This schedule is tentative and in progress. We still don't know the Philcon schedule. Suggestions are welcome.
Penguicon, a combination science fiction convention and open source software expo in the greater Detroit metro area of Michigan, allocated function space for jboselsla 2006. In its fourth year, Penguicon was held April 21 through 23, 2006 at the Holiday Inn in Livonia, Michigan. See http://www.penguicon.org/ and http://wiki.penguicon.org/ for more information about Penguicon.
My presentation about Lojban at Penguicon 2005 packed the room, and was in demand for a repeat this year. Five local Lojban enthusiasts attended jboselsla 2006 festivities and were joined by several curious onlookers with many questions. Present were me (Matt Arnold, AKA "epkat" see profile), Thomas Idzikowski (who is interested in teaching Lojban to little Ivy), Shaun Klein, Jennifer Leadbetter, and Bruce Webber.
Instead of getting one of the closed-off function space rooms, jboselsla had a spacious and relaxing presentation area full of rows of chairs, open to the main public thoroughfare in the hotel. You can see it in the online photo tour. It's beneath the French-Quarter-style balconies, right next to the Holidome where the pool is, and across from the cafe.
More About Penguicon
A past Lojbanist, Eric S. Raymond, never fails to attend Penguicon. Guests of Honor at Penguicon this year included:
Looney Labs, creators of Zendo and Nanofictionary, games which have been played at past Lojban festivals
Chris DiBona, open source director for Google
Frank Hayes, filk musician and tech columnist for ComputerWorld
Steve Miller and Sharon Lee, authors of the Liaden universe novels
Program participants included: Rob "CmdrTaco" Malda of Slashdot, musicians Tom Smith and The Great Luke Ski, SF authors John Scalzi and Karl Schroeder, Tcl/tk guru Clif Flynt, blogger "TheFerrett", web cartoonists Howard Tayler and Rob Balder.
That concerns the Penguicon convention in general, of which jboselsla was but a part.
The Michigan Lojbanists
Wednesday May 3, 2006, the five of us followed up at my house for the latest meeting of our Lojban group and class that started a year ago. I bought a large whiteboard and we wrote example bridi such as {.i .u'u doi .can. mi pu pinxe lo do ckafi} and {.i doi .epkat. pe'u e'o ga'inai ko dunda lo ckafi mi} and explained them to the newcomers. I provided pizza. We also talked about Java, Lisp, and Python, and played some games.
Our next meeting was Saturday, May 20, 2006, at my house in Redford, just west of Detroit and half an hour away from the University of Michigan.
Future plans include recording an episode of the podcast, conference calling with other Lojbanists, and writing a sketch performance for Penguicon 2007 called "Whose Lisri Is It Anyway?"
As of August 2006, in-person meetings continue to be held every couple of weeks, and show no sign of slowing down.