Doctorow will be reading from his new novel Little Brother, and hopefully Rucker will read from the sequel to his novel Post-Singular, called Hylozoic. Charlie Jane will be reading something brilliantly weird, and I'll be reading something about why I love piracy.

I worked for a few years at EFF as their policy analyst and media outreach geek, and I'm still their lifelong fan for all the amazing work they do with civil liberties for the digital age. They educate the public about technology policies that harm consumers; fight for privacy and free speech online; agitate for hackers' rights to innovate; and litigate to protect fair use, anonymity, bloggers' rights to be treated as journalists, and many other things related to Great Justice. I'm delighted to participate in this event and promise it will be a smashing good time.

Here are the details, according to the EFF website:

Join EFF on Monday, March 23rd, for a fundraising event featuring award-winning writer Cory Doctorow. Cory will be reading from his novel, "Little Brother," a story of high-tech teenage rebellion set in the familiar world of San Francisco. As he currently calls the UK home, this is a rare opportunity to to hear Cory read from his work in person. He will be joined by fellow writers Rudy Rucker, Annalee Newitz and Charlie Jane Anders reading from their latest works.

7pm on Monday March 23, at the 111 Minna Gallery in San Francisco.

Admission is $25. No one turned away for lack of funds. Must be 21 or older to attend.

via EFF

Over at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the guardians of digital justice are working on the Total Election Awareness project, which will track the performances of voting machines on election day. This is a software tool that allows election-monitoring organizations to track calls and emails from ordinary voters like you, reporting about everything from malfunctioning e-voting machines to other election-day incidents or concerns. Want to help with the TEA project? Download the software and start hacking.

When it comes to the Robots And Monsters graphic novel, Alterio says he won't give away too many plot details, "but suffice to say, it has a lot of robots and monsters." That's pretty much all he has to say, as far as I'm concerned.

Meanwhile, the EFF says Alterio has relaunched his site, Robots And Monsters: A Charitable Menagerie, as a fundraiser for the electronic civil liberties organization. Here's how it works: You give Joe $50 along with three words or phrases to work from, and he creates an original robot/monser illustration for you. He sends you the original piece of art and posts it in his gallery. And the money goes to the EFF to help stop electronic wiretapping and other abuses. Last year, Alterio did something similar for the SF AIDS Foundation, along with other artists, and managed to raise over $10,000. So let's hope his EFF fundraiser is just as successful this year.

[Alterio and EFF]