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[Carrie McLaren <stay.free AT verizon.net>]

It's been ages since I did an update so here are some things I've 
been thinking about when I'm not thinking of the new Stay Free...


From the Wall Street Journal:
"Six Degrees of Exploitation? New Programs Help Companies 'Mine' 
Worker Relationships"
http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/public/wsj_software.html

It's the evil anti-Friendster! New software allows companies to 
harvest the personal relationships of their employees, using 
Orwellian-sounding tools like the "Relationship Mining Engine." I 
suppose it was inevitable. I've always been a little suspicious of 
the academic study of social networking for this very reason. Many 
scholars who analyze email forwards and web log files have only the 
best intentions: to help indie media spread "virally." Still, this 
kind of knowledge may ultimately be more beneficial to businesses 
than do-gooders for the simple fact that businesses are more likely 
to find more uses for it, uses that aren't hindered by a concern with 
their effect on people.

::::::


FLASH MOBS

There's been lots of press lately about flash mobs, those organized 
efforts to get masses of people to meet for a few minutes in a 
designated public location for no reason at all. My friend Bill 
organized the first flash mob here in New York, but there are plenty 
of precedents. For example, the Cacophony Society (in various 
incarnations) amasses huge crowds of people dressed as brides to 
parade through cities across the US. 

The Madagascar Institute recently organized a two-minute musical in 
front of the New York Public Library; participants conspired to meet 
on the street and, at a precise time, erupted "spontaneously" into 
song. And then there's Chenguin, an enormous creature--half chicken, 
half penguin--occasionally summoned to appear with a large posse in 
busy NYC intersections.

Personally, I'd much rather happen across Chenguin or his cousin 
Chixon (half chicken, half Richard Nixon) than a flash mob. I've seen 
more than my share of mobs, thank you. Inexplicable crowds are 
generally not something that gives one pause in New York. (Bill is 
quite savvy about this and, as his MOB Project has grown, his 
original concept has grown and become much more elaborate.) But 
what's interesting about flash mobs is not the events themselves but 
their extraordinary popularity. Since launching in New York last 
June, mob projects have spread across North America to Italy, 
Germany, and beyond. "The latest craze from the United States has hit 
Europe with (random) vengeance," writes the EU Observer.

So why have simple flash mobs exploded virally, unlike the more 
ambitious projects? The fact that tons of media people participated 
in the first mob certainly didn't hurt. But my guess is that flash 
mobs took off precisely because they're less ambitious; they take 
less effort. But who knows. I'll leave this for the contagious media 
experts to analyze.

http://www.nudesmasked.com/members/brides.htm
http://www.madagascarinstitute.com/
http://www.chenguin.com

http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,59297,00.html
http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-12710342,00.html


::::::

Comrade Alexandra sent me this LA Times Magazine article over a year 
ago about America's supersizing of everything from meals to sports 
heroes to cars and homes. An excellent historical overview of 
consumer culture.
http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/public/latimes_consuming.html


::::::


Here's a fine article based on Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber's 
great new book, _Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in 
Bush's War on Iraq_:

"Trading on fear: From the start, the invasion of Iraq was seen in 
the US as a marketing project. Selling 'Brand America' abroad was an 
abject failure; but at home, it worked...."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4709420,00.html




--
Carrie McLaren
Editor, Stay Free!
718.398.9324
www.stayfreemagazine.org
www.illegal-art.org