Among the “new media” opportunities that help put sf and fantasy writers in front of new audiences — and make them more available for existing fans — are the increasing availability of downloadable videos of author events. One of the best is the Authors@Google series, which brings authors in during lunchtime for reading to assembled engineers. Examples from a quick YouTube search include Karen Joy Fowler and Kelly Link, April 2007; Joe Haldeman, Nov. 12, 2007, reading from The Accidental Time Machine; and Cory Doctorow on May 21, 2007, reading from Overclocked. (To see if a favored author has spoken there, check out the YouTube “@Google” channel site.)

A second stage of such programming (not counting the ubiquitous presence of Cory and other web pioneers among the authors, for whom being on the web is as central to their work as their writing) is starting to emerge. One example is Kim Stanley Robinson’s Dec. 21, 2007 TechTalk at Google.

Stan’s talk came following the announcement by Google that it would spend $100 million on climate change mitigation, and appears to be part of an effort by the company to put novel ideas in front of its engineers, to foster ideas from them in turn. In that vein, Stan’s speech is heavily focused on things Google could do to promote a better future.Here at UCSD we’re looking at the idea of organizing such writer events for companies that, unlike Google, aren’t of a scale and scope to pull in the authors on their own. Just as Stan’s Google talk was geared to what Google could do in response to climate change, what about talks at computing, digital media and printing companies imagining the digital environment five, ten, fifteen years out? Or at a cell phone manufacturer or service provider, imagining how new apps might maximize consumer uptake of technologies that allow immediate, localized responses to the world around us?

Spurring creativity — that’s really at the core of what Clarion is all about.