#TAM2012 Plenary: You Are the Future of Skepticism on the Internet

Update (August 24): The video of this talk is now available.

This is the script I used for my TAM2012 speech on Sunday, July 15, 2012. When I speak I do not read word-for-word, so I guarantee you this is different from what I actually said, sometimes substantially. (For one thing I was running close on time so I skipped one example near the end, but I’ve left it in here)

But this is very close to what I said and accurately represents the points I was making.

There were 42 slides, most of which were graphics of some kind and a few of which were section titles or the like. I will reproduce the key graphics that were referenced in the text, the rest of the slides will be replaced by block quotes or hyperlinks to keep things flowing. I’ve also added hyperlinks to a few things I reference so if you are curious you can find out what I am talking about.

The people in the room and those who came up after were very positive, and I hope you enjoy my thoughts as much as they did.

#TAM2012 You Are The Future Speech – Links and Tips

Update: You can read the speech itself now here on the blog and the video of this talk is now available as well.

The Amaz!ng Meeting in Las Vegas has just ended. In my talk on Sunday I exhorted the attendees to become online digital activists by applying the techniques I’ve been writing about on this blog for four years now.

I see already on Twitter that many are taking up my challenge. I plan to post the script of my speech as soon as I can prepare it as a blog post, but until then I know some folks may be looking for links or tips to get started. This post is intended to gather some key points and links in one place where they can easily be found.

Read on for some starting points.

Please Don’t Start Another Blog or Podcast!

Update June 29: Now with video.

My presentation at SkeptiCamp Atlanta 2011 this past weekend was titled “Please Don’t Start Another Blog or Podcast!” I chose that title deliberately to to be a little controversial, of course. It verges on ridiculous for someone who both blogs and podcasts to tell others not to do either.

My real point is to highlight the many other online activities skeptics can engage in that are important and make a difference. Regular readers of this blog (all three of you) will find some familiar topics in this. See below for links to the slides, an audio version and other supplemental information.

The video includes some introductory material from SkeptiCamp, the main presentation starts at 6:26. If you prefer to listen on the go, you can hear the audio for this presentation on the Skepticality podcast #158 “Return to Lake Skepticamp.” The audio of the presentation itself starts at about 20 minutes in to the episode. You will hear in both the video and audio that I originally miscounted my subtopics, I say seven and the audience corrects me. This has been corrected in the slides seen after the break.

Continue reading after the break for my slides and a list of links that to more information (mostly prior posts on this blog) that expand on each of the topics I cover in the presentation.

In Memoriam slides from TAM8

If you attended The Amazing Meeting 8 (TAM8) held by the James Randi Educational Foundation in Las Vegas this past July, you may have noticed two presentations that ran during the breaks, between the main speakers. These slides commemorated the folks related to the skeptic movement whom we have lost in 2009 and 2010.

The thought was to have something akin to the “In Memoriam” reel run on The Oscars and other similar awards shows. I had suggested this to Jeff Wagg a few months ago, and when he told me he thought it was a good idea, I started collecting names for the list. I put the slides together and gave them to Jeff, who ran them.

Many people probably missed them, so I thought I would post them here. There are two separate presentations, one for skeptics and one for “believers”. You can view them after the break…

Building Internet Tools For Skeptics

Update, April 15, 2011: Video of the original presentation is now online, courtesy JREF.

This is a version of a presentation that was given at The Amazing Meeting 6 in Las Vegas on June 22, 2008. Most screenshots link to larger versions in a new window or to the actual web page where possible. The style of the presentation itself was to use very minimal text on the slides. To give you a feel for this the headers and bolded text in the following are actually the entire textual content of my slides.

Keep in mind that this presentation was to a mixed audience of skeptics, not to a technical audience full of programmers. As a result, many of my technical explanations are admittedly overly simplified.