Penultimater
What: Take part in the “greatest mobile novel ever attempted” by texting the next line of the story (just subscribe and you’ll be prompted).

See what it is all about for yourself: Penultimater

Next time you’re in Times Square, put on your game face. You may be able to challenge the weirdos around you to a videogame on MTV’s big-screen billboard. The controller? Your cell phone.

itpedia gallery XXXX [email@address.com]

(Remember, the email address is only required if they want to get an email back.)

For example, you can retrieve information about my project, The Naked Pixel, by texting \”itpedia gallery 1988\” or \”itpedia gallery 1988 your_email@address.com\” to 41411.

Listen to voices of the past asking you for directions. The real life owners of these voices are at a crossroad of their lives in early 20th century New York, often in emotional distress. Listen to them and get immersed in their stories. Follow the prompts on your cell phone to leave a message with your advice. Voicemails are collected on the bintelvox.com website.

We invite people to use our application for bluetooth enabled cell phones at historically charged locations on the Lower East Side. Our goal is to provide a mobile educational tool and prompt playful empathy with voices of the past.

The original \”Bintel Brief\” letters, sent to the editor of the Jewish Daily Forward from 1906, are dated documents. The texts reflect personal and social problems, religious, political and cultural difficulties of new immigrants in the early 20th century. While the content of these letters may seem strange for today\’s listeners, with their tone of intimacy they can still reach out and connect with listeners of our time.

1) Speaking: Speakers get three minutes to talk. They will also have a portion of the display showing their name, their chosen topic/subject/question/whatever, and their time remaining.

2) Voting: The crowd is prompted to vote (via cellphone) on whether the speaker should have more time, or if it is time for a new speaker. As long as a speaker keeps a (growing) majority of the votes, he keeps the mic. The software makes it so that speakers have to win an increasing majority each round, in order to tip the scales towards new voices. But, if a speaker is compelling/interesting, it’s possible he could retain the mic for 15 minutes or more.

3) Live Response: Between one speaker and the next, there will be an opportunity for audience members to respond to the speaker (or talk about whatever they want) live, for up to 30 seconds at a time, by calling a designated local number using their cellphones (or a phone provided onsite).

This event is open to any member of the public who wishes to speak. The allowed formats, topics, and any other rules of the event (including whether or not there should be rules) are going to be debated & determined on the website during the two weeks preceding the event. All are welcome to participate.

When: The event will occur on Tuesday, April 22, 2008, from 4-8pm. The debate about content & formats is ongoing. The intent is to hold recurring events approximately every two weeks all through the summer, leading up to the election in November. This, however, depends on NYC Parks’ Department permission.

Where: Union Square (map), New York City. Online at www.AskUnionSquare.com

How: The software application is a collection of PHP scripts that interact with Asterisk, an open source PBX (Public Branch Exchange). Asterisk routes incoming phone calls to different extensions, and depending on the desired interaction, actions a different PHP script to execute it.

Designed for deployment in public and private spaces by loosely organized groups of citizens, Epimetheus uses technology as a DIY layer on the physical environment that the citizen-scientist can deploy. By design, groups of citizens will be able to add new nodes to a pre-existing network using publicly available manuals, schematics and configuration settings. Once fully registered, an individual node will be viewable as part of a layer in Google Earth. Once viewable, the node as well as the entire network can be monitored remotely by the original group or individual as well as affiliated interest groups and local leaders.

Epimetheus uses a multi tiered approach to the communication of environmental information. Designed to accept multiple sensor technology such as UV, infrared, and smoke, the sensor units use advanced mesh networking and solar power to achieve grid autonomy. The gateway units are designed to aggregate data on the edge of the sensor networks from the deployed nodes in the forest. Protected from the harsh environmental conditions, the gateway units have access to the power grid and a cellular network. Utilizing off the shelf consumer phones, the gateway unit sends critical updates in the form of SMS texting to a third tier of the system: individual users, citizen action groups, and publicly viewable databases.

The act of localized deployment and open monitoring of a site can create a long lasting effect that transcends saving forests: Empowered civilians with a real sense of custody over a specific site.