Next Friday, October 14th, Maki Naro, from the spectacular blogs Sci-ənce and Mad Art Lab, will be joining us on video chat. Apparently, he “is an artist, incurable geek, and lover of cooking, public radio, small animals, and Blade Runner”. Also, “He can hit a man from a hundred yards while riding at full gallop”. Whoa! Now we’re talking! Well, all I know is that he sports one of the best beards in skepticism (ahem, not *the* best, obviously).

Anyway, come hang out with him, myself, and a bunch of other people, next Friday. It’ll be fun! 

Here’s the link for this chat:
http://connectpro30341441.adobeconnect.com/makinaro20111014/

If you’re reading this then you probably know what VirtualDS is. You also may know that about once a month I convince someone interesting, who is involved in something related to “skepticism”, to show up on video chat for about 3 hours on a Friday night, so that anyone else who also shows up, on said video chat, can talk with them. What you might not know is that sometimes it’s a bit tricky to make this happen.

Not that I’ve asked anyone that flat out turned me down (nobody has), just that the logistics can be somewhat difficult to work out. Setting aside the technical issues, most interesting people have other things to do on a Friday night. Also, It can be a bit tricky to explain the value of something like this without getting entangled in the stigma of video chat (think Chatroulette).

That said, I’ve managed to get a lot of cool people on the video chat: [Maria Walters, Elyse Anders, Ben Radford, Matt Lowry, Sharon Hill, Jeff Wagg, Daniel Loxton, Blake Smith, Nicole Gugliucci, Brian Thompson, Heidi Anderson, Derek Bartholomaus, Kylie Sturgess, Derek Colanduno, Robynn McCarthy, Desiree Schell, K.O. Myers, and Michael Feldman] and I’m working on plenty more. This is where you, the regular VDS attendee, comes in.

I need help. Even though I do my best trying to pay attention to everything going on in the community, I know that I don’t do it as well as you do. Even though I try to meet as many interesting people within the community as I can and learn what they are doing, I know I don’t do it as well as you do. Even though I do manage to cobble together some half-way decent questions to ask these interesting people when I meet them, I know I don’t do it as well as you do. You, the regular VDS attendee, KICK ASS - but you know this already.

That’s why I’m asking you, with all your ninja-like networking skills, to tell me, “Who the heck do you want to meet?” Not only that, but if it’s someone you know and love, why not work with me to get them on? See how much you kick ass? [Although I don’t suggest spamming them to death, it can be a bit annoying - sorry Donna]

Ok, so here is a list of names off the top of my head of people I’d love to have on (in no particular order):

• Matthew Baxter
• Karen Stollznow
• Brian Dunning
• Rachel Dunlop
• Richard Saunders
• Phil Plait
• George Hrab
• SGU Folks - Any Novella would be fun (Steve preferred), Rebbecca would be a blast!
• Brian Brushwood
• Brian Dalton
• PZ Myers
• DJ Grothe
• James Randi
• Jamy Ian Swiss
• Sean Faircloth
• Jennifer Michael Hecht
• Simon Singh
• Massimo Pigliucci

I realize some of these people are just too busy, that’s fine. I’m just throwing out ideas. Also, I realize some of them COULD NOT be promoted in the usual fashion because of limitations in the number of attendees (that does not mean we couldn’t have a quiet-like “regular attendees only” super-secret event of some kind). 

So, here’s your task, you awesome regular VDS attendee you: Tell me who you want to meet, and then help me go out and get them!

(Remember: don’t be a dick, or annoying, please!)