Elonka wrote:

Interview With Cryptographer Elonka Dunin

from the old-school-geeks dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Whitedust is running a very interesting article with the DEF CON speaker and cryptographer Elonka Dunin. The article covers her career and specifically her involvement with the CIA and other US Military agencies."

Top link on slashdot for the nanosecond...

You look very sophisticated in your picture... Its the face of a CEO.

Decius wrote:

Elonka wrote:

Interview With Cryptographer Elonka Dunin

from the old-school-geeks dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Whitedust is running a very interesting article with the DEF CON speaker and cryptographer Elonka Dunin. The article covers her career and specifically her involvement with the CIA and other US Military agencies."

Top link on slashdot for the nanosecond...

You look very sophisticated in your picture... Its the face of a CEO.

Yup, I have finally seen the light, in terms of what a professional photographer (in this case Suzy Gorman, who's effectively the "Annie Leibowitz" of St. Louis) can do. I was set up with a personal shopper, professional stylist advice, specialists for hair, makeup, lighting, and of course a top-notch photographer (list of everyone here), and suddenly the mainstream world really *does* pay attention. Mainstream humans are just so damn impressed with the non-verbal stuff. ;)

Elonka :)

Acidus wrote:

Interview With Cryptographer Elonka Dunin

from the old-school-geeks dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Whitedust is running a very interesting article with the DEF CON speaker and cryptographer Elonka Dunin. The article covers her career and specifically her involvement with the CIA and other US Military agencies."

Awsome! Elonka looks like Meryl Streep in that photo.

Heh. I guess that's as close as *I*'ll ever get to Angelina Jolie. ;)

Go Elonka! I truly cannot wait till I have a copy of her upcoming book. I expect it to be very well recieved by a very wide audience. I think the result will be suprising...

Elonka should wind up on the talk show circut. We need to get Elonka on Oprah after her book comes out! It's imperative.

Y'know, I've been wondering that, myself. I mean, Oprah is probably going to have a segment on "The Da Vinci Code" when the movie comes out in May, and it would probably be cool for her show to have a real-life crypto-geek girl (who just had a book come out).

The only thing is, I've never been a member of the "The Cult of Oprah", and I really have no idea how I would even go about getting the attention of her producers, other than just working the phones and relentlessly self-promoting myself. Does anyone else have an idea how I'd get my name onto their radar screen?

Elonka

Elonka wrote:

Does anyone else have an idea how I'd get my name onto their radar screen?

Start by having your publisher send Oprah a preview copy of your book, along with some kind of glossy brochure that their ad agency would prepare. The brochure would outline the angle Oprah should take in making your book and personal story relevant to her audience.

Ideally, your book jacket would include "Advance Praise" from Dan Brown himself, or from James Sanborn, or something.

Have you met H. Keith Melton? Maybe your publisher could work on getting your book into the gift shop at the International Spy Musuem. It's mostly focused on espionage, but their web site does have a Games section that includes a "Codemaking & Breaking" Flash game.

noteworthy wrote:
Elonka wrote:

Does anyone else have an idea how I'd get my name onto their radar screen?

Start by having your publisher send Oprah a preview copy of your book, along with some kind of glossy brochure that their ad agency would prepare. The brochure would outline the angle Oprah should take in making your book and personal story relevant to her audience.

Ideally, your book jacket would include "Advance Praise" from Dan Brown himself, or from James Sanborn, or something.

Have you met H. Keith Melton? Maybe your publisher could work on getting your book into the gift shop at the International Spy Musuem. It's mostly focused on espionage, but their web site does have a Games section that includes a "Codemaking & Breaking" Flash game.

Okay, the publisher sent me a PDF file, and I played with it a bit, and here's what the flyer's looking like so far: flyer.jpg (300K). How's that look?

And yes, Melton's a great guy! He's put me in touch with some people at the International Spy Museum in Washington DC, who may be inviting me to come out and do a booksigning. Melton also suggested that I make myself available to the 24-hour news channels, as a volunteer code expert who they can interview when they're looking for such a thing around the time of the release of the movie The Da Vinci Code. I hadn't even thought of that, and it's a bit daunting, but sure, why not? Though again, I have no idea of how to get my name into their rolodex. Is there a database of "people that CNN call" somewhere?

Elonka :)

Elonka wrote:

Okay, the publisher sent me a PDF file, and I played with it a bit, and here's what the flyer's looking like so far: flyer.jpg (300K). How's that look?

Looks good. And since everyone raved about the media photo that accompanied the whitedust article, I thought they might be interested in your photo credits page, which offers a higher resolution copy. There are also the other thumbnails. (When I originally wrote this, I hadn't realized you'd already pointed people to the credits page.)

Melton suggested that I make myself available to the 24-hour news channels ... I have no idea of how to get my name into their rolodex. Is there a database of "people that CNN call" somewhere?

There are numerous databases of subject matter experts; often they are specific to a particular industry or line of business and are managed/maintained/marketed by industry associations or PR firms.

People on the lecture circuit are often represented by speakers bureaus such as Royce Carlton or Washington Speakers Bureau, and they often also handle media relations for their clients.

Maybe you could get Lisa Ling interested in profiling you for Oprah. The two of you could travel the world investigating the conspiracies behind Dan Brown's next novel.

Going through various speakers bureaus, I found this amusing -- Premiere Speakers Bureau's lineup includes Ann Coulter; Sean Hannity; Ashley Smith, The Atlanta Hostage Hero; Rudy Ruettiger, Basis for the Award Winning Movie "Rudy"; and Wally Amos, Famous Amos Gourmet Cookie Creator. (For the low, low price of $18k, you can get Joe Scarborough for your next dinner party! By contrast, Laura Ingraham is $22.5k. Susan Stamberg is only $10k.)

noteworthy wrote:
Elonka wrote:

Okay, the publisher sent me a PDF file, and I played with it a bit, and here's what the flyer's looking like so far: flyer.jpg (300K). How's that look?

Looks good. And since everyone raved about the media photo that accompanied the whitedust article, I thought they might be interested in your photo credits page, which offers a higher resolution copy. There are also the other thumbnails.

Melton suggested that I make myself available to the 24-hour news channels ... I have no idea of how to get my name into their rolodex. Is there a database of "people that CNN call" somewhere?

There are numerous databases of subject matter experts; often they are specific to a particular industry or line of business and are managed/maintained/marketed by industry associations or PR firms.

People on the lecture circuit are often represented by speakers bureaus such as Royce Carlton, and they often also handle media relations for their clients.

You are a wealth of information. :)

I'm actually going to be on the road for a week (bad timing, considering that the book is going to be released in the U.S. on March 28), so won't have much time to work on this. I trust you though, so anything that you (Noteworthy, Rattle, other interested Memestreamers) want to try and come up with and distribute, go for it. :) I'm also waiting for the photographer to deliver hi-res professionally-retouched versions of those additional thumbnails that you saw, and will make them available to you as soon as I've got 'em.

Elonka :)

Elonka wrote:

You are a wealth of information. :)

Have you looked into getting your publisher to submit your book for Amazon's "Search Inside the Book" program?

When customers search for books on Amazon.com, we use the actual words from inside participating books -- not just the author, title, and keywords supplied by the publisher -- to return the best possible selection of books. With this powerful new search feature, customers can discover books that may never have surfaced in previous search results!

With Search Inside the Book, customers can also browse sample pages and do additional searches inside a particular book to confirm that the title is just what they're looking for. All of this helps publishers and authors like you sell more books.

Y'know, I've been wondering that, myself. I mean, Oprah is probably going to have a segment on "The Da Vinci Code" when the movie comes out in May, and it would probably be cool for her show to have a real-life crypto-geek girl (who just had a book come out).

Strong female, smart, into codes, a new book out, award winning video game designer who often speaks trying to get more women in video game design, military background, contributed to the war on terror, et cetera.. The list goes on. There is enough there, that the challenge to a show like Oprah would be figuring out what they want to focus on! Whatever that thing is that gets mainstream attention...

I know you've said before that you never considered "female hacker" to be your niche, but you are here. I think there is a message there as well.. Most of the best hackers I know never really set out on that path, but rather just did what they were interested in, and found themselves here too. We absorb clue. Resistance is futile.

The only thing is, I've never been a member of the "The Cult of Oprah", and I really have no idea how I would even go about getting the attention of her producers, other than just working the phones and relentlessly self-promoting myself. Does anyone else have an idea how I'd get my name onto their radar screen?

I know nothing about anything Oprah either. Its not my scene... I don't even own a TV right now, let alone watch daytime TV. I watch the news, documentaries, cartoons, etc. I am one of those "other" demographics.

However, for the reasons I expressed above, I can see you being the perfect guest on that type of program, as well as appearing in her magazine. One thing about your book, is that its a perfect gift book for smart kids. Forget about crossword puzzles, crack codes!

I think all the ideas noteworthy posted were good. A good press kit and strategic press releases are necessary, and a experienced PR person is a necessary part of the equation I think. On the grass roots end, A few web searches revealed a section of Oprah's site with a page for submitting story ideas:

Do you have a great idea for a show? Is there a topic you feel passionately about? Or a person you'd like to see Oprah interview? The producers of The Oprah Winfrey Show want to hear from you! Please fill out the form below, type your message and click "Submit" when you are finished. We look forward to reading your e-mail!

Should we start submitting stuff? Got some talking points for all your fans here? :)

The social engineer in me wants to see this happen. :) Some Oprah coolhunter needs to stumble upon this thread, realize the true width of the conspiracy, and jump all over this.. We could use some female hackers getting some mainstream attention.

Rattle wrote:

I know you've said before that you never considered "female hacker" to be your niche, but you are here. I think there is a message there as well.. Most of the best hackers I know never really set out on that path, but rather just did what they were interested in, and found themselves here too. We absorb clue. Resistance is futile.
 . . .
The social engineer in me wants to see this happen. :) Some Oprah coolhunter needs to stumble upon this thread, realize the true width of the conspiracy, and jump all over this.. We could use some female hackers getting some mainstream attention.

If I am so asked, it shall be my honor to serve at the pleasure of the, um, hackerdom.

Elonka ;)