Dan Mikesell sent this link to a site explaining how to make your own organic LEDs (OLEDs). Assuming you’ve got access to a chemistry lab, it seems very possible. I’d be interested to know how noxious the chemicals are, though. We were both wondering what happens when you start making OLEDS in different shapes, and on different surfaces, like fabric, plastic, metal, etc.

The Mignon Game kit is an Atmel-based game board. It’s got a simple LED display and a few buttons, and is designed for beginners to start writing handheld video games on it in BASCOM’s AVR BASIC.

Testing… was a one-night event staged by Eric Paulos (Intel Research, Anthony Burke (UC Berkeley), and David Ross (UC Berkeley). It was a party at which all the partygoers wore RFID tags. A series of RFID antennae distributed through the room read the tags, and the data was then used to create background visuals for the party.

Sewing Circuits is a collaborative project between Leah Buechley, Nwanua Elumeze and Sue Hendrix of the University of Colorado. It’s a construction kit and acompanying activities that will allow kids to learn about circuits through sewing.

Thanks to Terri Senft for the link.

The Environmental Leadership Program is an organization dedicated to the development of new leadership talent in environmental research and development. They “nurture a new generation of environmental leadership characterized by diversity, innovation, collaboration, and effective communications. ELP addresses the needs of relatively new environmental activists and professionals by:

There’s a new report out from the Social Science Research Council’s Information Technology and International Cooperation program, “Civil Technologies: The Values of Nonprofit ICT Use,” by Ken Jordan and Mark Surman with funding from the Ford Foundation. This report is the last in a series of three major reports on the Internet, governance and civil society that were published by the ITIC program.

Concept

Virtual Petrie Dish was conceived of as a way to explore cellular automata affected in real time through video input. Starting with the initial parameters of Conway’s Game of Life, the program scans video input for red, green, and blue values, and taking the largest average, sets the mode of the automata. If the blue value is highest, then the Game operates as normal. If the red value is the highest, then the game operates in “poison” mode, which makes it more difficult for each cell to survive and all but impossible for it to birth new cells. If the green value is the highest, then the game operates in “superfood” mode, which increases each cells chances of survival and reproduction.

Requirements

You can interact with version 0.2 using a keyboard– simply press and hold down the “B” key to operate in blue or normal mode, the “R” key to operate in red or poison mode, and the “G” key to operate in green or superfood mode. Version 1.0 requires an iSight camera and a Macintosh computer. Both versions require Java, and if the applet runs too slowly on your computer it is suggested that you download the Processing application and copy and paste the source code (here for keyboard input and here for video input) into the Processing window.

References

Conway’s Game of Life
CellularAutomata1 at the Processing Site
Dan O’Sullivan’s Video Tracking Example

/** Suzan Eraslan - Cellular Automata **/

import processing.video.*;

Capture video;

// Global Variables
int iWidth = 60;
int iHeight = 60;
int iScale = 10;
int[][][] iWorld;
float fDensity = 0.2;
String sMode = “Green”;
int sModeFillR = 90;
int sModeFillG = 90;
int sModeFillB = 90;

void setup ()
{
video = new Capture(this, 100, 100, 5);
// each Cell will be 4 pixels x 4 pixels.
size(iWidth*iScale,iHeight*iScale);
framerate (30);
background(0);

//stroke(255);
noStroke();
rectMode(CORNERS);

//Create World
iWorld = new int[iWidth][iHeight][2];

//Set all cells in both worlds to 0
for (int i=0; i < iWidth; i++)
{
for (int j=0; j < iHeight; j++)
{
iWorld[j][i][0] = 0;
iWorld[j][i][1] = 0;
} //end loop through row
} //end loop through col

// Set random cell to ‘on’
for (int i = 0; i < iWidth * iHeight * fDensity; i++)
{
int randX = (int)random(iWidth);
int randY = (int)random(iHeight);
iWorld[randX][randY][0] = 1;
}

vDrawGrid();

} //end setup method

void captureEvent(Capture camera)
{
camera.read();
}

void draw() {
vCheckDisplay();
vEvaluateGrid();
vLoadShadowWorld();
vDrawGrid();
}

void vEvaluateGrid() {
int iAlive1 = 0;
int iAlive2 = 0;
int iBirth = 0;
int iTotal = 0;

//Based on mode, set rule parameters
if (sMode == “Red”) {
iAlive1 = 3;
iAlive2 = 4;
iBirth = 4;
}
if (sMode == “Blue”) {
iAlive1 = 2;
iAlive2 = 3;
iBirth = 3;
}
if (sMode == “Green”) {
iAlive1 = 1;
iAlive2 = 2;
iBirth = 2;
}

//Set all cells in both worlds to 0
for (int i=0; i < iWidth; i++)
{
for (int j=0; j < iHeight; j++)
{
iTotal = iNeighborCount(j,i);
if (iWorld[j][i][0] == 1) {
//Currently alive - keep alive?
if (iTotal == iAlive1 || iTotal == iAlive2) {iWorld[j][i][1] = 1;}
} else {
//Not currently alive. Birth?
if (iTotal == iBirth) {iWorld[j][i][1] = 1;}
}

} //end loop through row
} //end loop through col

}

int iNeighborCount (int iRow, int iCol) {
int iTotal = 0;

//Edge conditions

//NW
if (iRow != 0 && iCol != 0) {iTotal = iTotal + iWorld[iRow-1][iCol-1][0];}
//N
if (iRow != 0) {iTotal = iTotal + iWorld[iRow-1][iCol][0];}
//NE
if (iRow != 0 && iCol != iWidth - 1 ) {iTotal = iTotal + iWorld[iRow-1][iCol+1][0];}
//E
if (iCol != iWidth - 1) {iTotal = iTotal + iWorld[iRow][iCol+1][0];}
//SE
if (iRow != iHeight - 1 && iCol != iWidth - 1) {iTotal = iTotal + iWorld[iRow+1][iCol+1][0];}
//S
if (iRow != iHeight - 1) {iTotal = iTotal + iWorld[iRow+1][iCol][0];}
//SW
if (iRow != iHeight - 1 && iCol != 0) {iTotal = iTotal + iWorld[iRow+1][iCol-1][0];}
//W
if (iCol != 0) {iTotal = iTotal + iWorld[iRow][iCol-1][0];}

return iTotal;
}

void vCheckDisplay() {
// This method will read in from the video camera and measure he RGB values; and set sMode accordingly.
float lRed = 0;
float lBlue = 0;
float lGreen = 0;

int r1 = 0;
int g1 = 0;
int b1 = 0;
int howmany = video.width*video.height;

int iCounter = 0;
for (int x=0; x < video.width; x++) {
for (int y=0; y < video.height; y++) {
if (iCounter == 4) {
int loc = x + y*video.width;
color currColor = video.pixels[loc];
lRed = lRed + red(currColor);
lGreen = lGreen + green(currColor);
lBlue = lBlue + blue(currColor);
iCounter = 0;
} else {
iCounter= iCounter +1;
} //end if test
} //end y scan
} //end x scan

//compensate for camera’s problems sensing blue
lBlue = lBlue *1.75;

//compensate for camera’s bias towards sensing red
lRed = lRed *.75;

// Evaluate totals
if (lRed >= lBlue && lRed >= lGreen && sMode !=”Red”) {
println(”Mode is now Red”);
sMode = “Red”;
sModeFillR = 255;
sModeFillG = 0;
sModeFillB = 0;
}
if (lBlue >= lRed && lBlue >= lGreen && sMode!=”Blue”) {
println(”Mode is now Blue”);
sMode = “Blue”;
sModeFillR = 0;
sModeFillG = 0;
sModeFillB = 255;
}
if (lGreen >= lBlue && lGreen >= lRed && sMode!=”Green”) {
println(”Mode is now Green”);
sMode = “Green”;
sModeFillR = 0;
sModeFillG = 255;
sModeFillB = 0;
}
}

void vDrawGrid() {
for (int i=0; i < iWidth; i++)
{
for (int j=0; j < iHeight; j++)
{
vDrawCell(j,i,iWorld[j][i][0]);
} //end loop through row
} //end loop through col
}

void vDrawCell (int iRow, int iColumn, int iValue) {
int iRootRow = iRow * iScale;
int iRootCol = iColumn * iScale;
if (iValue == 0) {fill(0);}
if (iValue == 1) {fill(sModeFillR,sModeFillG,sModeFillB);}
rect(iRootRow, iRootCol, iRootRow+iScale, iRootCol +iScale);
//println(iRootRow + “/” + iRootCol + “/” + iValue);
}

void vLoadShadowWorld() {
for (int i=0; i < iWidth; i++)
{
for (int j=0; j < iHeight; j++)
{
iWorld[j][i][0] = iWorld[j][i][1];
} //end loop through row
} //end loop through col

for (int i=0; i < iWidth; i++)
{
for (int j=0; j < iHeight; j++)
{
iWorld[j][i][1] = 0;
} //end loop through row
} //end loop through col
}

Here is the final version of my Gawker project. The applet is streaming the updated titles from the wesbite, 20 at a time, and loading them into an array. Click on one of the titles to be taken directly to the article; it will open in a new window.

Gawker Final

Coming out all over.

So the Come Out and Play big games festival is happening this weekend. If you’re in New York and into this kind of thing, I’d really recommend coming and checking it out. Looks like it’s going to be a big deal in the big games world (and hopefully the start of a regular thing).

I mention, as well, because I’ve got two big games appearing in the festival that you might consider checking out! (They’re both currently fully booked on the site, but if you just come, you can probably participate.)

Sleuth

Sleuth is a game I developed with Josh Klein with assistance from Steve Bull and Kalin Mintchev. We wanted to design a game that rode on top of our awesome (and nearly-launched) Sugarcandy (Sgrcndy) mobile group chat application that we’ve been developing. So we came up with this idea based on the board game Scotland Yard that I used to own back as a kid. A Master Criminal will be roaming around Chelsea in Manhattan, trying to evade detection. Teams of players use clues and geo-locating tools to hunt the Criminal down! It’s that easy. And then everyone meets up at the Chelsea Brewing Company for beers. (The first group to find the Criminal gets free beer!)

We’ve been having troubles with Dreamhost — the company providing us with hosting — but otherwise, everything’s ready to go and we’re very excited. I’ll write up a brief report about how the experience goes.

Quoto

And then I’ve got Quoto, the Big Photography game. Developed with Ran Tao, Avani Patel, and Chris Paretti.

Quoto’s quite easy to explain: Each team gets some quotes. They have to go out and photograph those quotes on the streets on Manhattan rebus-style. That’s about it. Read more on the Quoto site, if you’d like.

We’re hoping that people will stick their resulting photos up on Flickr with the tag “quoto” so we can all enjoy the Quoto-joy later. There are already a few shots up from our playtests.

So those are the games. Awesome!

Also: Next week I’m going to Manaco to participate in the Nokia Games Summit in Monte Carlo. (Yeah: Holy shit. I’ll be staying at this dive.) More on that soon.

Oh, and since it’s trendy to say these days: Sorry for the slowness with blogging. Going to try to pick up the pace a bit this year!

in answer to tehchoyce: this current incarnation (and the one below) work without video input. pressing the “r” key runs it in red mode, “g” runs it in green mode, and “b” runs it in blue mode.

/** Suzan Eraslan - Cellular Automata **/

// Global Variables
int iWidth = 60;
int iHeight = 60;
int iScale = 10;
int[][][] iWorld;
float fDensity = 0.2;
String sMode = “Green”;
int sModeFillR = 90;
int sModeFillG = 90;
int sModeFillB = 90;

void setup ()
{
// each Cell will be 4 pixels x 4 pixels.
size(iWidth*iScale,iHeight*iScale);
framerate (30);
background(0);

//stroke(255);
noStroke();
rectMode(CORNERS);

//Create World
iWorld = new int[iWidth][iHeight][2];

//Set all cells in both worlds to 0
for (int i=0; i < iWidth; i++)
{
for (int j=0; j < iHeight; j++)
{
iWorld[j][i][0] = 0;
iWorld[j][i][1] = 0;
} //end loop through row
} //end loop through col

// Set random cell to ‘on’
for (int i = 0; i < iWidth * iHeight * fDensity; i++)
{
int randX = (int)random(iWidth);
int randY = (int)random(iHeight);
iWorld[randX][randY][0] = 1;
}

vDrawGrid();

} //end setup method

void draw() {
if (keyPressed) {
if (key == ‘r’ || key == ‘R’) {
sMode = “Red”;
sModeFillR = 255;
sModeFillG = 150;
sModeFillB = 150;
vGo();
}
if (key == ‘g’ || key == ‘G’) {
sMode = “Green”;
sModeFillR = 150;
sModeFillG = 255;
sModeFillB = 150;
vGo();
}
if (key == ‘b’ || key == ‘B’) {
sMode = “Blue”;
sModeFillR = 130;
sModeFillG = 130;
sModeFillB = 255;
vGo();
}
}
}

void vGo() {
//vCheckDisplay
vEvaluateGrid();
vLoadShadowWorld();
vDrawGrid();
}

void vEvaluateGrid() {
int iAlive1 = 0;
int iAlive2 = 0;
int iBirth = 0;
int iTotal = 0;

//Based on mode, set rule parameters
if (sMode == “Red”) {
iAlive1 = 3;
iAlive2 = 4;
iBirth = 4;
}
if (sMode == “Blue”) {
iAlive1 = 2;
iAlive2 = 3;
iBirth = 3;
}
if (sMode == “Green”) {
iAlive1 = 1;
iAlive2 = 2;
iBirth = 2;
}

//Set all cells in both worlds to 0
for (int i=0; i < iWidth; i++)
{
for (int j=0; j < iHeight; j++)
{
iTotal = iNeighborCount(j,i);
if (iWorld[j][i][0] == 1) {
//Currently alive - keep alive?
if (iTotal == iAlive1 || iTotal == iAlive2) {iWorld[j][i][1] = 1;}
} else {
//Not currently alive. Birth?
if (iTotal == iBirth) {iWorld[j][i][1] = 1;}
}

} //end loop through row
} //end loop through col

}

int iNeighborCount (int iRow, int iCol) {
int iTotal = 0;

//Edge conditions

//NW
if (iRow != 0 && iCol != 0) {iTotal = iTotal + iWorld[iRow-1][iCol-1][0];}
//N
if (iRow != 0) {iTotal = iTotal + iWorld[iRow-1][iCol][0];}
//NE
if (iRow != 0 && iCol != iWidth - 1 ) {iTotal = iTotal + iWorld[iRow-1][iCol+1][0];}
//E
if (iCol != iWidth - 1) {iTotal = iTotal + iWorld[iRow][iCol+1][0];}
//SE
if (iRow != iHeight - 1 && iCol != iWidth - 1) {iTotal = iTotal + iWorld[iRow+1][iCol+1][0];}
//S
if (iRow != iHeight - 1) {iTotal = iTotal + iWorld[iRow+1][iCol][0];}
//SW
if (iRow != iHeight - 1 && iCol != 0) {iTotal = iTotal + iWorld[iRow+1][iCol-1][0];}
//W
if (iCol != 0) {iTotal = iTotal + iWorld[iRow][iCol-1][0];}

return iTotal;
}

void vCheckDisplay() {
// This method will read in from the video camera and measure he RGB values; and set sMode accordingly.
long lRed = 0;
long lBlue = 0;
long lGreen = 0;

// Read in Video

// Analyze pixels, add R G & B values to corresponding long variables
// IDEA -> Sample every third pixel

// Evaluate totals
if (lRed >= lBlue && lRed >= lGreen && sMode !=”Red”) { println(”Mode is now Red”); sMode = “Red”; }
if (lBlue >= lRed && lBlue >= lGreen && sMode!=”Blue”) { println(”Mode is now Blue”); sMode = “Blue”;}
if (lGreen >= lBlue && lGreen >= lRed && sMode!=”Green”) { println(”Mode is now Green”); sMode = “Green”;}
}

void vDrawGrid() {
for (int i=0; i < iWidth; i++)
{
for (int j=0; j < iHeight; j++)
{
vDrawCell(j,i,iWorld[j][i][0]);
} //end loop through row
} //end loop through col
}

void vDrawCell (int iRow, int iColumn, int iValue) {
int iRootRow = iRow * iScale;
int iRootCol = iColumn * iScale;
if (iValue == 0) {fill(90);}
if (iValue == 1) {fill(sModeFillR,sModeFillG,sModeFillB);}
rect(iRootRow, iRootCol, iRootRow+iScale, iRootCol +iScale);
//println(iRootRow + “/” + iRootCol + “/” + iValue);
}

void vLoadShadowWorld() {
for (int i=0; i < iWidth; i++)
{
for (int j=0; j < iHeight; j++)
{
iWorld[j][i][0] = iWorld[j][i][1];
} //end loop through row
} //end loop through col

for (int i=0; i < iWidth; i++)
{
for (int j=0; j < iHeight; j++)
{
iWorld[j][i][1] = 0;
} //end loop through row
} //end loop through col
}

/** Suzan Eraslan - Cellular Automata **/

// Global Variables
int iWidth = 60;
int iHeight = 60;
int iScale = 10;
int[][][] iWorld;
float fDensity = 0.2;
String sMode = “Green”;

void setup ()
{
// each Cell will be 4 pixels x 4 pixels.
size(iWidth*iScale,iHeight*iScale);
framerate (30);
background(0);

//stroke(255);
noStroke();
rectMode(CORNERS);

//Create World
iWorld = new int[iWidth][iHeight][2];

//Set all cells in both worlds to 0
for (int i=0; i < iWidth; i++)
{
for (int j=0; j < iHeight; j++)
{
iWorld[j][i][0] = 0;
iWorld[j][i][1] = 0;
} //end loop through row
} //end loop through col

// Set random cell to ‘on’
for (int i = 0; i < iWidth * iHeight * fDensity; i++)
{
int randX = (int)random(iWidth);
int randY = (int)random(iHeight);
iWorld[randX][randY][0] = 1;
}

vDrawGrid();

} //end setup method

void draw() {
if (keyPressed) {
if (key == ‘r’ || key == ‘R’) {
sMode = “Red”;
vGo();
//fill(255,0,0);
}
if (key == ‘g’ || key == ‘G’) {
sMode = “Green”;
vGo();
//fill(0,255,0);
}
if (key == ‘b’ || key == ‘B’) {
sMode = “Blue”;
vGo();
//fill(0,0,255);
}
}
}

void vGo() {
//vCheckDisplay
vEvaluateGrid();
vLoadShadowWorld();
vDrawGrid();
}

void vEvaluateGrid() {
int iAlive1 = 0;
int iAlive2 = 0;
int iBirth = 0;
int iTotal = 0;

//Based on mode, set rule parameters
if (sMode == “Red”) {
iAlive1 = 3;
iAlive2 = 4;
iBirth = 4;
}
if (sMode == “Blue”) {
iAlive1 = 2;
iAlive2 = 3;
iBirth = 3;
}
if (sMode == “Green”) {
iAlive1 = 1;
iAlive2 = 2;
iBirth = 2;
}

//Set all cells in both worlds to 0
for (int i=0; i < iWidth; i++)
{
for (int j=0; j < iHeight; j++)
{
iTotal = iNeighborCount(j,i);
if (iWorld[j][i][0] == 1) {
//Currently alive - keep alive?
if (iTotal == iAlive1 || iTotal == iAlive2) {iWorld[j][i][1] = 1;}
} else {
//Not currently alive. Birth?
if (iTotal == iBirth) {iWorld[j][i][1] = 1;}
}

} //end loop through row
} //end loop through col

}

int iNeighborCount (int iRow, int iCol) {
int iTotal = 0;

//Edge conditions

//NW
if (iRow != 0 && iCol != 0) {iTotal = iTotal + iWorld[iRow-1][iCol-1][0];}
//N
if (iRow != 0) {iTotal = iTotal + iWorld[iRow-1][iCol][0];}
//NE
if (iRow != 0 && iCol != iWidth - 1 ) {iTotal = iTotal + iWorld[iRow-1][iCol+1][0];}
//E
if (iCol != iWidth - 1) {iTotal = iTotal + iWorld[iRow][iCol+1][0];}
//SE
if (iRow != iHeight - 1 && iCol != iWidth - 1) {iTotal = iTotal + iWorld[iRow+1][iCol+1][0];}
//S
if (iRow != iHeight - 1) {iTotal = iTotal + iWorld[iRow+1][iCol][0];}
//SW
if (iRow != iHeight - 1 && iCol != 0) {iTotal = iTotal + iWorld[iRow+1][iCol-1][0];}
//W
if (iCol != 0) {iTotal = iTotal + iWorld[iRow][iCol-1][0];}

return iTotal;
}

void vCheckDisplay() {
// This method will read in from the video camera and measure he RGB values; and set sMode accordingly.
long lRed = 0;
long lBlue = 0;
long lGreen = 0;

// Read in Video

// Analyze pixels, add R G & B values to corresponding long variables
// IDEA -> Sample every third pixel

// Evaluate totals
if (lRed >= lBlue && lRed >= lGreen && sMode !=”Red”) { println(”Mode is now Red”); sMode = “Red”; }
if (lBlue >= lRed && lBlue >= lGreen && sMode!=”Blue”) { println(”Mode is now Blue”); sMode = “Blue”;}
if (lGreen >= lBlue && lGreen >= lRed && sMode!=”Green”) { println(”Mode is now Green”); sMode = “Green”;}
}

void vDrawGrid() {
for (int i=0; i < iWidth; i++)
{
for (int j=0; j < iHeight; j++)
{
vDrawCell(j,i,iWorld[j][i][0]);
} //end loop through row
} //end loop through col
}

void vDrawCell (int iRow, int iColumn, int iValue) {
int iRootRow = iRow * iScale;
int iRootCol = iColumn * iScale;
if (iValue == 0) {fill(0);}
if (iValue == 1) {fill(255);}
rect(iRootRow, iRootCol, iRootRow+iScale, iRootCol +iScale);
//println(iRootRow + “/” + iRootCol + “/” + iValue);
}

void vLoadShadowWorld() {
for (int i=0; i < iWidth; i++)
{
for (int j=0; j < iHeight; j++)
{
iWorld[j][i][0] = iWorld[j][i][1];
} //end loop through row
} //end loop through col

for (int i=0; i < iWidth; i++)
{
for (int j=0; j < iHeight; j++)
{
iWorld[j][i][1] = 0;
} //end loop through row
} //end loop through col
}

Someone tried to tell me last week (might it have been Steven Jackson?) that the NYT recently bought Gawker Media. There have been rumours spreading about it (to the tune $32 million dollars), but, fortunately, this was only a joke that spread from the interior of the NYT (or, possibly, a sad, sad idea someone was unfortunate enough to have made an attempt to go through with), circulated and propagated and, well…really, really funny. I mean, come one. There’s a front page link to the “Conde Nast Travel Guide”.

Times mock up

Animation movie

Okay, so I finally got the code to print and discovered a new way to write the proxy and url in order to be able to load the applet from stage. Next I’m going to create links from the titles listed in the applet that will open the article in a new browser window. I’m starting to feel pretty uninspired by all of this, but, hey, maybe something cool will come up along the way.

Gawker titles

I’ve been thinking a lot about weather and how it affects people (no, not just because it’s snowing and I’m from florida and it’s cold).

It recently occurred to me that, for someone so consistantly turned off by chit chat, the boring, consistant doldrom of repetitive conversations usually held with people of little or no relation for no discernable reason at all, I always find myslef eager to discuss the weather. I find it a certainly acceptable conversation, as well as pleasing. I find that this is true because most people do not discuss weather as an external, disconnected entity, but rather as an emotional response or mood. Most people, when discussing the weather talk mostly about how they feel about the weather. This can be a great insight into a person’s peronality and behavior.

I see a project in this somewhere down the line, but it’s not quite formed yet. Maybe it could be some link from the way a person talks about the weather to the way they feel to some third, more physical response. Or perhaps an auditory one. At any rate, I think the best place to start is to simply have conversations with various people about the weather and record them. Things are pretty crazy on the floor right now, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned at ITP so far it’s that people are willing to help when they have something they need, or in the near future will need, help with as well. Maybe I’ll put out an all-call for some people to stop by and chat with me about the weather before the floor closes down for the break. Then maybe I can mull it all over while I’m on vacation from school.

Ohmigod, I take it back! I take it all back! The dom tree view in the debugged version of Safari returns html, not xml. And I’m not just saying this because it was some sort of funky code the likes of which I got back from the Gawker site (and the Gothamist too, for that matter). No, it was from a pefectly ledgible, clean, understandable xml site. Can you guess who?

link to my busted code

Spurred on by the frustration of my ICM final project and the logistical nightmare of constantly switching back and forth from Safari to Firefox, I did a little search to find out if there’s a way to disable the built-in RSS reader in Safari so I can view the xml document tree of a blog with my favorite browser. Well, here it is Pete Freitag, a million times simpler than I expected it to be.

Michael Delgaudio authored this short Flash animation to help demonstrate the function of the sound domes project:

    Animation

Also, our final proposal page is up and running:

    Website

As is our continuing project blog:

    Blog

SXSW Page about this panel

[Introductions. Talk about the lack of a Bruce Sterling party this year.]

Bruce Sterling: This is the most innovative year since the beginning of the web. There’s blood in the water — Google’s buying. Bubble 2.0. It’s gratifying to see what’s happening now. Commons-based peer production is getting legs. Something I was complaining about for years. Flickr is not a copy of anything else. Wikipedia is not a knock-off of anything else. Without historical president. Websites that turn themselves into platforms rather than site — it’s hard to explain the significance. Major development. Net community is no longer hanging on the coattail of Gates. That monopolistic era — Windows Live. After ten years of trying to build the MSN brand? It amazes me to see the burst of creativity considering the times.

We’re looking at tiny little groups of people trying to wire/unwire the town on their lonesome selves. I encourage you to help them. But why are towns having to do this? Only in the US do dying phone cos lobby the government like Indian casinos.

I’m spending a lot of my time in Europe this year. See America from the outside, now. I look at the spread of wireless and broadband. I’ve got broadband in Serbia for $20/mo. And it works. The people in Washington have forgotten how to build — too busy monetizing. Like the USSR. Turning the USA into a banana republic with rockets. Technically backward.

The reality-based community is polite and easy to push around — but payback’s a bitch. I should know. I’m a sci-fi writer.

Plug some books:

- Visionary in Residence. Audacious and freaky stuff. Not Harry Potter.

I was always very interested in global issues. Now I’m married to a Serbian feminist peacenik dissident I met with computers. In Belgrade. Now I know what went wrong in Yugoslavia. [...] You can learn a lot by studying global trends. Serbia has one of the most dysfunctional societies on the planet. Burying Milosevic this week. I have a ringside seat. It’s not a permanent move. I live out of my laptop, now. And so do many of my colleagues. Cory Doctorow, for example. A world of diaspora and globalization. [...] Nobody notices I’ve left Austin? I no longer need to be a resident of any particular city. Nothing enters or leaves Belgrade. I don’t even do permanent. National borders are like speed-bumps.

And I can see that it’s depressing here in America. An empire that lacks any base except oil, real estate speculation, and blood. A nation at war. And we even look different physically. Fat. Hugely and scarily fat. Swollen up as if poisoned and about to pop. The dollar is low against the Euro?

Do you really believe that Adam and Eve rode to church on Sunday on the back of dinosaurs? Objective reality? Creationism? [...] It’s an intellectual calamity — the shame is hard to bear.

It’s useful to be living in the extreme unique case. “The Balkans have so much future they have to export it to other people.” Slovenia? It’s a dull, conventional place. Like Iowa. Because they’re way into Serbian truthiness there. And forgive them some of that.

We’re seeing frantic collisions of fundamentalist delusion with reality. [...]

Where are war criminals of Srbrenitza[sp]? Religious asylum. Writing plays. Put on stage. Like Vaclaw Havel with a machine gun.

This is a culture war. We’ve got the disorder. And when it’s order, you don’t get to say “I proudly served.” Because it’s a war on the pride. On morale. Everybody lives in shadow. Always covert. Fake. Trumped up. No history because it’s been compartmentalized. Official denials. Star chambers. Not accidents. The stuff of the disorder. Secrecy. And no end to it. Even the victor is despised and distrusted.

We’re on a slider bar between the unthinkable and the unimaginable. And there are ways out of this situation. Except we haven’t invented the words for them yet. the smoke is building, but the exit sign is illegible. [Warren Ellis quote.] [...]

Unimaginable does not mean catastrophic. China and India are the healthiest success stories — unimaginable by Mao or Ghandi. And those are grim societies in their own ways. Go there. Look around. Barren, strip-mined, polluted messes. And yet they’re booming. It’s the people. Lots of people.

A word I’ve never mentioned in public is Austin in public: Spime. In 2004 I spoke at Siggraph about spime. Then I did a book. A weird and innovative book. Look at it just for the graphic design. It’ll shock and annoy you, which you need to have done to you. Because you’re a philistine and have no taste.

Spime. It’s not a word. It’s a tag! A theory-object.

What does it mean? What the popular consensus says it means. Like “cyberspace.” Gibson’s “cyberspace” is a consensual hallucination. We don’t have any of that. But the word already has a period flavor to it.

The spime elevator pitch: A speculative, imaginary object different from everyday objects.

- Interactive chip on it, labeled with a unique ID. A tag that you can mark and sort, rank and shuffle.
- Local positioning systems to sort where things are. Google Maps.
- Powerful search engine so you can find out things about it. Auto-Googling object.
- Cradle-to-cradle recycling. More sustainable. You can break it down and use the junk. Taggable, sortable garbage.
- 3D virtual models of objects. Virtually designed. CAD/CAM. Scanned. Present before it becomes physical.
- Rapidly prototyped. Fabject. Blobject. They’re making them out of metal, now, and have it clang right on the ground.

Alex Steffan is about the release a world-changing book.

If objects had these features, then people would truly interact with them. And it’s truly hard to describe. And it’s easier to think about with a name. So. Spime.

Internalizes the previous industrial order.

You look at something on the web, and every once in a while it becomes a physical object.

An internet of things. Not data. Objects. So we can engage with physical objects much better. It’s a civilizational step forward. We do it because of the way it will feel.

Advantage: No longer inventory my possessions inside my own head. Inventory voodoo done by a host of machines. I no longer bother to remember where things are or how to get them. I ask. I’m told. With instant, real-time accuracy. I Google my shoes in the morning. And my relationship to objects seems much simpler, more immediate.

That was my job as visionary-in-residence at the Art Center. And I wrote that. But I’m not a permanent design professor. Small book. Really big topic. Too big for one thinker. Needs distributed intelligence. The people must buy into it.

So I wanted my word to be Googleable. You’ll find a company called Spime and Frank Black of the Pixies using the word for something else. It’s a new word. But also a new tag. A word in the semantic web is a theory object — a whole cloud of associated commentary and data. Passed around and linked to. A platform for development. And this is different from language. It’s changing my life as a writer, public speaker, etc. The 20th century could not speak in this way. [...] As if the coffeehouse chatter at the surrealist cafe had been frozen into linkage and FAQs. The people who read newspapers and TV and don’t engage in this? Those are legacy people.

So I’m trying to write a novel this year because that’s part of my job description. But what is a novel under these circumstances? Dropping lit matches into the wet bog of language. And most go out because they deserve to go out. And the ones that catch fire become unrecognizable. Because of the trackback. They turn on their creator like Frankenstein’s monster. [...]

We’re going to have to become the change we want to see. Make no decision out of fear. The decline does not hold indefinitely. Because the people tire of the fraud, evil, and the negative impact on their lives.

The great American novel is over. We need a regional novel about the planet Earth. And the inspiration will be found in human resilience.

I’m not a sentimentalist. The people are not always blameless when they have bad leaders. Milosevic. Would kidnap the best man at his wedding, kill him, and have him secretly buried. And then talk the guy up. “I miss him every day.” The guy was a serpent. But the people love him. Some of them still love him. The best organized political party consider this guy a martyr. Posters on the street of this guy. He looks like an injured muppet. He was a product of that society that preferred to live on a locked closet and feed on their own illusions. Proud of their own wildness. And they’re holy, too. And this is kind of an upward trend. Churches going up all over Serbia.

Evil has a face today. The person who resents you because you don’t buy into the parochial crap of his ethnic group. And it puts people into a panic stampede that could stop us for decades. The key to it for now: Historical perspective. Time passes. You come to yourself. The voodoo curse? Faith-based bullshit! Coming apart in public! The old anvil laughs at the many broken hammers.

Serbia has a small language, so they still have poets. Like right-wing pundit bloggers.

When you can comprehend poetry, it means your heart is not broken.

[...]

They read poetry in public. And people listen. And weep aloud.

They’re not Europe because they don’t deserve it. But they’re not dead. Have a lot of heart. Construction cranes all over the place. Better goods. Graffiti it going away. New, full, good restaurants. Even the pirates of media and sanctions-breaking are in retreat. They’re a basketcase that’s about the break up even more. Montenegro wants to leave with every reason. Belgrade wants to split up. But they’re a people of resilience. And when the comeback comes, they’ll know how to go with it.

1937. Long time ago. Depression. Rising fascism. WWII at the door. People couldn’t get venture capital.

[Carl Sandberg quote.] “The people will live on…” [Long section. Very emotional moment. Standing. Applause.]

SXSW Page about this panel

[Came in late a few minutes late, but this turned into an excellent presentation. These guys are worth looking at.]

Jake Nickell: It all started off in my apartment and we were there for two years before we quit our jobs and started doing it full time. Right now we’re about 8,000 square feet in Chicago.

Maggie Mason: All a similar model: Users create it and vote on it.

Jeffrey Kalmikoff: Naked and Angry is the only thing that has its own packaging. And it’s the only thing that’s not community-driven. We did a lot of research into the best way to have the packaging for the ties.

Jake Nickell: Started about eight months ago. Take pattern submissions and make things out of them. Ties right now. Soon, wallpaper.

Jeffrey Kalmikoff: People ask if we’re going to expand Threadless to other things. Probably not because we like to keep it simple. So Naked and Angry was a way to do other things.

Jacob DeHart: 15 Megs of Fame uses the same model. More for the unsigned band. They get 15MB of space and different prizes and voting. In the future we’d like to get better prizes and maybe record deals for the bands.

Jeffrey Kalmikoff: It’s one of the projects we’ve had that’s evolved the most from the original idea of making a Hot Or Not for music. A unifying theme is “it would be cool if.” It went from something really simple to something really evolved. The biggest challenge was deciding what not to do with it.

Maggie Mason: So then, Extra-Tasty.

Jacob DeHart: Launched a couple of months ago. Users submit drink recipes. People can enter what they have in their house and it’ll tell you what they can make. And it’s tag-based.

Jeffrey Kalmikoff: What’s fun about it, too. We used to be an agency. [Missed something.] When you have client work, if you are asked to do something just beyond your abilities, you either farm it or learn it. But with Extra Tasty we expanded our skillset. You’ll be able to use it with your cellphone.

Jake Nickell: All of the recipes are generic.

Jeffrey Kalmikoff: Our database tells what the equivalent to a brand-name is. But we could go to a company and pitch including their name.

Jacob DeHart: It’s going to stay ad-free.

Maggie Mason: You have a community site called yay-hoooray. You seem to use it as a test-kitchen. How do they interlink?

Jeffrey Kalmikoff: Yay isn’t a test-kitchen. It’s just a community board. But we learned a lot from it.

Jacob DeHart: Marketing. We didn’t do any ads. All word-of-mouth. No other choice, but it’s really working out for us.

Jeffrey Kalmikoff: There’s a business model defined, but there wasn’t really any planning ahead as to how to do it. Most of it has really just been common sense. Or what made sense to us. So that’s how Threadless has grown. We try to think of things that the community would thing was really cool. Having fun in mind.

Jake Nickell: 90% of people on the site aren’t on there for a t-shirt. They’re submitting designs, talking on forums, voting, etc. If they’re proud of their design, they want to share it.

Maggie Mason: You guys get 20,000 designs per year?

Jeffrey Kalmikoff: We’ve had 80,000 so far — about 150 per day right now. We actually have an easy submission process. And we approve them. But we don’t ever really not put something up for content. Only for copyright problems or hugely offensive, too big, too many colors, and such. Most everything goes up.

Maggie Mason: You mentioned not having many problems with community management.

Jake Nickell: We don’t delete posts or anything like that. But you’re right, most communities turn bad or something like that.

Jacob DeHart: And I think our users are really loyal, too. They would stick up for us.

Maggie Mason: Have you been surprised with the quality of what people submit and choose?

Jeffrey Kalmikoff: As the business grows, we definitely give more back to the designers. We’re paying out close to $30,000/month to do it. At first you would get three shirts and $50. Because that made sense. But we’re just three people in a 300,000 person community. And there are only twenty people in SkinnyCorp. I’ve never won the competition, by the way. Now, our community would murder us if we printed something without them wanting it.

Maggie Mason: Ever done anything to make the community rise up?

Jeffrey Kalmikoff: The what-kind-of-t-shirt thing is a huge hot-button issue. You can’t bring up switching t-shirt manufacturers. We brought it up and it was, like, a 1500-post fight. But that’s because people feel ownership.

Maggie Mason: your average user is a 16-30-yr-old guy.

Jacob DeHart: We’ve started taking more stats on that. Average age is 22. Used to be more male, but it’s balancing out.

Maggie Mason: You mail out 60,000 shirts per month.

Jake Nickell: Yeah, we handle our own fulfillment. We started by shipping during our lunch breaks. We built out entire fulfillment system from scratch.

Maggie Mason: How many members are on your team.

Jake Nickell: We have 20 employees. 5-6 on the front doing websites and stuff. Everyone else does fulfillment.

Maggie Mason: Any special challenges?

Jeffrey Kalmikoff: When we try to do something new, we don’t know what we’re doing. None of us went to business school. You just figure out the best way to get it accomplished.

Jake Nickell: A lot of our challenge has to do with our growth. We have to move every year.

Jeffrey Kalmikoff: We’ve been settled for just over a year and we’re moving already in to a 25,000sqft place.

Jacob DeHart: We redesigned and reprogrammed Threadless every three months or so to add features and such. And as we worked on the site our skillset evolved and we were able to scale. At first we had to dedicate a server to sales, but we did these $10 sales and that would kill the server. Now we’re working on a system of about fifteen servers to host our twenty sites.

Jake Nickell: We kind of had a problem with FedEx. [Explain.]

Maggie Mason: How do you decide what’s not a good idea?

Jeffrey Kalmikoff: I used to think there were no bad ideas, only those that aren’t applicable. We have four themes that we apply projects to so that our sites share a spirit without being identical.

* Allow content to be created by the community.

* Put projects in the hands of the community.

* Let your community grow itself. (This has to do with our zero-advertising thing. If people won’t talk about it, it’s not good enough to do.)

* Reward the community that makes your project possible. (How do you have a company controlled by the community without their participation. Our community could kill Threadless if they wanted to. That’s just the way it goes.)

Maggie Mason: Do you worry about the backlash problems?

Jacob DeHart: We heard that Threadless would get too big. That was three years ago and now we’re four times larger.

Jeffrey Kalmikoff: We’ve turned down companies that’ve wanted to carry us. Like Target. But you’ll be in Target for six months and then nobody will want you because you’ve sold out. What makes the project special is the community. Throw it in Urban Outfitters and we’re just another t-shirt in a wall of t-shirts. Everything special about it has been taken away. It’s just cloth and ink. And that’s not why we do it. We want to have fun with it.

?: Where’s the I Heart Threadless t-shirt?

Jeffrey Kalmikoff: We printed those as a test to test out a new kind of t-shirt.

Jake Nickell: But I don’t think we’ll sell them.

Jeffrey Kalmikoff: We’ve sold a couple that have included the world Threadless in it, but those were voted up normally.

?: Zero-advertising. Really for-real? No stickers?

Jeffrey Kalmikoff: We put stickers on the orders. We’re just preaching to the choir and giving them tools to get more members. But these things were us sitting in a conference room thinking of how to make more money. We’re like, “we should give them stickers because stickers are awesome.”

?: Where do things stand on the t-shirt wars between Fruit of the Loom and American Apparel.

Jake Nickell: We’re thinking of making our own brand. We’ve wanted to go back to American Apparel. It’s made in the US, but their quality is crappy. Lots of returns. Which we’d have to hire more people to deal with. But we’re working it out. But it won’t stay a split forever. By the end of summer we’ll probably have a new t-shirt. We’re going to send out some free shirts to our top buyers so we’ll make sure it’s the right decision.

Jeffrey Kalmikoff: It’d be easier four years ago. But with 100,000s of people…

Maggie Mason: How would you even get a new t-shirt made?

Jake Nickell: We’re working with a couple of companies. It can be done.

Jacob DeHart: Our printer’s been helping us out.

Jeffrey Kalmikoff: The bigger t-shirt companies will made special changes for you if you go in ordering, say, 1,000,000 shirts.

?: Kid sizes?

Jake Nickell: I’d love to. Maybe.

?: If you cede control of your business to a community, don’t you put your employees at risk?

Jeffrey Kalmikoff: Yes, but that’s the way we choose to do business. We would care if it failed, but I don’t honestly think that the community would kill itself for no reason. And if it did, it would deserve to die.

[...]

Jeffrey Kalmikoff: there’s little moderation and we all say dumb crap. but that’s kind of the fun of it. To the people on the site, it doesn’t feel like a business. It doesn’t feel like being in this brand-world’s walls.

?: You seem to use Threadless to fund these other projects. What other projects do you see also having that potential?

Jeffrey Kalmikoff: We have some pretty ridiculous projects like “iparklikeanidiot.com.” We don’t really kill projects ever. So threadless is like our own VC. [...] I see 15 Megs being the next thing that works out. We took on some partners for 15 Megs and the new site will be launching by the end of the year and bands will be able to get signed and get exposure and stuff.

?: Would you have taken money to grow Threadless?

Jeffrey Kalmikoff: We’ve never taken on VC money. Our 15 Megs partners aren’t VC, they’re business partners.

Jake Nickell: We’ll just use the resources of the other company.

Jacob DeHart: We wouldn’t have wanted it because we wouldn’t have known what to do with it.

Jeffrey Kalmikoff: We don’t want our company to feel huge.

?: Do you find cross-pollination between your products?

Jacob DeHart: We don’t really cross-promote much. But we did include Extra Tasty in a newsletter.

Maggie Mason: Do you have a lot of user overlap?

Jake Nickell: OMG Clothing, Threadless, and [something] all use the same user database.

[...]

?: What’s your typical work-day?

Jacob DeHart: Our lunch breaks go on for way too long. But we get all of our work done.

Jeffrey Kalmikoff: It’s definitely not a 9-5 job. It’s an every second thing. But not in a bad way. You really want to finish what you’re working on. But there is no typical work day.

[...]

Jake Nickell: We made five coupon codes that would make the t-shirts $10. And gave them to five websites. Coolhunting won. But it didn’t work as well as we thought it would.

Jacob DeHart: It was just an experiment.

Jake Nickell: It was Coolhunting, BoingBoing, Flickr, and something. But BoingBoing didn’t post it.

Jeffrey Kalmikoff: There’s really no process to designing our ideas. We sometimes brainstorm, but usually someone just has an idea in the shower on the way. We’re really excited about stuff and we have to come back after a week and look at how to make it work. We work really well together. We work at our own paces and then come together to figure out how to make it all work.

?: How important is it that you’re like your community?

Jeffrey Kalmikoff: It’s integral. If you don’t know your community, that’s a problem. We were at MIT and a guy was selling a product and he was freaking out. But he had no idea who the people were and he hated the product. If you’re not anything like your community, then you probably either won’t like it or you’ll be missing the mark.

Jake Nickell: It’s important for me to do my job well to actually enjoy what I’m doing.

Maggie Mason: And you tend to produce things that you think are cool, that you’d like to use.

Jeffrey Kalmikoff: Right now we’re in the dead-center of our demographic. What do I want to use?

?: Had any trouble with copyright infringement?

Jake Nickell: Yes. Both ways. People ripping off our material and people submitting copyrighted materials. We work with those companies when there’s a problem. And we’re not harsh when other companies rip us off, but usually there’s nothing we can do.

Jeffrey Kalmikoff: Copyrights are in our name and in the designer’s name. Internationally, there’s not too much we can do. There’s the flattery thing, but it doesn’t really impact our business. And the community doesn’t really let it fly. If someone rips us off, they’ll get a lot of e-mail.

Maggie Mason: Thanks!

SXSW Page about this panel

Jimmy Wales: The culture of trust. Wikipedia and CL depend on the culture of trust. Talk about that.

Craig Newmark: We built an environment where people expect to trust and be trusted. That’s why we allow them so much control over the site. We don’t run the site — the people who use it do. We handle special circumstances — spamvertising, misbehaving apt. brokers in New York. My title is customer service rep and founder. I lured Jimmy into interviewer to stress the importance of Wikipedia.

Jimmy Wales: Not sure if that’s supposed to mean that Wikipedians are losers… There’s an interesting commonality about the two: all about community and control. I would like to go back to just being customer service. That’s important. Why so involved in customer service?

Craig Newmark: You kind of get detached from reality at the top of a company. People who tell you what’s up may not be totally straight with you. For example, President Bartlett has a team around him that lets him know what’s going on, that’s why he’s so good. A role model: the phone company. I just do the opposite.

Jimmy Wales: Info warfare at Craigslist. Informational attacks.

Craig Newmark: I may over-dramatize, but I’ve read too much sci-fi. The deal: Aside from the usual scams — those are kind of expected. Traditional-style pranks, etc. The real problem starting around October 1st, 2004: People posting political disinformation. “Swift-boating.” People posting usually fetishes about Hilary Clinton and Teresa Heinz-Kerry. That’s a real problem. I take it personally — my name’s on the site. It’s an ongoing problem. Like on product recommendation sites. I’m most concerned about this on emerging news sites and Wikipedia where people can promote false info. Bruce Sterling pointed out that most cops that you deal with online are the good guys. Sometimes they forget you’re on Pacific time and call you at 6:30am.

Jimmy Wales: One of the slogans I’ve heard you say: Crooks are early adopters.

Craig Newmark: We started seeing this crap on our site years ago. Scams. Disinfo. But the amount of crookedness is not increasing all that much. A big lesson: People are overwhelmingly trustworthy and good. The proportion of bad guys grows lower and lower. I prefer to be cynical, but the motivating value system of most people is do unto others. And they’re drowning out the bad guys online. People are OK.

Jimmy Wales: That mirrors our experience on Wikipedia. The difficult people were there from the beginning, but the new people are regular and benevolent. Most people are good. Not saints, but mostly good.

Craig Newmark: This wisdom of crowds thing, it’s for real. It sometimes turns into mob rule. It’s democracy. It works, but you’ve gotta be careful.

Jimmy Wales: We were on the phone a few months ago. I heard you say that you think Tivo is going to save democracy. That’s interesting. I can now get Rocketboom on my Tivo.

Craig Newmark: Well. I’m a fan of Rocketboom. I’ll do my Amanda Comden[?] impression. [Does so.] Tivo saving democracy. Maybe I’ve watched too much West Wing. I hope Josh and Donna get together. [Talks about West Wing for a while.] Tivo saves democracy. I’ve talked to a bunch of politicians, though I’m not interested in politics, per se. When a politician is elected, they have to start fundraising the next day. The miracle of DVRs is that you can skip through commercials pretty easily. So if everyone starting skipping these, it would defeat their purpose, and that would be a good thing. I can’t imagine what product-placement would be for a political ad. So then politicians would have to say more and the nature of news and political advertising would change. So it’s the patriotic duty of everyone to skip commercials. And the patriotic duty for PVR makers to make 30-second skip available to everyone. Regarding politics, I’m not very interested in politics. I don’t tell anyone. What looks like an interest in politics is the notion that we have to fight political scams.

Jimmy Wales: In this day there seems to be a lot of political stuff that needs attention. When you talk about info warfare and transparency WRT democracy, I think everyone can agree that being bombarded with mindless political ads instead of something substantive… we can all agree.

Craig Newmark: We have a lot more in common, left and right, than people like to think. People talk about culture wars, but I do think there are some values that we all agree with. I’m a uniter, not a divider. And we should push that kind of thing hard. I’m a part of OneVoice, a Mideast peace group. Everyone in Israel and Palestine, they want the same thing. But the media hasn’t presented that view. Only the extremists. We share more than we know. Culture war? Well, we can look at erotic services stats on our site — people everywhere have a lot of the same interests. In San Francisco we talk about stuff more, but that’s the principal difference.

Jimmy Wales: In a community, people find ways to get along. Whereas traditional media likes the clash. Most people assume that the Wikipedia fights are left vs. rights. But it’s really the reasonable people vs the jerks.

Craig Newmark: But people are normally a tremendous voice for moderation. They don’t want to argue. Reasoning with people works most of the time. Sometimes I have to block them or contact their ISP. I do work with a lot of people in ISPs. Most people in corporations want to listen and do right, but their corporate culture is counter to that. And I want to help change that. I’m working with an understaffed ISP and their public spokesman is embarrassing the organization. I’ll be vague about that.

Jimmy Wales: Journalism.

Craig Newmark: My role has been overblown somewhat. I’m doing a few things. But I’m an amateur and a dilettante. But people will listen to what I say and I like the sound of my own voice. But. In order to run a democratic society, you need good sources of news. People to tell you what’s going on. That’s how life is. But Craigslist is affecting journalism. We are draining some of their ad revenue. But a much bigger effect as a citizen is that we need better info about what’s going on within our country. The Guardian in Britain is telling us stuff that’s really important. Better info. Better investigative journalism. Newspapers have been firing expensive investigative journalists. So the stuff I’m doing — I’m working in a modest way with some people on a collaborative filtering venture. Using ordinary people, commenting on the news. Driving traffic to newspaper sites and to citizen journalists that will publish stuff normal newspapers won’t publish. And I’m working with Dan Gilmour whose big effort is putting together a think-tank on citizen journalism. You can’t find a specific report about what’s going on with citizen journalism. And I don’t have time to deal with that. I’m dealing with people bickering in the pets forum. They’re much worse than the people bickering in the political forum. There are always other news efforts going on. And what’s exciting is the Center for Public Integrity. They write a book every few years called “The Selling of the President.” But a year after the fact, that doesn’t help. So they’re thinking of blogging it. And that could make a difference in 2006. And they’re also thinking of putting up DBs from the Federal Elections Commission so we can see who’s paying which politicians for what reasons. So this opens up opportunities for citizen journalists. This could be significant. How much trouble will I get into for propagating it? I don’t know. “If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh. Otherwise they’ll kill