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Generation Anonymous

In these past weeks, the untimely nature of MJ madness buried some significant global issues. Especially, the shoplifting of democracy in Iran. I’ve read numerous articles, but this one in particular (plain text below) added some provocative context around both the struggle itself and utilization of social media as a broadcast channel, replacing and outdoing traditional channels – in short, it’s a truth nugget ya’ll. Big shout out goes to Locke Hildebrand of CultureWaves. I think it’s a shining example of our local tech geek FX’s discussion re: cultural latency – indeed it is approaching zero!

I would have provided a link to the article, but it's not a pubilc site...

"I’m sure by now most of you know what is going on in Iran, so I won’t go into heavy detail on the topic itself. I want to talk about how social media and the political fallout in Iran have created our first look at a cyber war.
This current crisis tells us the Virtual Forest™ is becoming a lot less virtual. It also has profound implications on what you chose to do, or not do in your business. The cyber part of the war started on Twitter.
Two days into protesting the election in Iran, the hashtags started appearing on Twitter, the trenches of our new battleground with names such as #Iran, #IranElection, #Mousavi, #GR88, and many more. And for a while, what seemed like trending topics soon developed into means of communication between Iranians in a tightly monitored internet. The next day, people from all over the world began setting up proxy servers from their computers to give Iranians access to the internet, and the cyber warfare began.
Soon, Iranians began to tweet out government news sites that needed to be bombarded, and groups of hackers and programmers quickly began to DDOS attack sites. However, in the long run this proved more harmful than good. Sure it forced Iranian media sites down, but also slowed the already limited bandwidth that the protestors were using, so smarter tactics came into play.
Two of the largest internet freedom advocates jumped in the mix and joined together to create Anonymous Iran. Anonymous (already infamous for its war on Scientology, and overall online attacks, and antics on and off the “end of the internet” website 4chan) teamed up with The Pirate Bay (a torrent hub of illegal downloading and free media that is slowly evolving itself into a political party).
Anonymous Iran began to host everything from protest videos, which Youtube was taking down due to graphic violence, to English-Persian translations of makeshift medical advice and proxy setups. The site has been averaging 15,000 viewers at a time.
All across the globe, those sympathetic to the protestors began to weigh in. They were anxious for a way to make a difference, as this posting from Deborah Oakes at Associated Content said: “After looking at videos and photos documenting the Iran election protests, I had to find something I could do. I found it.”
From associated Content to Boing Boing, guides to getting involved sprang up, spreading involvement to those less savvy. The actions could range from protesting at the embassy in your country to simply changing your twitter location and time zone. Thousands changed their locations to Iran to mask the real Iranians from the regime’s security forces.
The Iranian security forces have noticed. In recent sweeps and raids at the universities, they have taken memory cards, smashed computers and confiscated cell phones. Globally, hackers have countered with denial of service attacks on Iranian government and media websites.
Social media is shaping everything in Iran right now. With news media coverage being shut off and anyone attempting to be a media hero being arrested, we’re finally seeing social media take a stand beyond a waste of time and talking to friends.
People are saying that the voice of the next generation is not a famous person, a music icon or a screen legend, but rather the individual. Everyone’s voice counts now. Those who only a few years ago talked about their lives on LiveJournal are now looked at as respected bloggers. The perspective has left the news room; and as news is reported faster on Twitter than the networks can break it, you have to wonder how long it’s going to be before seemingly anonymous people themselves become known not for blogging, but for being a newscaster. It’s already started with the election uprising in Iran. The media is changing, and the voice, once so narrow and focused, is now everyone’s.
The thing you have to remember is, well two things actually, are what side do I take, and how much will it hurt me in the end if I do the wrong thing. If we’re learning anything from #Iranelection, it’s that the power of anonymity is vast, it’s global, and everything is being watched. When they look your way, make sure people are seeing the right things.
In the Iranian protests, Twitter, Facebook and Google have gotten kudos for rescheduling maintenance, adding Farsi, and generally making themselves available. Sites such as 4chan and groups such as Anonymous have seen their street cred rise. People expect you to take a stand. Don’t be afraid of it.
Conversely, businesses that have come down on the wrong side of this event have been quickly vilified. CNN’s glacial weekend response while the Twitter firestorm raged earned it a #CNNFail hashtag. As Robert Scoble said at scobilizer.com, “Yesterday is the day when Twitter thoroughly beat CNN. Badly beat CNN. Embarrassingly beat CNN. And most other USA-based media too.”
Nokia and Siemens both took hits for aiding the Iranian regime with monitoring software installed last year. They weren’t thinking about the Virtual Forest that permeated their business and opened them to public scrutiny and scorn. Are you? That innocuous-looking contract you are working on now may come to light at the worst time for your company.
Are you working on the side of the angels? If not, are you ready for the large, anonymous and organized response that could come knocking at your door in a digital instant?"

Springfest @ McCannNY

I got very lucky and was invited to attend SpringFest, which was held at McCann Erickson NY (it didn't hurt that I happen to work there too). It was a wonderful day full of innovative concepts in media, social behavior and design. All very relevant and awesome topics for someone like myself, engaged in Strategic Planning on a daily basis. This was a FREE conference offered up by McCann and Brainjuicers - I applaud them both for going against the status quo of pay to play collaboration events.

Of the many memorable intellectuals that spoke, I was highly impressed with the concepts brought forth by Mitchell Joachim - co-founder of Terraform1 and honestly he's a design genius. His mass transit concepts helped to fuel the transportation scenes in the movie Minority Report, which is one of my all time favorite movies (and again shows if we can imagine it, it can be created once technology and demand catches up with our imaginations).

Evolution of Social Media

I've been proud to watch social media over the past five years and its growth into one to the most powerful forms of communication and interpersonal interaction available. It's also interesting to watch the ad industry's different techniques for utilizing the influence of person to person dialogue via social platforms. I stumbled onto this new campaign by Ford Motor Co. for the new Ford Fiesta (back from the dead, if you remember the old Fiesta), appropriately title the Fiesta Movement. In a bold move, they are attempting to launch the model strictly on social media platforms, by providing 100 real people with a FREE Fiesta for 6 months, and then asking them to 'tell their story.' They are to blog, tweet, update and post their experiences, opinions and such on sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Blogger etc. Very interesting, and honestly very ballsy. Good luck Ford, you guys need it.

Viral Done Right

I enjoy seeing when a Brand get's the premise of viral done correctly. I'm not a fan of overt viral branding, as is often done, to no prevail. The idea here is that you want to create somethings awesome (or useful), and hope that other people feel that thing is awesome (or useful), so much that they feel compelled to share that awesomeness (or usefulness) with someone else... and so begins the spread IE impressions. It's also key not to litter the content with your brand or message - therefore making people feel like a communications tool, instead of a participant in spreading awesome. I ran into this video, that I personally felt was just pure genius. I love the mash-up of two relatively simple and long existing elements (sheep herding and light bulbs) to creating something new and intriguing - thus representing LED technology. Well done Samsung, I'll gladly participate in the spread - buying a TV ummmm, not right now.

Customized Heroes

I'm a big fan of product customization, even in the most simplest forms. I stumbled onto this link where you can build your very own super hero based on the tool's capabilities and your imagination - thanks to AFD Studios. But looking at the bigger picture, there are a lot of companies that can learn from this simple hero tool. Many have already taken a shine to customization, and with great success IE Nike shoes, Dell desktops, Scion vehicles, social networking profiles etc. But how far can customization reach? I think we should all take a look at the products we purchase and see who is appealing to our individuality and who is missing the mark. People are inherently drawn to products that provide them with these very freedoms, to no surprise.

Will the 'Jingle' Ever Die?

I was sitting in my office, enjoying some much needed downtime, when I heard someone walk past and declare, "would someone please get that Filet-O-Fish song out of my head!" Within seconds, two other people in the area agreed wildly, while one other claimed, "I love that song!" What is it about a catchy tune that gives it the ability to burrow deep within our brains and appear without stimulus or request? Even when one concentrates on abolishing the song's melody from existence, the memory only seems to grow in size and strength. So, with that being said, I'm here to set the record straight - I hate that song.

The 6th Sense.. Reality?

Often the human imagination is far more advanced that human technological innovation, and in reality this makes a great deal of sense: before 'it' can be, 'it' must be dreamed. This is often reflected in popular society, mostly in the form of movies IE Star Trek, Star Wars, The Matrix and such. Often we have the ability to dream of innovation that is nearly impossible to recreate, case and point: 'Beam me up Scottie.' What I find fascinating is when technology finally catches up to our imaginations. As you will see in the following clips, the smart folks at MIT have began to make our lust for Tom Cruise's awesomeness in Minority Report that much closer to a reality in the form of advanced digital interface between people and data.

May's Remix

I happen to be a fan of Billy Mays and I'm also a fan of remixing. When people take things, and make new things out of them, regardless of how cheezy, you have to admire the effort and appreciate the originality. I think it's safe to say Billy is mainstream now and officially awesome! Welcome to pop culture Bill.

Pizza Hut Gets Remixed

Remixing (or recombinant culture, <---- I suggest you watch this lecture by a really cool brit guy I work with) is a part of our culture, but I'm still trying to figure out if all forms of remixing result in positive impressions for you brand. This Pizza Hut spoof shows what some people really think of their product. Personally, I just happen to agree.

Dentyne Ice

I must admit Dentyne has been doing some awesome work as of late; although I may be biased considering it came from my very own home base at McCann NY. But what struck me as incredibly insightful was how the developers dug deep into cultural inertia to pull out the insight that in modern societies people are experiencing a disconnect with each other due to the proliferation of advanced communications platforms. I blogged about this prior to the launch of the campaign, and to my delight was shocked to see that I wasn't alone in this belief. Essentially, the ads look to encourage physical human interaction again; not via mobile communications, text messages or social networks etc. I think it is a refreshing notion that we can all learn from, let's just get back to being people. Instead of sending an e-mail to that coworker across the hall, just walk on over and actually do something far too many of us dread, talk to them. Oh yea, please ignore the irony that you're be reading this post, most likely alone and behind a computer screen. If I could I would give you a hug right now. I also encourage you to visit Dentyne Ice's home page, but be swift, in an effort to curb web browsing and stimulate people to 'make face time' they set up a site that only allows 3 minutes of browsing per session. Very cool guys.

User Generated Content Crossing Over

I was watching TV the other night, channel surfing course. I stopped on a grainy, unknown network 'Current_' and remembered hearing about this channel (launched with the backing of presidential hopeful and environmental champion Al Gore, back in 2005) in the past but never payed close attention to it. But this night what sparked my interest was a viewing segment 'VC2' which expanded means 'viewer created content.' It was obvious at a first glance that this wasn't network quality production, but instead clips, pods and even commercials of which is mostly user generated content; there was even a Chase Bank commercial that was created and produced by an Indie. Although I'm quite late, I still find it very interesting that user generated content is beginning to crossover platforms from the web on to mediums such as Television. Something to pay close attention to as our attentions spans collapse and our desires to interact and engage with our media increases. This is TV we can contribute to, and in the end isn't that what we all desire.. more autonomy? I'll monitor this new channel 'Current_' and see how this develops. The video below is a taste of what you could find.