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<div>Hi all -</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Trebor asked me to post some information on a project I am
working on that relates to the theme of this event. Just to
introduce myself, I am an artist, writer, adjunct faculty at both
NYU-Steinhardt and NYU-ITP, etc.. and finishing up my PhD at Trinity
College Dublin (although I am based out of NYC). Over the past 15
years or so, I've been working on projects int he theme of
"Deconstructing Networks" (also the title of my
dissertation) that critically examine and deconstruct the social and
technological implications of Internet culture and experience. From
hacking networked devices to subvert their use and challenge their
ubiquity, to examining the social systems of software as it
proliferates across the Internet.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>For example, in 2003 I developed a project called "Bumplist"
that challenged the subscription policy and rules of email lists, by
attaching a limit (6 members) to the amount of people that could join
a list, so that the 7th subscription "bumped" someone off
the list. This project was seen as both a experiment with the rules of
software as well as playful attempt at discovering the consequences of
placing rules on accepted forms of social software. Since 1999, I've
worked on over 60 individual artworks that challenge our perception of
networks and their relationship to social systems, the culture of the
Internet, and play. Some of these include "Crank the Web", a
browser with a handle that you manually have to "crank" in
order to download a web site, "Alerting Infrastructure!", a
web site hit counter that destroys the physical structure or building
that the web site represents, "PoliceState", a network
of 20 remote controlled toy police cars that drive around in patterns
associated with "terrorist" keywords that are sniffed on a
local network (using Carvore - which was developed by Alex Galloway,
who I believe is also on this list), etc...</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>You can check out BumpList here: http://www.bumplist.net</div>
<div>and My full projects list + details are here:
http://www.coin-operated.com/projects</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>To connect with the "Internet as Playground and Factory"
event, I wanted to post more info about a new project I've been
working with Mike Bennett on that subverts the rules of networked
social media by allowing the public to design and implement these
rules online and release them to the public. This project is called
"THWONK" and it's a "Web 4.0" (yes skipping 3.0)
platform and community for designing the rules of online communities
such as email lists. THWONK is revolutionary because it gives you full
access to manipulate and change the social rules of email list
communication</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>THWONK is an exciting and new approach to creating online
communities that allows participants to alter the rule sets of these
systems. We call this approach, "User Defined Social
Systems". THWONK allows the public to design the rules of social
networks such as email lists, a.k.a. User Generated Social Structures
(UGSS).</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Digital communication tools are a critical component of everyday
life for many people. The appropriate and inappropriate design of
communication tools influence and shape how we connect, interact and
collaborate in local and distributed groups. Many of the digital
communication tools we use arose organically; with no explicit
understanding of the complex and multi-faceted effects they have on
human behaviour. For example mailing lists emerged more than 30+ years
ago, yet the social experience of mailing lists has remained nearly
unchanged, e.g. mailing lists do not exist that are designed to
explicitly support business processes.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>THWONK is an ongoing collaborative project started in 2009 by<u>
Mike Bennett</u> and<u> Jonah Brucker-Cohen</u> in the
interdisciplinary research fields of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)
and Computer Mediated Communication (CMC). CMC is concerned with the
design and study of online and digital communication tools, such as
email, instant messaging, text messaging, social networks, and
Twitter. THWONK is a free online website, authoring application and
infrastructure for crowd-sourcing and simplifying the creation and
rapid prototyping of novel CMC systems, such that non-technical users
can quickly invent, explore and co-create novel CMC systems. Our
purpose with THWONK is to shed new light on possible CMC designs. The
second important aim is to simplify the process of CMC implementation
and research.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>THWONK is live and in Alpha, and available here:
http://www.thwonk.com</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>There is a longer text about the project I would be happy to post
here, but I just wanted to send out some info to let people know about
it.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Thanks!</div>
<div>Jonah</div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
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<div>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<br>
Jonah Brucker-Cohen<br>
PHD Candidate - Disruptive Design Team<br>
NTRG, Trinity College<br>
Dublin, Ireland</div>
<div><br>
AIM: coinop29<br>
Skype: coinoperated<br>
Twitter: coinop29</div>
<div><br>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<br>
Artist, Writer, Professor Based in Brooklyn, NYC, USA<br>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<br>
http://www.coin-operated.com - projects and work/blog<br>
http://www.scrapyardchallenge.com - Scrapyard Challenge Workshops<br>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</div>
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