I have received my programming schedule for Westercon 2011 and the topics should provoke fascinating discussions. If you are coming to Westercon, I hope you’ll take the opportunity to stop by and say hello now that you know where to find me.

Saturday, Jul 02 11:30 AM to Saturday, Jul 02 1:00 PM in room: Valley
Appearing with: Paul Carlson, John Shirley, Jason Stewart (Moderator), Dave Trowbridge
From Hell to the Boardroom
The source of evil in horror stories used to be infernal; now it tends to be corporate. Is it a bad thing that corporations are the new bogeymen? What, if anything, are we missing with this change?

Sunday, Jul 03 10:00 AM to Sunday, Jul 03 11:30 AM in room: Regency Ballroom 2
Appearing with: Tom Digby, G. David Nordley, Mike Sheffield (Moderator), Juliette Wade
Problems with First Contact
Sometimes advanced aliens contact humanity, and sometimes spacefaring humans are doing the contacting. But once contact has happened, what is the moral dimension? Is it immoral to leave individuals in primitive poverty in the hope that they might one day develop their own culture? Can advanced peoples colonize a planet inhabited by primitives and live in peace with them?

Sunday, Jul 03 11:30 AM to Sunday, Jul 03 1:00 PM in room: Regency Ballroom 2
Appearing with: Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff (Moderator), Valerie E. Frankel, Diana L. Paxson
Writing Formidable Women
Making sure they’re formidable. Making sure they’re women.

Monday, Jul 04 10:00 AM to Monday, Jul 04 11:30 AM in room: Regency Ballroom 2
Appearing with: Andrew Clark, Tom Galloway, Glenn Glazer (Moderator), Steve Savitzky, Milt Stevens
The Future of Privacy
Technology has made it easier for people to find and share information. At the same time it’s become much more difficult to preserve personal privacy. How will the challenge to privacy affect us over the next 50 years? Is this a right to be protected, or is the concept of privacy an illusion — for example, how much privacy did people have living in small towns before mass communications?

Note: room may change but times are very, very unlikely to change.