Explorations in Participatory Culture

TXT Mob Subpoena in New York Times

2008-03-31T07:40:00.000-07:00

City Subpoenas Creator of Text Messaging Code

Published: March 30, 2008
[reposted from here]

When delegates to the Republican National Convention assembled in New York in August 2004, the streets and sidewalks near Union Square and Madison Square Garden filled with demonstrators. Police officers in helmets formed barriers by stretching orange netting across intersections. Hordes of bicyclists participated in rolling protests through nighttime streets, and helicopters hovered overhead.

Bryce Vickmark for The New York Times

Tad Hirsch, who wrote the code to transmit messages among many cellphones.

These tableaus and others were described as they happened in text messages that spread from mobile phone to mobile phone in New York City and beyond. The people sending and receiving the messages were using technology, developed by an anonymous group of artists and activists called the Institute for Applied Autonomy, that allowed users to form networks and transmit messages to hundreds or thousands of telephones.

Although the service, called TXTmob, was widely used by demonstrators, reporters and possibly even police officers, little was known about its inventors. Last month, however, the New York City Law Department issued a subpoena to Tad Hirsch, a doctoral candidate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who wrote the code that created TXTmob.

Lawyers representing the city in lawsuits filed by hundreds of people arrested during the convention asked Mr. Hirsch to hand over voluminous records revealing the content of messages exchanged on his service and identifying people who sent and received messages. Mr. Hirsch says that some of the subpoenaed material no longer exists and that he believes he has the right to keep other information secret.

“There’s a principle at stake here,” he said recently by telephone. “I think I have a moral responsibility to the people who use my service to protect their privacy.”

The subpoena, which was issued Feb. 4, instructed Mr. Hirsch, who is completing his dissertation at M.I.T., to produce a wide range of material, including all text messages sent via TXTmob during the convention, the date and time of the messages, information about people who sent and received messages, and lists of people who used the service.

In a letter to the Law Department, David B. Rankin, a lawyer for Mr. Hirsch, called the subpoena “vague” and “overbroad,” and wrote that seeking information about TXTmob users who have nothing to do with lawsuits against the city would violate their First Amendment and privacy rights.

Lawyers for the city declined to comment.

The subpoena is connected to a group of 62 lawsuits against the city that stem from arrests during the convention and have been consolidated in Federal District Court in Manhattan. About 1,800 people were arrested and charged, but 90 percent of them ultimately walked away from court without pleading guilty or being convicted.

Many people complained that they were arrested unjustly, and a State Supreme Court justice chastised the city after hundreds of people were held by the police for more than 24 hours without a hearing.

The police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, has called the convention a success for his department, which he credited with preventing major disruptions during a turbulent week. He has countered complaints about police tactics by saying that nearly a million people peacefully expressed their political opinions, while the convention and the city functioned smoothly.

Mr. Hirsch said that the idea for TXTmob evolved from conversations about how police departments were adopting strategies to counter large-scale marches that converged at a single spot.

While preparing for the 2004 political conventions in New York and Boston, some demonstrators decided to plan decentralized protests in which small, mobile groups held rallies and roamed the streets.

“The idea was to create a very dynamic, fluid environment,” Mr. Hirsch said. “We wanted to transform areas around the entire city into theaters of dissent.”

Organizers wanted to enable people in different areas to spread word of what they were seeing in each spot and to coordinate their movements. Mr. Hirsch said that he wrote the TXTmob code over about two weeks. After a trial run in Boston during the Democratic National Convention, the service was in wide use during the Republican convention in New York. Hundreds of people went to the TXTmob Web site and joined user groups at no charge.

As a result, when members of the War Resisters League were arrested after starting to march up Broadway, or when Republican delegates attended a performance of “The Lion King” on West 42nd Street, a server under a desk in Cambridge, Mass., transmitted messages detailing the action, often while scenes on the streets were still unfolding.

Messages were exchanged by self-organized first-aid volunteers, demonstrators urging each other on and even by people in far-flung cities who simply wanted to trade thoughts or opinions with those on the streets of New York. Reporters began monitoring the messages too, looking for word of breaking news and rushing to spots where mass arrests were said to be taking place.

And Mr. Hirsch said he thought it likely that police officers were among those receiving TXTmob messages on their phones.

It is difficult to know for sure who received messages, but an examination of police surveillance documents prepared in 2003 and 2004, and unsealed by a federal magistrate last year, makes it clear that the authorities were aware of TXTmob at least a month before the Republican convention began.

A document marked “N.Y.P.D. SECRET” and dated July 26, 2004, included the address of the TXTmob Web site and stated, “It is anticipated that text messaging is one of several different communications systems that will be utilized to organize the upcoming RNC protests.”

Re-Search

2008-03-29T06:56:00.000-07:00

The students of this class have pulled together some great research in the latest assignments. I thought I would share them here (in no particular order):

great work everyone.

Mind Maps from Discussion on Bilal Situation

2008-03-20T17:25:00.000-07:00

Art Censorship Controversy = Case Study in Participatory Culture

2008-03-16T13:13:00.000-07:00

It has occurred to me over the last week that the ongoing controversy that initially erupted when RPI suspended and then closed Wafaa Bilal's art exhibit would make an excellent case study in participatory culture. The situation has forced people to take a position on issues ranging from censorship and local government corruption to gaming's role in society, and the complexities around symbolic language. The most outspoken (... or the most dedicated ... or the most outraged?) of these people have used the internet to create an ad hoc web of information and communication that is well worth discussing in the hopes that we can learn some things about our culture and the ways in which we communicate. In this blog post (below), I link to many of the nodes on this info-network that have popped over the last week and lay out a trajectory for our case study of this event as an Exploration in Participatory Culture.

Disclaimer
First off, I need to state that in addition to my role as an adjunct arts prof here at RPI, I am also the Education Coordinator (primarily a volunteer position) at the Sanctuary for Independent Media. I have therefore played a fairly active role over the past week in supporting this organization, whose mission I am committed to upholding and promoting. However, I want to make clear that my interest in studying this case as an 'Exploration in Participatory Culture' is separate from my interest in supporting the embattled positions of the Sanctuary and/or the RPI Arts Department.

Some Links
Campus Republicans: The RPI Arts Department: A Terrorist Safehaven | Time Union article: RPI suspends exhibit over terror fears | newsday.com picks up the story | Article at wgy.com | InsideHigherEd.com runs a piece: Art and the College Administrator | freerepublic.com new aggregation site discusses | gamepolitics.com runs an article about Bob Mirch leading a protest against the SfIM | InsideHigherEd.com runs another article: ‘Virtual Jihadi’ Leaves RPI; Controversy Doesn’t | The Schenectady Daily Gazette runs a story Sanctuary displaying ‘Virtual Jihadi’ closed | Free Troy Youtube Channel | Wired picks up the story: Officials Shutter Gallery Displaying Virtual Jihadi Exhibit | gamepolitics.com retraction | Letter from an (Almost) Alumnus | A firsthand account of the exhibit at SfIM (from gamepolitics.com) | Why does this man hate America? — a blog entry from another site | The local alt paper, The Metroland, reports | March 12 Headline on Democracy Now! | rpi freeculture wiki site. | A gamer’s review of Quest for Saddam and Night of Bush Capturing, from a fairly non-biased perspective (if that’s even possible in this case) | Video of the introduction Bilal gave at the SfIM | Free Speech or Terrorism? Video Artist Wafaa Bilal and Rensselaer County Majority Leader Robert Mirch. 1 2 3 4 5 6 | Free Troy Letters Blog | brief article on indymedia.us | Intervew with Bilal on Geeks Are Sexy blog | Youtube Video Response from Local GOP rep |

[a more complete timeline of events & list of links is available at: http://www.dicianno.org/blog What else can we add to this list? If you have found unlisted articles, reviews, opinion pieces, etc... please link to them in the form of a comment. ]

Mapping The Dialogue
In a class currently happening at RPI, in Troy, it would be negligent to avoid studying this controversy and the explosion of citizen journalism that has occurred in its wake. After all, the students in the class, and indeed the professor, fancy themselves amateur cultural critics and citizen journalists (bloggers, podcasters, etc). In a coming class, we will be making some kind of visual representation of the information flow/web in an effort to both ask and answer a number of questions.

Some Questions (more to come)
As aspiring citizen journalists, artists, activists, web2.0 commentators, what can we learn from all of this?

On some level, Wafaa Bilal's goal of sparking dialogue has come to fruition. What are the central issues that come up in the dialogue? Is it really a dialogue? How can we quantify or qualify the dialogue? Are there tangential issues that are less directly related?

What is the scope of the conversation and what is NOT being talked about as much? How does it differ depending on what your looking at )blog vs youtube vs. TU etc)

Does this case study demonstrate the shifting role of the main stream media in our information society? If so, how?

How does public opinion factor in to the equation? What the heck is public opinion anyways?

How is the mainstream (corporate) media informed by citizen journalism, if at all?

What light does this whole situation shed on the relationship between RPI and the City of Troy? Are you aware of any of the history of this relationship?

What does it mean to be a college student in today's "democracy" (disconnected from hometown and not really a citizen of your college town)?

How can we make an accurate and interesting comparison between the Wafaa Bilal incident at RPI and the Wafaa Bilal incident at the Sanctuary? Does the notion of private sphere vs. public sphere factor in to this controversy (with respect to freedom of speech)?

If the 'battle' here is one for public opinion, how do you determine who is winning?

First Week of March

2008-03-05T06:28:00.000-08:00

This week we are reading a chapter or two from The Tipping Point in which author, M. Gladwell talks about theories of social trends in the context of epidemics (as we usually think of them). On Tuesday, for the couple people who missed class (and the extremely interested public), we watched the film Czech Dream - in which to Czech filmmakers engineer an advertising campaign which fools several thousand people into coming into a country meadow for the opening of a giant awesome hypermarket, only to find that it was a hoax. I have embedded a youtube excerpt of piece below. Students: Please post a response to your personal blogs which addresses both the reading and the film.

On Thursday there is a chance that visiting artist Waafa Bilal will come to our class to talk to us about his work. It will be a great time to ask him questions, but also just to meet him.... as his presence on campus has caused a bit of a stir. See these postings from the college republicans who are apparently a bit freaked out. Our own Emelie, posted a thoughtful response re: Waafa on her blog. Check it out & comment. Again... thursdays visit is not confirmed yet.

Links for this week

2008-02-26T18:39:00.000-08:00

I mentioned that I would post some links for use this week... here they are:

First off.. here is the video we watched towards the end of class. I think there are some excellent video/animation-illustrations of some of the stuff we have been talking about all semester in this piece. its called: Opening Access; produced by Denver Open Media

Second... there is this link which ties in to our discussion of the readings today. I pulld up this link in class, but didn't go into much detail. please have a look.

Third and last is an update on our group project. Here is the link to the (tentatively titled) Media Map. PLEASE PLEASE EXPERIMENT WITH POSTING SOME THINGS TO THIS MAP BEFORE THURSDAY.

"Internet Famous"

2008-02-24T10:49:00.000-08:00

I came across this Guardian article:
Stars in Your Lap
which was posted to the yahoo videoblogging list today. Its kind of a puffy piece, but does give a little hint as to the ways in which "internet tv" seems to be interfacing with studios and, of course, it name drops all yer favorite online video celebrities. The article also pontificates a bit on the "Youtube Generation" (is that the same as the MySpace generation?? - i am confused!). Regardless... there is interesting reading here about the audience-building in a new-mediascape. enjoy.
Want a bunch more of these types of articles?
check out: http://del.icio.us/tag/vloggersinthenews

Payphones, Typewriters, Coltan, and more readingggs

2008-02-23T07:38:00.000-08:00

I saw an amazing film by Osvalde Lewat-Hallade at The Sanctuary for Independent Media last night called A Love During War. It reminded me once again of the importance that socially engaged artists play in the realm of communications and media. Osvalde is a journalist turned filmmaker who documented the abuse and rape of huge populations of women in the eastern Congo through the story of Aziza - a radio reporter who is separated from her family during one of a series of wars. The situation sounds so complicated there. At the heart of it are mineral resources... and the fact that the Congolese people are extremely poor, despite the fact that the Congo is one of the richest countries in the world!!

Also do people know about Coltan? Its a mineral necessary for cellphones, 80% of which are located in the DRC. So recycling your cellphone is more then just trying to keep it out of landfill.

Why the payphone? It occurred to me that the payphone is an interesting symbol of generational gap. Plus, i just wanted to post a picture of a payphone to this blog. The payphone to young people today must be like a typewriter seemed to me growing up . I wonder if people see the character in old 'land line' phones that I see in typewriters? My typewriter collection is at 5.... only one of them is electric. One is a very old Remington Envoy.

Ok people.... heres our to do list.
Check out these readings for more great discussion on Tuesday:
1. What the MySpace Generation (thats you!?) Should Know About Working for Free by Trebor Scholz
2. Identity Production in a Networked Culture: Why Youth Heart MySpace by Danah Boyd

please provide a brief response to these readings (one is fine) on your blogs for Tuesday, and we will talk about them in class. Leave your comments about payphones and typewriters below.

Steal This...

2008-02-12T08:31:00.000-08:00

we will be watching this movie in class today in combination with discussing the Lessig reading.

Wealth & Blindness Factory

2008-02-12T08:01:00.000-08:00

Speculations on EMPAC

This is a bit of required reading. it is Brian Holmes' (guest artist/theorist at iEAR) first and latest written piece on EMPAC. Also... i would love for people to forward this post & leave comments. As students, your opinions are really valuable here!!! but there isn't much of a forum for them to be heard is there? didnt think so.

But he poses a question, that might be directed right at students:
" The subjects of the new global wealth-production regime [university students - RPI, in this case - thats you.] are trained to be highly competitive, individualistic and above all, blind to the impressive accumulation of social and ecological problems, deaf to the critical voices asking for a change of trajectory.
The question for society in general is whether we want our educational structures, and our aesthetic institutions in particular, to go on fostering this paradoxical blindness, which predominates when the minds and the senses of both producers and consumers are focused exclusively on the glittering spectacles of technoscientific progress. "

what are peoples thoughts on this? are RPI students individualistic and blind to global socioeconomic conditions? whose fault is it? is RPI and all the power it wields actually responsible for maufacturing this kind of student.... and doing it on purpose? I can think of some counter arguments..... but i think i can think of more supporting evidence.

for reference here is a link to what Brian's blog title is playing off of: The Project for the New American Century . PNAC is a think tank promoting global American dominance through military power and strategy. they are not shy about it. check it out.

Maps, Maps, Maps

2008-02-12T07:34:00.000-08:00

Here are some mapping links:

1. An example of a Drupal website using a google plugin... pretty basic: Mapping Access
a great resource for getting a visual representation of public access tv stations in the US... although incomplete.

2. A google mashup for DIY mapping... this is a cool site that is one of those simple and actually really useful web 2.0 tools. Map Builder

3. a route mapping site.... with tagging and locational sorting capabilities. meant for bikers, but useful in general for creating a catalog of routes for whatever purpose. Bikely

brief digestion on conversation with Brian on Thursday:
some kind of map will be built of campus and parts of Troy, and our group project can be to feed it with anecdotal content of our choosing. more updates to follow.

Preparation for Brian Holmes' Visit

2008-02-05T07:20:00.000-08:00

On Thursday, theorist and author Brian Holmes will be visiting our class, presenting some interesting and relevant projects, and helping us brainstorm our group project, which will take place over the course of the semester. In preparation for his visit, I would like us all to look over some links.

Here is Brian's blog:
http://brianholmes.wordpress.com/ take some time with it and generate some questions
...and here is a bit of his writing to read: Reverse Imagineering it might be a bit thick - especially coming off of the Keen reading, but you all can handle it.

As you will see, Brian is operating very much in and around the framework of globablization - that of trade, of information, of culture, and of resistance to hegemony..... all things that are extremely important to consider as the internet brings the world closer together and makes possible new modes of interaction between peoples. He is taking part in various projects that I think you will find really interesting... but he is also really interested in taking your questions and feedback. I met with him yesterday, and I think I can guarantee an exciting discussion.

NOTE:
We will still be reading and discussing the Free Culture excerpt, but not this week, probably, so the above should take precedence.

Epic 2014

2008-01-31T17:53:00.000-08:00

here's a link for Epic(s) 2014 & 2015, which we watched in class today.
please post any post-discussion comments here. ovr&out.

Cambodian Zines

2008-01-31T13:37:00.000-08:00

This is my Show & Tell item for the day. I was pretty happy to get a fat envelope of handmade zines from women university students in Cambodia today. This is not the kind of thing that happens everyday. In fact it has never happened. I have received packages from such countries as Finland, Argentina, England, Canada, Ecuador, Germany... maybe more I can't think of right now .... but never Cambodia. Here they are:

Zines are wonderful examples of what we are calling Participatory Culture and zine-making communities were thriving long before this here interweb made things like typing this blog entry and uploading that picture so easy.

The short version of this story is that my new friend Anne Elizabeth Moore went to Cambodia to research media control in the country and to live in dormitories with young women. The thing about Cambodia... ok.. there are a lot of things about cambodia I am sure... but the thing here, is that women are only now beginning to attend University in considerable numbers. (insert RPI joke about "the ratio" here. lets all have a quick laugh and move on) Anne went to live in girls dorms and be a role model for them. Her not-so-secret mission was to also teach them about making their own media. but dont take my word for it ... READ THESE LINKS.... in fact, read them, and then leave your comments here. I dont know about y'all , but I find these kind of meaningful adventures to be quite inspiring. Here are Three posts, i picked out....
1. An early post about the project itself (context!!! yay.)
2. Self-publishing seminar (the making of the zines pictured above)
3. Punkboy vs. Playboy ( a telling story.)
enjoy!

Readings & Assignments for This Week

2008-01-28T08:02:00.000-08:00

The Cult of the Amateur - Introduction
by Andrew Keen

Ch. 5 - The Laws of the Jungle
from Everything is Miscellaneous by David Weinberger

NEWSFLASH: THE FIRST VIDEO POST IS NOT DUE ON THURSDAY.
however, a thoughtful post on your concept IS due. for this post, provide:
-a brief synopsis of the concept and project
-describe the process for making the pieces - this means technical, but ALSO your planning process.
-consider and explain the "conversation" in which this project will take place.... think context. are there other things like this out there? why is yours important to that existing thread of 'things'.. or why is your project pushing new boundaries?

RPM Challenge

2008-01-28T07:49:00.000-08:00

a quick note to relay this participatory d.i.y. recording project:
The RPM Challenge
basically, bands or individuals sign up to record 10 songs or 35 minutes of music (an album) during the month of February (29 days this year). I have officially signed up.

Link Slideshows

2008-01-28T07:34:00.000-08:00

here is the compiled list of slideshows:
Emelie Explores
Luke - FECR
Joe - Jogo TV
Miles - Paperback Writer
Sava - Pokito a Poko
Ben - Bolt Cave
Igor - ZOMG
overall a great tour of "web 2.0 / Participatory Culture" research.
thanks everyone.

Civic Media - Corporate Cooptation?

2008-01-22T07:28:00.000-08:00

Part of what we want to consider and discuss in Explorations in Participatory Culture is how the technological advancements inherent in videoblogging and podcasting are portrayed and talked about in the corporate mainstream media. This is important in the context of cooptation. The giant marketing machine that we casually refer to as capitalism has a certain tendency - ok.. more than a tendency - to swallow underground movements, whether they be movements in art, music, technology, fashion, activism, etc., and turn them into commodities. (think: punk rock being recorded on major record labels... or... Cuban revolutionary 'Che' appearing on the t-shirts of teens who know little about the embargo, let alone the Cuban revolution... or... Chevrolet adopting the slogan of American Revolution to sell gas-guzzling SUVs ... and the list could go on and on.) But when we think of how Big Media frames Our Media - the peoples' media - perhaps the stakes are higher? Are they? It would seem that there is potential of the participatory media movement to be swallowed up and framed such that independent web-media producers are still slaves to the evil media corporations, rather than, well, free?.... why is YouTube, and company always the problem to be dealt with by Hollywood, not the answer to Hollywood? Is our vision of a New kind of media clouded by corporate propaganda? Are there answers? More questions?

Check out this excellent post from Cultural Farming, one of my favorite media literacy vlogs.
all of the video clips are worth a look.... but the last one is a remix of pieces from all of them.

I want to know what you think. Post your comments to this here blog post, and let the world know.

Questions for Reading Responses

2008-01-19T19:26:00.000-08:00

The Readings that were assigned for this week are:
"Quentin Tarantino's Star Wars?: Digital Cinema, Media Convergence, and Participatory Culture" by Henry Jenkins;
A Short History of the Internet by Bruce Sterling (1996);
I would also love for folks to look over this useful series of reports & surveys:
Pew Internet & American Life Project;

Please post a response to the readings to your blogs.

Here are some guiding thoughts for your responses to the Jenkins reading:
How do you define Participatory Culture?
How does Jenkins describe folk cultures versus mass cultures?
How do fans and culture jammers differ in their approach to cultural production?

Making a Presentation of Links

2008-01-17T13:09:00.000-08:00

Here's an example of the "RSS slideshow" tool which is linked from the syllabus.

http://ouseful.open.ac.uk/deliShow/breathingplanet/participatoryculture

simply add your del.icio.us /username/tag for slideshow to http://ouseful.open.ac.uk/deliShow/ and poof! (make sure you allow popups for that particular domain - firefox will prompt you).

cool, eh! So, that is how we should each prepare our presentation of links for next Tuesday. The presentation should be accompanied by a spoken description to give your audience (the rest of us) some context.

Questions?

Idea Farm

2008-01-15T06:57:00.000-08:00

Heres an exercise. Let's assume that each of you has the ability to make something happen... a new thing... an advancement. What would it be? What if you could imagine this idea into existence? Write a brief paragraph outlining your idea - a product, program, or system which combines existing human and technological infrastructure to accomplish something that you feel to be useful and/or innovative. Your idea can exist on any scale - from the personal to the global... It could be very technologically oriented, or it could involve no technology at all. What is your box? Think outside of it.

DEFINE: products, programs, systems, human infrastructure, technological infrastructure, scale.
CONSIDER: What are you trying to accomplish with your idea and why? How does your idea make this happen? Who is involved and in what way? Who benefits? Who is exploited?
DISCUSS: How does your idea fit into 'the big picture'. What are the 'real world' challenges to bringing such an idea to fruition? Are there any ethical issues with your idea? Is your idea sustainable?