers and magazines can only be found
now in isolated specialist publications and the artificial breeding colonies
of creative writing courses and competitions. Rjurik Davidson, Nam Le, Cate
Kennedey, and Kalinda Ashton wonder whether the species can be revived.
Time: 4:30pm - 5:30pm
Venue: Beckett Theatre
Presented by Overland Magazine
Fun on Grub Street
'We want to invent the stupid thing everytime.' Irreverent, experimental, innovative,
risky and maybe a little cocky, the literature enterprise now called McSweeney's,
which pushed out a few thousand copies of first issue into the New York market
in 1997, has quickly grown into American independant publishing. Dave Eggers
and his wife Vendela Vida talk to Louise Swinn about the mag, its numerous
spin-offs and how being uncommercial sells.
Time: 7pm - 8:30pm
Venue: Merlyn Theatre
Free and easy - Cory Doctorow
Cory Doctorow is one of the young cyber-savvy novelists who don't feel any
threat in this downloadable age. In fact, you can download his work for free.
The first question The Chaser's Charles Firth has got to ask him is: 'Is
he out of his mind?!'
Time: 9pm - 10pm
Venue: Merlyn Theatre
Sunday 26 August 2007
Creative commons or common theft?
Can copyright be defended in a downloading world? A free-for-all about whether
books should be free for all.
Under the Australian Copyright Act of 1968 artistic ideas are protected from
plagiarists and plunderers. Forty years on, as the electronic environment overtakes
the real one, information is no longer seen as an artistic privilege but as
an individual right. This raises many questions about how we can preserve and
protect the intellectual property of authors who publish in an online environment
and how we can predict the future of the printed word and the publishing industry.
Award-winning author, Cory Doctorow has published three science fiction novels,
which can be downloaded from the internet for free under the Creative Commons
License (www.craphound.com). Leading by example, Cory has championed the need
to bring copyright issues in line with the online environment of the 21st Century,
arguing that e-books should be seen as a way of winning new audiences rather
than losing sales. Join a lively debate, chaired by Dr Mark Williams (Senior
Adviser, jdrlegal pty ltd ) and featuring e-author Cory Doctorow, Jessica Coates
(Project Manager of Creative Commons), who assert that the e-age will empower
online authors, and Jeremy Fisher (the Director of the Australian Society of
Authors) and Sandy Grant, (Publisher and Director of the Copyright Agency Limited)
who see the shift as cause for concern.
Time: 11.30am - 12.30pm
Venue: Merlyn Theatre
Publish or perish: An A-Z of alternative ways to get your name in print
B is for blogs. E is for e-books, O is for online, P is for print on demand,
S is for self-publishing, T is for tie-in publishing, W is for websites and
Z is for zines. Breaking into the commercial world of publishing is increasingly
difficult for emerging writers. Luckily the digital age has heralded a number
of easy and affordable alternatives for aspiring authors.
Join our panel of e-age experts and learn all there is to know about alternative
methods of publishing. Featuring Dan Kelly (publisher of Boolarong Press) Euan
Mitchell (self-published author), Cory Doctorow (Boing Boing blogger and e-book
author) Paul Hardacre, (editor of Paper Tiger) which is published in three
formats - CDROM, ezine and print, and Adam Carrel (co-founder of the website
Writers’ Connect).
Time: 5.30pm - 7.30pm
Venue: Tower Theatre
Thursday 30 August 2007
Get the picture?
Words and images work well together, but never completely without tension.
Manipulators of word and image, picture book writer Shaun Tan, scriptwriter
Keith Thompson and graphic novelist Eddie Campbell, discuss what can be said
and what can only be shown.
Time: 11:45am ? 12:45pm
Venue: Merlyn Theatre
Saturday 1 September 2007
They’re a weird mob
The migrant experience is not all unremitting alienation. Often there is deep
curiosity and even amusement about the habits of one’s new countrymen.
Peter Behrens, Anita Rau Badami and Shaun Tan take a Martian view of their
fictional adopted countries.
Time: 12:15pm - 1:15pm
Venue: The Bagging Room
2B or not 2B: Evolution or Disillusion?
Ladies and gentlemen, please turn ON your mobile phones! Real people, Judith
Bessant, Jeff Sparrow, Julie Faulkner, Lisa Dethridge and Michael Webster
will be joined by Second Life avatars in this RMIT interactive panel discussion
on how written language is being corrupted by new technology.
Time: 6:30pm - 8pm
Venue: Festival Marquee
Tickets: FREE EVENT
Presented by RMIT University