2012 Hugo Award Winners

[DrNefario]

A Dance with Dragons is maybe the fourth best book in the series, and needs about 4000 pages of preparatory reading before tackling its 1100 pages if you're unfamiliar with the series. It's not that surprising to me that it didn't win, although maybe you'd expect a bit of a popularity bump from the TV show. (I put it third, I think. Maybe second.)

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by charlesatan

The tragedy was they had no problems with Ustream the year before.

Yep. So they had no cause to anticipate trouble this year.

I know people who were working tech at Chicon. They saw no issues backstage at the ceremonies. They found out about the feed when someone from the overflow viewing area came in to tell them the feed was gone. They had been pulling back the feed to feed the overflow area. And Chicon was doing shared programming with Dragoncon, and Dragoncon was getting the UStream feed. Oops...

(There was apparently also confusion in the ballroom where the ceremony was, as a number of folks from the overflow area came in to see Neil Gaiman accept the Hugo for the The Doctor's Wife episode.)

The incident has gone viral. Neil blogged about it and CNN picked it up. It also hit Slashdot, and is getting commentary elsewhere, too.

You may assume LoneStarCon, the 2013 Worldcon, will be looking at other options. (I know a couple of the people doing tech for them, and they are sysadmins/network engineers in their day jobs and deal with stuff like that for a living.)

Interesting to note was that A Dance With Dragons got the lowest votes in the final tallies. And happy for the novellas (though the other nominees could easily have won it as well), novelette (my first choice), and short story (first choice too) category.

I'm too far behind to have comments on most of them, as I simply haven't read them yet.

Much-deserved congrats to John Picacio, who's a wonderful and humble artist (he did the Song of Ice and Fire Calendar last year as well as the Del Rey re-issues of Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion books), and Jim C. Hines for fan writer. Big fan of all the podcasts and it was a tough decision.

John Picicio is a splendid chap. I've met him, and it's amazing to meet a guy that is as nice a person and as brilliant an artist at the same time. I was delighted that he won.

(Though I must say, I know a number of pro SF artists, and they have all been splendid in person as well as on canvas. One of the things I love about the field is that just about everyone I've met in it is worth knowing in person.)
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Dennis

[Iphinome]

Hmm I'm late to the party.

Well done for all of the winners many of whom I voted for. They mentioned the ustream fiasco during the ceremony which I'm happy to say I attended.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Iphinome

Hmm I'm late to the party.

Well done for all of the winners many of whom I voted for. They mentioned the ustream fiasco during the ceremony which I'm happy to say I attended.

Chicon 7's Chair posted elsewhere about getting a phone call from UStream's CEO who made a heartfelt apology. It will take a while for the dust to settle, but Chicon and UStream are talking about what UStream can do to offer recompense in a more tangible form than "Gee, we're sorry."
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Dennis

[tompe]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Still no Hugo for George (the written George, anyway).
I wasn't that nuts over any of the selections for Best Novel, to tell the truth. Out of all the nominations, I enjoyed Leviathan Wakes the most, but I still probably wouldn't have labeled it award-worthy.

I really disliked Leviathan Wakes and it was for me the worst book on ballot. My winner was Embassy Town and my number two was Among Others.

I also managed to pick all the winners in the shorter fiction categories.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by Iphinome

Hmm I'm late to the party.

Well done for all of the winners many of whom I voted for. They mentioned the ustream fiasco during the ceremony which I'm happy to say I attended.

Did they? When? I was also at the ceremony but missed that.

And did they really use ustream for the connection to Dragon con? I gave not seen that mentioned anywhere else.

All problems could have been avoided if the con had payed for an account or had told ustream about the copyrighted material.

[DiapDealer]

All problems could have been avoided if the con had payed for an account or had told ustream about the copyrighted material.

Yes, you should always tip-off your third-party, streaming provider before-hand of your intention to legally broadcast content for which you have express permission from the actual copyright holders to use.

I often inform the police department of my intent to visit my local bank to make a legal withdrawal. Just in case someone overhears a fragment of my conversation with the teller and mistakenly assumes I'm robbing them.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Yes, you should always tip-off your third-party, streaming provider before-hand of your intention to legally broadcast content for which you have express permission from the actual copyright holders to use.

Well, you should if you have a free account that you know are using bots to check the content.

[Iphinome]

Originally Posted by tompe

Did they? When? I was also at the ceremony but missed that.

And did they really use ustream for the connection to Dragon con? I gave not seen that mentioned anywhere else.

All problems could have been avoided if the con had payed for an account or had told ustream about the copyrighted material.

on stage they mentioned the disruption to the stream I suppose it would have been sometime between @neilhimself and best novella. We can watch the replay and find it.

Did you have a good worldcon? You probably saw me around, as far as I know I had the only grey cloak and blue surcote. Of the two Paksenarrions walking around I was the fat one in blue, not the young pretty one in silver.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by Iphinome

Did you have a good worldcon? You probably saw me around, as far as I know I had the only grey cloak and blue surcote. Of the two Paksenarrions walking around I was the fat one in blue, not the young pretty one in silver.

I had fun. It was an OK Worldcon. I thought the program was a bit weak and I missed more literary programming. But there some brilliant stuff like the opening ceremony and the panel about the secret history of fandom. The Bob and Connie item was also very good.

[Iphinome]

Originally Posted by tompe

I had fun. It was an OK Worldcon. I thought the program was a bit weak and I missed more literary programming. But there some brilliant stuff like the opening ceremony and the panel about the secret history of fandom. The Bob and Connie item was also very good.

The six part worldbuilding series was a lot of fun, worldcon for introverts was amazing. Who are you really was good, the George R R Martin reading was fun and for her reading Elizabeth Moon read a story that appeared on the paksworld blog but most people hadn't heard yet. I thought it was an enjoyable worldcon. *shrug*