This is a website kick started by artists who are collecting performance pieces critical of (and perhaps also commenting on) this pretty famous site, who is unhappy that the art project incorporates their name into their webpage. Here is some more official commentary from the EFF who is supporting the artists.

Is today?!$

I am sure many have seen this video pirates. drugs. gay marriage and I think it speaks for itself. But I have to say, this video caught be off guard early this morning when I am first exposed to the day’s viral videos, memes, and other savory and unsavory delights. Though I have been consuming and digesting this stuff for awhile now, I am still amazed by the craziness, creativity, outrageousness (often offense) that circulates every day, without fail, on the internets.

Most of the stuff, even if pretty low brow can be said to be artistic in one classical sense of art: ”l’art pour l’art”, with the aesthetics being focused on some combination of shock, irony, and humor.

But how about the political activists? They are not dipping into this genre enough and it’s high time they use start using these tactics/viral videos to shock/shame their opponents, using the sugar coating of humor and raw audacity to spread their message.

There are two topics that seem to receive a steady stream of comments on this blog. My entry on Edmonton garners a smattering of comments every few months, usually giving E-town a huge thumbs down. The other entry concerns my tribulations with BCBS and here I receive a steady stream of sad stories all of which point to the horrors caused by some branch of BCBS such as my least favorite one Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of NJ.

Along with the comment posted above, I got this one asking me to reveal the email address of the PR director of BCBS NJ. In the past I advised folks to google it to find it. But I just tried and it is actually a bit harder to find and I wonder if I should post to one of the many press releases that exist on the web with this information?

I hope thats some with some sort of time and lots of anger (toward BCBS) to start a website specifically geared toward and against BCBS. Call it Blue Cross No Shield (I think I actually own that and am pretty proud of the name) or something of that nature and throw up some blog and post horror stories in the style of the consumerist. There will be no shortage of them, especially if the blog is national in scope.

Get a mailing list going and start a fax campaign among many others. Share contact information about public relations directors and Other People in Power, tips and advice on fighting them, and perhaps even move to the next level of organizing.

I am not sure writing this here will do anything to inspire other and I would love to do this sort of rabble rousing as I get immense pleasure from doing so. But I simply am in the red when it comes to time. But I hope that some of the folks that have posted comments on this blog take the initiative to start a larger campaign (or someone can point me to an exisitng one).

update: Now that I think of it, The Consumerist should really take up this cause and devote a section JUST to health insurance. They are already a brand name of sorts with lots of eyeballs on the site, everyday.

Alan Toner has written an overview of the Pirate Bay convictions. Well worth a read if you are interested in these developments. And of course, anon can’t stay away from a good party so they are making some of their own waves as well.

A little over a month ago, I went to Amsterdam to participate in Wintercamp, an event that brought together various networked groups, from free software projects to human rights groups. We spent a chunk of time interviewing participants from these groups about the nature of organizing (and unorganizing ) and the high quality videos are now up. If you are interested in either learning about the groups there or in more meta issues (about the growth, life, rebirth, and at times death of networked organizations), these videos may be an interesting watch.

Doesn’t this class look great??

Department of History

Workshop

MEDIA AND COMMUNICATION IN THE MIDDLE AGES

Professor Brigitte M. Bedos-Rezak

Medieval circumstances presented multiple challenges to media, mobility, and communication. Cultivators were bound to the land and monks to their monasteries; pilgrims traveled to holy places, crusaders and warriors invaded and then settled foreign lands, rulers and nobles were frequently itinerant. Literacy was largely limited to Latin, and possessed principally by churchmen and nuns so the transmission of ideas occurred mainly through the spoken vernacular word, and by means of gestures, images, and the manipulation of symbolic objects (thus, for instance, the relics of saints were carried to distant lands to collect alms, to recover possessions appropriated by nobles, or to aid in battle).

While seas, rivers, ports, networks of roads provided with rest houses, ferries and bridges, were generally available, routes and means of transportation selected differed markedly according to the traveler’s status and the journey’s purpose. Christianity stimulated pilgrimages, missions to convert the heathen, and crusades. Marriage took brides to foreign courts where they served as cultural ambassadors. Medieval kings and great nobles were continually on the road, changing their abode every two or three days. Lesser officials and messengers traveled on government business. Knights sought out tourneys and distant wars to advance their fortunes and reputations. Merchants and carriers transported goods to regional fairs, and engaged in international trade. Minstrels, jongleurs, and troubadours traveled to gain patronage and to extend their repertoire, spreading news and influencing the reputations of warriors, heroes, and kings. Students too journeyed extensively from place to place in order to sit at the feet of famous masters; some wandering scholars came to be known as Goliards. Artists were invited to decorate manuscripts and architects to erect buildings.
The pursuit of favorable opinion became an essential feature in the process of state-building during the Middle Ages. Those who challenged traditional norms also came to rely on the efficiency of communicative systems to expand their ranks with adherents. Through the use of propaganda, medieval society experimented with such forms and methods of communication as symbols, stereotypes, and slogans, thus elaborating features of communication which, however modified, are still in use today.

An oldie but goodie. I certainly enjoy watching students squirm their way into naming me.

Linux?

This conference looks like a blast. I am pretty much squirreling away for the summer to finish the first draft of my book now that I have a due date so I can’t go to all these amazing events but… I guess next time??