We need *you* to donate $1 to Singular Source *today*

We're into the final week of fundraising for the Singular Source short story contest and we're nearly there! We need only another $240 to make it to our goal.

 I feel a bit like NPR or PBS as I write this, but here goes...

We need *you*, yes, you sitting there at your computer to click on this link right now and donate $1 to our short story contest. $1 really does help. Not only does it move us closer to our goal, it also raises our activity level on Indiegogo, which in turn raises our visibility on their web site, and helps us to raise money site. We've come a long way and you can help push us over the top.

With full funding, we will have prize money for the winner, runner up, and third prize, plus a small honorarium for the judge. (I have lined up a very cool judge and will be blogging about this soon.) All of these people are artists who are writing for love. It's hard to become rich writing genre fiction. Help support art. Help support the commons.

Two donations to Singular Source: Cash and books, oh my

Great news! I have received two gifts that I will be putting towards prizes for Singular Source.

1. I have received a cash gift of $600 from an anonymous donor. I will be putting $500 of this towards first prize. The remaining $100 will be used for photocopying and postage.

2. Tor Books will be giving one copy of either "Fire Upon the Deep" or "Children of the Sky" to all three contest winners.

It's exciting to see this contest start coming together like this.

Looking for judges for Singular Source

Last week, I announced a science fiction short story contest, Singular Source. It's been keeping me busy, but it's been a lot of fun. I'm using parts of my brain that I haven't used in years.

In addition to publicity and raising money for prizes (please donate!), I'm looking for judges.

My goal is to have three judges. I'm assuming that I'm going to have a sufficiently large number of entries that three judges are warranted. For the three judges, I wanted to one with an academic background (a professor of something tech-related or literary or...), one published author, and one aspiring author. I wanted the professor, because the story will be published as part of an academic book. The published author will bring a professional eye/ear. Including the aspiring author will help build community, both to educate the aspiring author about what it's like to be a judge and to bring attention to a new voice.

I will likely end up being the academic judge. This seems appropriate, because I'm editing the book. If this is the case, I will not take an honorarium. Any money that I raise for honorariums will be divided among the other judges.

I've asked lots of published and aspiring authors and almost all have declined. (I do have one affirmative nibble that I'll announce in the coming days.) Among the people I've asked are Vernor Vinge, Greg Wilson, Kavita Philip, Daniel José Older, Karl Schroeder, Antoinette LaFarge, Cory Doctorow, John Scalzi, and Wil Wheaton. I've really enjoyed communicating with science fiction authors. They've all been really nice and actually took the time to answer the query. Although, they have all said "no," it's been a pleasure to come close to greatness.

Do you have any suggestions for who I should ask?

Announcement: Singular Source Short Story Contest

I have exciting news to share.

I am running a short story contest, called Singular Source. I am looking for hard science fiction stories about future programming in the presence of large source code archives. The winner will be published as the last chapter of our edited volume Finding Source Code on the Web for Remix and Reuse to be published by Springer Verlag in 2012.

We are funding the contest through an IndieGoGo campaign. Please consider contributing. Even a small amount will help.

It's common to end academic books with a speculative chapter, and what would be more speculative than a science fiction short story? I invited Vernor Vinge to submit a story, because I think the future might be the programmer archeologists that appeared in his novels, Fire Upon the Deep and Deepness in the Sky. Rather than writing software from scratch, people are taking pieces from existing systems and combining them. In this style of programming, knowing the archives is as important as the ability to put the pieces together.

Unfortunately, Vinge declined. However, he did give his blessing for a short story contest. So, here we are.

While this isn't my first literary competition, it has been a long time. I was once the Secretary of the Library Committee at Hart House, University of Toronto, which runs an annual short story contest.  Bear with me as I try to avoid making novice mistakes. Feedback is of course welcome. Chris  Szego of Bakka Phoenix Books has already set me straight on a number of aspects of the contest. Librarians, Annette and Kim, from the Merril Collection, have also provided helpful advice.