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  • From: Carrie McLaren <stay.free AT verizon.net>
  • To: stayfree AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Stay Free! | August 12, 2003
  • Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2003 22:23:05 -0500

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



  • Stay Free! | August 12, 2003, Carrie McLaren, 08/12/2003

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