I will not incite grassroots play and commentary anarchy in the fiction section of bookstores. I will not incite grassroots play and commentary anarchy in the fiction section of bookstores. I will not incite grassroots play and commentary anarchy in the fiction section of bookstores. I will not incite grassroots play and commentary anarchy in the fiction section of bookstores. I will not incite grassroots play and commentary anarchy in the fiction section of bookstores. I will not incite grassroots play and commentary anarchy in the fiction section of bookstores. I will not incite grassroots play and commentary anarchy in the fiction section of bookstores. I will not incite grassroots play and commentary anarchy in the fiction section of bookstores. I will not incite grassroots play and commentary anarchy in the fiction section of bookstores. I will not incite grassroots play and commentary anarchy in the fiction section of bookstores.
Sunday, August 21, 2005
Bart laments his role in the Ministry of Reshelving.
I'm not a werewolf
"I'm a villager! I swear! " (No, Zach was a totally a werewolf. Meanwhile, I was lynched by an angry mob, the entire circle pounding the tables and chanting "Kill! Kill! Kill!" Sigh.) Saturday night, we played Werewolf 'til 4:30 AM. So basically, there is a proposition on the table to officially rename FOOcamp 2006 WEREWOLFcamp 2006.
Also on the FOOcamp Gameplay scene: earlier in the evening I organized a Zen Scavenger Hunt. danah boyd conspired with me to create a FOO-cific scavenger hunt list worth of the genius minds gathered up here at O'Reilly's for the weekend. For those of you who haven't experienced the experience of my ZSH project, here's how it works: You collect your objects and THEN we give you the list. You have to creatively hack and mod your objects and design clever demo's and performances to persuade the judges that the objects you already have is a perfect match for our list. Here are the rules and the list from last night... How would you have done?
Social Play & SuperGaming!
The Zen Scavenger Hunt / FOOcamp 2005
Please find the following objects:
A problem (2 points)
A non-scalable solution to object #1 (3 points)
A scalable solution to object #1 (6 points)
A new mobile Web 2.0 platform (demo, please) (3 points)
An experiment in nanotech bioengineering gone bad (3 points)
A self-replicating machine (demo, please) (7 points)
A passenger amenity from the first commercial space flight shuttle (2 points)
A working tele-operated object (demo, please) (7 points)
A tool for collaboration (3 points)
A relic from the battle between the monkeys and the robots. (P.S. Who won?) (3 points
Edible computing (demo, please) (6 points)
FOObarred TM Anti-Surveillance Device (4 points)
Rules:
You have 45 minutes to find these objects.
You can only use the objects your team already has—no trading, no substitutions.
You can hack and mod your objects any way you want.
Your success in finding these objects will be judged by other teams, based on your live demonstrations and explanations.
In the case of any judging disputes, puppetmasters have the final vote.
In the case of a tie, teams will play a 60-second death-defying, single-object tiebreaker round.
(In this case, we did have a tiebreaker: "a thing of exquisite beauty.")
Coming soon: A flickr set from the ZSH...
Saturday, August 20, 2005
no sleep til sebastopol
FOOcamp rules.
Highlights so far include Segway rides, non-scalable introduction ceremonies, brainstorming sessions and improvised talks on biomimetic design, open source biology, "You are the platfom-- functional body modification", gaming as ecologically sustainable decadence (that was me, of course), meeting and hanging with my favorite Technorati and Flickr and boingboing masterminds, Are You a Werewolf? games until 5 AM, my first night sleeping outdoors in a tent (not that much sleep though--see aforementioned Werewolf games!), learning more about what O'Reilly Media does and wants to do more of(love it), and making smores with many more wicked smart folks. Still to come: danah boyd and I lead the first (annual?) FooCamp Zen Scavenger hunt...
Thursday, August 18, 2005
a minor statement on avant gaming
I believe:
Games are the dominant art form of the 21st century. Not just videogames (but those too). All games.
We should make benevolent games for all spaces and all technologies.
There should be more benevolent gameplay in public spaces.
Many people find public gameplay threatening. This is not a reason not to play games. It is a reason to play more. It is also a reason to make gameplay transparent, so others will not be confused or alarmed by what you are doing.
Games are serious. Some people dismiss them as “pointless,” but they are blind to the power of pointlessness. The power of games is in their intrinsic pleasure. The nature of games is not to point. The nature of games it to experience. And experiences can be extraordinarily powerful things.
Games are a persuasive platform. Games are a self-expressive platform.
Collective gameplay helps us gather the collective wisdom of crowds.
Collective gameplay can mobilize and harness the benevolent power of the public.
There should be more bottom-up decision-making in public spaces. Massively multiplayer collaborative gameplay may help achieve this.
There should be more folksonomy in public spaces. Massively multiplayer collaborative gameplay may help achieve this, as well.
We should define public spaces as the spaces where you can find the public. Rarely will you find the public in public plazas.
We should treat privatized spaces that open their doors to the public, make money off the public, and serve for better or for worse as the primary public and social spheres of our society, more like public spaces.
When powerful and benevolent phenomena emerge online, we should conduct experiments to see if they can be translated into a real-world power, as well.
Just in case anyone was wondering.
Sunday, August 14, 2005
the ministry of reshelving
This week, we launched the Ministry of Reshelving project. My partners in crime as founding members of the ministry: George, Kiyash, and Monica.
This weekend we relocated 19 copies of George Orwell's 1984 in four different bookstores in Palo Alto, San Francisco, and Berkeley. It was high stealth adventure.
You are invited to join our efforts.
How to Serve the Ministry of Reshelving
1. Select a local bookstore to carry out your reshelving activities.
2. Download and print "This book has been relocated by the Ministry of Reshelving" bookmarks and "All copies of 1984 have been relocated" notecards to take with you to the bookstore. Or make your own. We recommend bringing a notecard and 5-10 bookmarks to each store.
3. Go to the bookstore and locate its copies of George Orwell's 1984. Unless the Ministry of Reshelving has already visited this bookstore, it is probably currently incorrectly classified as "Fiction" or "Literature."
4. Discreetly move all copies of 1984 to a more suitable section, such as "Current Events", "Politics", "History", "True Crime", or "New Non-Fiction."
5. Insert a Ministry of Reshelving bookmark into each copy of any book you have moved. Leave a notecard in the empty space the books once occupied.
6. If you spot other incorrectly classified books, feel free to relocate them.
7. Please report all reshelving efforts to the Ministry. Email your store name, location, # of 1984 copies reshelved, and any other reshelving activities conducted, to reshelving @ avantgame.com. Photos of your mission can be uploaded to Flickr, tagged as "reshelving", and submitted to the Ministry of Reshelving group.
Our goal is to relocate one thousand nine hundred and eighty-four copies, and to complete successful reshelving of 1984 in all 50 United States. Global contributions are welcome.
Note: this project is not a critique of bookstore culture, the state of the shelving industry, or even of pervasive government surveillance. It is merely an observation that 2 + 2 = 5, and 5 is no longer fiction.
UPDATE:
Many thanks to everyone for their feedback on this project.
We at the Ministry of Reshelving support all efforts to properly classify fiction and nonfiction texts. So here are some alternative (or complementary) tactics.
*Ask to speak to a bookstore manager, perhaps a time when the bookstore is not busy. Introduce yourself as a representative of the Ministry and simply suggest the relocation. Do not relocate any books. Simply have a friendly conversation. Perhaps have a card referring the manager to the Ministry of Reshelving Flickr group.
*Mod the current Ministry bookmarks to SUGGEST relocation of the books. Insert these in all copies. Do not actually relocate the books.
*Stage a photo of the relocation, and then return the books to their original location. This might not be revolution, but it is a rehearsal for the revolution.
*Create a notecard to leave at the bookstore in the section you think 1984 should be properly shelved. The notecard could say "Sorry! There are no more copies of George Orwell's 1984 in the __________ section. Additional copies are located in the fiction and literature section."
*Before you conduct your 1984 reshelving, look around the store for a few books left out by other customers and put them back where they belong. Do a bit of 'traditional' reshelving on behalf of the employees. Then do your 1984 reshelving.
These mods are designed to address people's concerns with the impact of the project on customers and bookstore employees and owners. I'm 100% committed to making these kinds of experiments as sociable as possible, while still confronting the issues of: Where is it appropriate for the public to play, to intervene, to suggest alternatives, to tag, to reclassify, to be expressive? It is clear to me that many people do not feel that bookstores are a proper location for such play and intervention. I very much disagree, but I am learning much from their comments and reactions.
Update: Bart Simpson laments his role in the Ministry of Reshelving.
Update: If you would like to understand the motivations of this project better, why not read a minor statement on avant gaming?
Update: Comments have been suspended on this blog in accordance with Godwin's law. The Ministry of Reshelving, however, continues its work.
Update: Comments reopened. A further statement on the reshelving project appears here.
