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Conventions: a guide for attendees and convenors alike.Part One.

This particular guide is more directed to those in affiliation with the more “geek” convention, rather than academic or otherwise. It is, in no way, designed to be complete, but is just some simple guidelines I have put together in my years of attending such events.

 

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Cosplayers:

Please be aware that sometimes your costume will cause people to stop and stare. If this is the case, smile. Pose for photos. Be gracious. You do not simply don an outfit for the sake of simply wearing something different. You wear it for the attention, the kudos or maybe just for someone to notice that you’ve put in a lot of work. To that end, don’t look sour if that wig is causing your head to feel like it’s in a vice. Don’t frown in the ten mile high shoes you’re having to wear in order to be in proportion with your team members are causing your feet to scream in ancient Armenian. Smile. Be nice to the people appreciating the work.

General Attendees:

We will all “bump” into people we know. It happens. The geek community in ven the largest of cities is still insular enough that the odd “stop and chat” opportunity will arise. HOWEVER, do not do this in the exact centre of the general thoroughfare. People are trying to get past. Be nice, move to the side, away from the stall trying to make a buck or two from your captive audiences of the convention.

If you are waiting for someone who happens to be standing in a line for an autograph, kindly do so away from the line. You are making the line manager’s job harder by making it impossible to gauge who is in and out of the line. Also, Don’t stand in between the line and the actual place of signature. It too is in the way.

Along these lines, if you happen to be wanting an autograph from a celebrity, kindly use those things in your head called eyes and see if there is a line for such things. If there is not then, and only then, may you simply stand where you like. If you fail to notice the line and someone wearing a lanyard, wearing an event tshirt or carrying a clipboard asks you to go and join the line, kindly don’t roll your eyes, sigh, moan and bitch and complain. Pick up your bags and go and join on the end of the line, regardless of how long you spent “just standing there”. It’s not our fault the line was difficult to see, or you could not use your eyes. Not our fault at all, we’re just trying to make it fair for all. No, you will not be given preferential treatment for being older. The kids paid just as much to get into the event as you did, sometimes more, having to pay off their parents for lifts and advances on allowance, so they have just as much right to be treated with fairness as you.

Please observe the general niceties of social conduct. Don’t yell. It’s annoying. Especially when you may think you’re playing the most high-pressure hand of “go fish” because the fate of the world depends upon it, while everyone around you is simply wishing you would shut the hell up.

I know it’s crowded. I know there’s lots of people. Please, for the love of all that is dear and sacred to you, do not feel that give you the right to stand within my personal space if I do not know you with little to no care for having done so. An apology can be as simple as an “I’m sorry” mumbled when you bump into me because the sour cosplayer in her incredibly itchy and hot wig has shuffled past. I’m not expecting a written apology resplendent with platitudes. Just acknowledge that you are in my personal space, and that you will do all you can to leave it when you have enough space.

Food vendors:

I get that you have a captive audience and that your rent is insane. This should not make you feel that it is okay to charge a bajillion dollars for a small cup of crap you want to nominate as “coffee”. Yes, I am something of a coffee aficionado, but I can accept that what you have to offer may not be as good as what I can get at home. It is like that with many things. What I do take offense to is the fact that what you serve to me has little to no taste, is scalding hot, seems to have all caffeine burned out of it and is full of sludge. To pay a small fortune for such a disappointing “drink” is just adding insult to injury.

Another one for the cosplayers:

Please please please learn to style your wigs. Simply buying a wig and plonking it on your head is not enough, especially if your character does not really style their hair the same way. Cosplay’s beauty is in the little details. Please, don’t bring disgrace to the art form.

For those dragged along:

We get it. You didn’t want to come along. You think it’s a waste of time. We understand. No, really, you may think we don’t but we do. We geeks think the same when we are dragged along to something we don’t particularly find interesting. We would ask, if you didn’t want to come why did you, but that is a rant for another time. Suffice to say, you are here, presumably to show support or try to understand why it is someone close to you is into all this … “stuff”… Get over yourself. You are not better than all these people. In fact, I am sure you have interest that makes your partner/friend/family member yawn. We all do. It’s called support so just deal with it or don’t come along.

 

That wraps up part one of this particular guide. Part two to follow soon.

What is the cost of knowledge?

I ought to be university work. Instead, I am blogging, but it’s related so it’s okay, right?

This article came across my feed a few days ago.

Angry Librarians is not just the name of a game from the AppStore. It is a reality of the changing face of value and it is growing. Academics, students, librarians and experts in their fields are all starting the join the cause that is seeing academic publication companies on the receiving end of the flak.

They are protesting the cost of access to academic journals. These subscriptions, which can cost some univeristy libraries up to US$10M per year, give students and academics alike access to articles which some say should be available for cheaper online, or free. In the past there have been “…good intentions and utopian schemes…” says Robert Darton (Director of the Library at Harvard University) but now it seems we are back int he grasp of a profiteering racket driven by publication houses. The protestors are saying that now we have the means, why do we not use the technology to make knowledge accessible to all of humanity?

This is not just an isolated protest either. We are not looking at just one field of study, or just the major universities and academic safehouses. We are looking at a world wide protest. It seems to this blogger, at least, that people are fed up all over the place, with how we have become so complacent as to how “value” is perceived.

When research libraries have reached the point where they can’t afford their yearly subscriptions and feel they have no choice but to dig in their heels and protest, then we know something is wrong. When the research library spearheading this campaign happens to be a university with the reputation of being the wealthiest in the world, then we know something is really wrong.

The thing is, these publications have a decent amount of something called “prestige” behind them. Now, I’m not an expert on what prestige actually is, but I gather it is rather like your Klout score or the number of followers you have on Twitter. Sure, it may mean something to someone somewhere, but it is an arbitrary valuation of your reach in the world. Prestige supposedly means that if you are published in these journals, you are cooler than people in your field who are not. It’s essentially a popularity contest and a means of ranking academics by knowledge quotient. I’m not saying that I completely dismiss the idea. I mean, it’s definitely cooler to be published in The Amazing Journal of Coolness Studies That Only Really Really Really Cool People Can Be Published In, than in Women’s Weekly, but if people have to pay stupid amounts to read your article, then how is your knowledge going to help the world?

So, this has been something of a deviation from my usual blog style, but I think it’s a very important issue that bears more looking into. If you want to know more, you can read about it here, the online petition and boycott site.