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<div><br></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: monospace; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); ">Weird that The Institute for Distributed Creativity is ON Facebook and has 1,211 members... </span><img src="http://gfx2.hotmail.com/mail/w4/pr01/ltr/emoticons/smile_party.gif" width="19" height="19" alt=""><div><br></div><div><br><span style="font-family:Lucida Handwriting,Cursive">Joseph Nechvatal <br></span><a href="http://www.nechvatal.net"><span style="text-decoration:underline">www.nechvatal.net</span></a><br><br><br><br><br>> From: w@thing.net<br>> To: thingist@mailman.thing.net<br>> Date: Wed, 14 Jul 2010 20:28:59 -0400<br>> Subject: [thingist] the thing with facebook<br>> <br>> Caspar Stracke wrote:<br>> <br>> > Re: Facebook links and interaction with social media <br>> > absolutely not necessary in my opinion. A Facebook antidote? Despite<br>> > debates on privacy, I dont really understand the big fuss here. What <br>> > has one to do with the other?<br>> > People come to fb to giggle with (or at) their friends or -as some <br>> > THING members- becoming friends with Paul the octopus. That's it.<br>> <br>> i am always surprised how sanguine some people, who in many other<br>> respects display some degree of critical faculty, take the facebook<br>> phenomenon. during the dot com years, i somehow got on the list of a<br>> focus group head hunter. he probably thought the "ceo" of thing.net<br>> would be a qualified participant for focus groups that dealt with new<br>> online services, technical products, advertising and these kind of<br>> things. i often gladly accepted, since the groups met in the early<br>> evening, not too far from the office, and included coffee and sandwiches<br>> and at the end of a 90 minute session an envelop stuffed with $200 in<br>> cash. this is the difference, facebook doesn't give you free coffee and<br>> cash and behind the one-way mirror glass wall there are no human<br>> marketing spooks watching you, but banks of computers registering your<br>> every "like" and aggregating it into mind-blowing amounts of marketing<br>> data. <br>> <br>> recently some web sites popped up helping facebook and other social<br>> networking aficionados to "commit suicide," sites like<br>> http://www.seppukoo.com/ and http://suicidemachine.org/ (btw, the<br>> southpark episode is worth the download). they all were hit with cease<br>> and desist orders from zuckerberg & co and surprisingly they all<br>> complied. another indicator how media culture has changed. we relished<br>> those fights and employed every trick in the book to keep going and<br>> provide time and legal wiggle room, didn't matter whether the opponent<br>> was DOW or eToy or Mattel.<br>> <br>> recently on the idc list an aricle appeared which i am reposting below.<br>> the author of the article notes the suicide phenomenon on social media<br>> networks and suggest an even more effective method of resistance. stay<br>> on and just befriend everybody and like everything, just flood the<br>> system with meaningless clutter (not that it isn't full of that<br>> already). so THE THING member you allude to, the one befriending paul<br>> the oracle octopus, is doing just that. back when i was doing these<br>> focus group sessions, i was almost always bored to death with the<br>> products or design suggestions, so i invented answers i thought they<br>> might be fishing for or sometimes i just went for the opposite. it was<br>> a similar strategy. at least i was paid handsomely for my time.<br>> <br>> ---- from iDC list --------------------------------------------<br>> <br>> Sean Dockray wrote:<br>> <br>> Everyone now wants to know how to remove themselves from social<br>> networks. It has become absolutely clear that our relationships to<br>> others are mere points in the aggregation of marketing data. Political<br>> campaigns, the sale of commodities, the promotion of entertainment –<br>> this is the outcome of our expression of likes and affinities. And at<br>> what cost? The reward is obvious: we no longer have to tolerate<br>> advertisements for things for which we have no interest. Instead our<br>> social relations are saturated with public relations. But at least it is<br>> all *interesting*!<br>> <br>> Unlike the old days, when we could invent online identities daily, our<br>> social networks today require fidelity between our physical self and our<br>> online self. The situation is unbearable.<br>> <br>> The frightening consequence of it all is that we believe in the value of<br>> these networks. We understand perfectly well that our privacy is being<br>> renegotiated without our consent; the rules are changing in plain view;<br>> but we still participate! It is like a new form of money, something we<br>> realize is a myth, but we act like it is real and that is its power. We<br>> can’t leave because everyone else is there! Or because we are invested<br>> in the myth ourselves.<br>> <br>> The question is how do we extract ourselves from this predicament?<br>> <br>> Recently, some programmers figured out how to computationally do exactly<br>> this. By entering in your username and password, the software would<br>> delete as much information as possible, ultimately removing the account<br>> itself. It was a radical enough idea to attract the legal attention of<br>> Facebook.<br>> <br>> This software did not go far enough!<br>> <br>> When someone disappears from Facebook, does anyone notice? Does this<br>> software retroactively invalidate all of the marketing data that has<br>> been collected from the account? Has this person de-dividuated<br>> themselves? No, silence has not disrupted the system in the slightest!<br>> <br>> Social networks need a social suicide. In the same way that 99.99999% of<br>> users on Facebook don’t exist within the cloistered world of one’s home<br>> page, an invisible user – one who has committed suicide – is simply a<br>> non-factor in the constant and regular computational logic of the thing.<br>> The answer isn’t silence, but noise!<br>> <br>> Suicide on a social network is a matter of introducing noise into the<br>> system. It spreads viruses and misinformation. It makes things less<br>> interesting for others. It disrupts the finely calibrated advertising<br>> algorithms on which suggestions are made – for friends, groups,<br>> institutions, ideas, and so on. Social networking captures, quantifies,<br>> and capitalizes on positive feedback. It records and reproduces<br>> similarity. Oh yes, everyone is not watching one of three mass-produced<br>> choices; but beneath all of the possibilities there is only one choice!<br>> The one for you!<br>> <br>> A roadmap for an effective Facebook suicide should do some of the<br>> following: catching as many viruses as possible; click on as many “Like”<br>> buttons as possible; join as many groups as possible; request as many<br>> friends as possible. Wherever there is the possibility for action, take<br>> it, and take it without any thought whatsoever. Become a machine for<br>> clicking! Every click dissolves the virtual double that Facebook has<br>> created for you. It disperses you into the digital lives of others you<br>> hadn’t thought of communicating with. It confuses your friends. It pulls<br>> all those parts of the world that your social network refuses to engage<br>> with back into focus, makes it present again.<br>> <br>> Invisibility comes in many forms, and on social networks it is the form<br>> of a radical overload of information – a maximum participation. No more<br>> thought, because every considered click adds to the collaborative<br>> filtering algorithms that makes sure everyone continues to like what<br>> they like, but in slightly modified form. Click everywhere, click often,<br>> and don’t stop until you have disappeared beneath a flood of<br>> meaninglessness.<br>> <br>> This is a call for suicide, for the abandonment of seriousness and<br>> belief. It is a call to reclaim ourselves from the sad version of<br>> ourselves that lives in that bloodless village. Don’t become nothing,<br>> the singular point defined by an absence, become everything, with<br>> everyone else. Drown the system in data and make a new world in the<br>> ruins that remain!<br>> <br>> iDC — mailing list of the Institute for Distributed Creativity<br>> <br>> ---------------------------------<br>> <br>> and if you are still not clear what "the big fuss about privacy and<br>> facebook" is about, here is a starter via bruce sterling:<br>> <br>> http://www.wired.com/beyond_the_beyond/2010/05/facebook-backlash-time/<br>> <br>> ahoi mate,<br>> <br>> wolfgang<br>> <br>> _______________________________________________<br>> thingist mailing list<br>> thingist@mailman.thing.net<br>> https://mailman.thing.net/mailman/listinfo/thingist<br></div> <br /><hr />The New Busy think 9 to 5 is a cute idea. Combine multiple calendars with Hotmail. <a href='http://www.windowslive.com/campaign/thenewbusy?tile=multicalendar&ocid=PID28326::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-US:WM_HMP:042010_5' target='_new'>Get busy.</a></body>
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