This schedule is tentative and in progress. We still don't know the Philcon schedule. Suggestions are welcome.
Matt Arnold (epkat) is sending in a group registration in order to get the group rate of $30 per person for attendance at Philcon. In order to qualify for this rate, the Lojban group must have at least ten people, who must get registration info and payment to Matt no later than Friday, October 27, 2006. Required registration info includes full real name, street address, city, state, zip code, and email. Send this info to matt.mattarn@gmail.com.
Robin Powell (camgusmis) is dealing with the money as a first step, as he has a PayPal Premium account. Paypal $30 to rlpowell@digitalkingdom.org, which must be sent in time to clear by October 27. If you have already sent your payment directly to Matt, there is no need to resend it. (Note the two different email addresses.)
This cost covers only your admission badge to Philcon and jbonunsla, not lodging costs. Matt is keeping a list of those who need to split a hotel room with someone to save costs, so if you should be on that list, let him know. Currently at least one hotel room is filled, and some of us are staying in a second room which can comfortably fit some more people who can split the cost.
Penguicon, a combination science fiction convention and open source software expo in the greater Detroit metro area of Michigan, allocated function space for jbonunsla 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 jbonunsla 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, jbonunsla 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 jbonunsla 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.