On speaking "for"

when did they flourish, where did they flourish, and in what context? They have been flourishing almost as long as sci-fi has been flourishing.

Who was their constituency, or audience? Their audience is typically young adults, though many people appreciate sci-fi.

Why do they matter? Science fiction uses a lot of metaphors, and looking at the metaphors used by female sci-fi writers can tell us a lot about women's relations to science.

 John Green, a young adult fiction writer, and Hank Green, an environmental blogger, started a vlog called Brotherhood 2.0 in 2007. Since then they have garnered 480,734 subscribers. A community has formed around them, and their support has created huge gatherings and events. The name of the community who follow John and Hank Green has been named Nerdfighteria, and the members have worked to do amazing things. It is incredible the way this group of people have come together to raise money for charities, host conferences, and create artwork. I will be representing this group. 

I'm going to look into "gamers" as a group.

They flourish today, as millions of people all over the world become deeply involved with virtual worlds and realities. Because this group is huge and global, I've decided to focus on American gamers (men and women), young to full-grown adults.

Gamers matter because video games are becoming not only a huge part of our culture and a huge part of sales all over the world, but because "gaming" has turned into a social activity, LAN parties are popular and frequent, and because it is provided a brand new space for people to change, evolve, and develop as a community.

 I'd like to represent the scientists behind the Human Genome Project. The project, which started in 1989, involved efforts from several different countries and institutions with the goal of mapping the human genome. Research is still happening (interpreting data, some sequences difficult to view,) but a mostly complete genome was released in 2003. Knowledge of the genome useful for a number of reasons, especially in the field of medicine for predicting/treating genetic diseases. One major criticism of the project though, was that companies, or even groups of researchers, to demand high prices could demand high prices for the potentially life-saving information.

I'm sure there are other benefits/criticisms that I'm not recalling (or weren't mentioned in my high school biology class.) Alongside movements that seem to reject ideas such as biological determinism, the HGP might be interesting to look at.

 Prostitutes in the late 19th century England were subjected to legal and medical intervention in the name of keeping the empire safe.  Unwilling to have the men in the military examined for V.D., a serious problem for the armed forces, laws were passed that any woman (prostitute or lower class) who was suspected of being infected was required to submit to a medical exam.  

They mattered because the technology and the science were available to alleviate a social and medical problem, the spread of disease, but instead by application or prohibition of science and technology, the government  imposed a policy that put the burden solely on  women.  These laws would contribute to the outrage that would bring together the lower and middle class feminists of that day.

 A subgroup of the Beat Generation, Cyberpunks are a group of science fiction writers who focus on "high tech and low life." The word "cyberpunk" first appeared in a short story by Bruce Bethke and is literally a fusion of the words "cybernetics" and "punk."  Writers of this genre used elements of the "hard-boiled detective" and "postmodern prose" to describe the often nihilistic underground side of an electronic society." Though the term wasn't coined until the 1980s, Cyberpunk literature is thought of as the antithesis of the often utopic stories of the 1940's and 50's. Cyberpunk authors used their works to call readers into action, expressing a sense of rebellion through blurring the lines between fiction and reality. The Cyberpunk counter-culture and their works are still visible in a large amount of postmodern literature. 

I would like to represent the group of modern day midwives in the US.

Midwives have been around for hundreds of years and were the main way women used to give birth. With industrialization and enlightenment a division between surgeons, who were considered more modern, scientific and male, and midwives who were considered "folk medicine" and female. Today about 5% of the births in the US are attended by midwives, according to MidwifeUSA.com. The US also has one of the highest infant mortality rates of industrialized countries. The major difference? 75% of European births are attended to by a midwife. 

The stigma that midwives are not as "serious" as doctors still exists in the United States and I would like to represent the practicing midwives in the United States who challenge that stigma.

reddit.com is an open source social news website, combining internet memes, social interaction, and leading news.  Posts are listed by 'karma', a system in which users vote on a post, giving it either 'good karma' or 'bad karma'; the posts with the best karma reach the front page.  I'd like to represent the reddit users, also known as redditors.

reddit.com has been calls itself the 'voice of the internet,' and is used by many as their main source for current events.  Redditors sometimes post for a particular audience (IAMA... AMA posts give a brief bio about the poster, then open the floor for questions), but the post is open for everyone to comment on, the good and the bad.  Because the redditor base is so large, you can easily find cutting news before it hits the mainstream, or further insights on current events and information (Japan articles are some of the most frequently posted for the past week).

Redditors offer their own, biased opinions on whatever you post, but since the site has pretty liberal ideals, this is usually (mostly) uncensored, giving the audience a way to check facts against the media.

Inspired by Anne's prompt to think about local groups, I'm interested in speaking for the women who sought late-term abortions from Philadelphia abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell. He is currently facing charges for the murder of a woman who died of an overdose of anesthetics prescribed by Gosnell and for the murders of seven viable babies killed after live births. It is believed that he killed hundreds of live babies over the course of his 30-year practice. This issue has raised a lot of questions about abortion laws and accessibility. What made these women turn to Gosnell? Do they have anything in common demographically? In this case, their status as women (in particular, pregnant women) relates directly to the kind of abortion science/technology they are able to receive. For instance, I find it moving that the woman who died was a refugee from Bhutan who is thought to have lived in the US for a mere 5 months prior to her death while Gosnell is estimated to have made $1.8 million in the last year. 

Group: Video Gamers

when did they flourish, where did they flourish, and in what context?
: The history of video gaming is not very long. However, the population of video gamers has been significantly increasing since the development of computer and video games. They are all over the world, but video gaming is bigger in East Asian countries than any other part of the world.

Who was their constituency, or audience?
: I would say the audiences are other video gamers or themselves.

Why do they matter? (We need it early so we can figure out --and let you know--on Friday night what questions you'll be addressing/collaboratively designing a skit in response to....)
: Video gamers are group of people who exist due to the development of technology, but they are creating some concerns on mental health and the change in their social behavior. People sometimes even relate video game playing with crimes. It would also be interesting to talk about the difference between professional video gamers and amateur video gamers

 For the panel, I would like to represent the youtube community.

The youtube community is an interesting one in that its a fairly covert community.  On the surface level, youtube seems to be a forum for people to simply post videos which is what its original purpose was when it was founded in 2005.  Now, however, youtube has evolved into a more substantial social media outlet.  Not only do Youtubers make videos for themselves, they also make videos for their subscribers, respond to other videos that have inspired them, form collaborative youtube channels with other people who they might not have even met, etc.

I am most interested in the way that youtube has formed a definitive community without having the overt community aspects such as facebook.

As I began thinking about our second panel, one of the texts for my other cross-over course with Anne served as inspiration: Generosity by Richard Powers. So, I will represent art school students as my group. In my humble opinion, this is a group which has flourished throughout history, all over the globe, in many different contexts. Art is limitless and can take virtually any shape, so "learning" art and how to create it is an interesting contradiction.

Their first constituency/audience would be the group of teachers/artists whom they admire and with whom they study. And I think that art students matter because in many ways, art is the most direct, honest combination of creation and critique that humans possess. They are also relevant to this panel because art students study many different technologies and use them to create their art; also, their use of information and technology has evolved over time in tandem with scientific advances.