On digital permanence

Might there be an inverse relationship between the ease of with which we create digital content…and the permanence of the cultural artifacts that we are creating?

More than 10 years ago, when I was in college, a friend and I created a web art project that we (pretentiously) called art(i)facts.  Mostly, it was our excuse to hack around with Photoshop, perl and html and explore this crazy Internet thing that was suddenly all the rage.

So we made a small site based on the premise that some apocalyptic rapture event had occurred, and you (the viewer) had discovered an archeological site (a bunch of photoshoped pictures like the above), and were in charge of interpreting the objects you’d discovered, with a simple web form to add your ideas. For example, one viewer said the that”item 361” (a CD) was a projectile toy, most likely used by children for simple amusement. (The site kinda still works, but this was 1997, so be nice)

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user is always right, but…really?

On a fairly regular basis, feedback at futureme dot org gets silly requests that make me chuckle. Or cry. Or both. Here are some of the recent more memorable ones:

Mar. 3, 2010: Send my letters explaining S&P 500 movement to an earlier date

These two emails are by far the most important and valuable emails I have ever sent in my life to anyone including myself. the public email starts: “Please reveal to me the S&P500′s sequential order of movement and activity for the week of 2010/1/18. I thank you. I love you. I am eternally grateful. Amen.”

Oct. 6, 2009: We hate people with cancer, apparently (FM requires 30 day sending date minimum…) Jay says: “you’ll never beat cancer with an attitude like that”

Saw this on the Today Show this morning and decided to write myself a letter to see how I was doing next week and got a response that said you’re not a reminder service jaand it must be a month away. Well, you know what, when you have cancer, a month may not come for you. What a crappy service. You should be ashamed.

Sep. 18, 2009: He’s afraid about getting fired b/c he forgot his meds:

I was not taking my anti-depressants and think I sent a future me e-mail to my boss by mistake.

Please help me.

If he receives it I will lose my job.
Please help.

Aug. 28, 2009: Sent her Facebook password to the future (and huh?)

well i contacted you because i’m an avid futureme.org fan. recently i was just about to go on a “facebook” fasting and made random passwords and sent it to myself in the future. problem was, i wasn’t even logged in at that time. now as far as i can remember it should have been sent to me a week ago. help please you know how IMPORTANT of a caprice facebook is. i really have to get my password. my user name in my futureme.org account is [******] and i wasn’t logged on to it. i actually sent my random password to **********@yahoo.com, my official email. it’s just that i used my other email, [*********]@yahoo.com and i cant even remember the random info i entered while making this 2nd email. PLEASE DO HELP ME OUT HEEEEEEREEEEEEEEEEEEE

Apr. 4, 2009: He girlfriend’s FutureMe letters wants:

You are my last hope. We have lived with my girlfriend about one year in peace, but serious problems have more recently begun. It is very guilty to me and tries to disappear from my life not to hurt. We are very love each other, but I do not understand as myself to conduct.

More recently she has written 2 letters on your site. (her e-mail **********@mail.ru). the Second should be delivered on June, 30th.

If is though any possibility – send me please text of this letters on *********@gmail.com. Becouse of i wanted to know what i should do to keep peace beetween us and wish to know not to lose she. Help to rescue love.

Yours faithfully, *****

Appologise my English – i am russian speaker.

Fighting “Thong” Adsense Ads on FutureMe

Google does a lot of neat things. But AdSense is just not good yet. At least for small sites with not very much text like FutureMe.

For about the past four months, virtually *all* ads running on the footer of the front page of futureme.org have been something along the lines of “Buy Thongs” “Discount Thong Underwear”, and “Visit i-thong.net.” (I have since been waging a battle to screen out these ads — see postscript — so you may not have the pleasure of seeing these ads, but trust me. Thongs.  Everywhere.)

Huh?

What’s especially curious, is that the actual destination of several of these, is not actually a thong superstore, but info.com (a search engine aggregator) which could have many, many different link tags, but somehow “Find Thongs” was the text chosen for the ad.

So, Mr. Google, just what about FutureMe – a site where people write letters to themselves in the future – would lead you to show ads for buying thongs? And not one ad. Three ads. Repeatedly. Again, and again, and again. Thongs. This is not randomness. This is systematic displaying of ads about thong underwear.

Perhaps I am just getting reactionary in my old age, but I have a hard time believing that thongs are really the best thing to advertise on FutureMe. I would think that attractive ads would be more along the lines of: financial services, weight loss, continuing education, job sites, etc — things related to self-improvement.

But perhaps Google seems to feel, apparently with utter and resounding conviction, that a primary means of self-improvement is to acquire lots and lots of thongs.

Or, maybe this is indeed the work of one of the Google’s taxonomists trying to create a self-fulfilling prophecy: people go to a site where the think about the future -> people see thong ads -> people associate thongs with their future selves -> everyone wears thongs -> weirdo taxonomist is happy!

I’m confused. And disturbed.

postscript: using Google’s “competitive ad filter” I was able to screen three of these sites.

but then another thong site showed up!  so i screened that one too.

the battle may be won, but i fear not yet the war. 

<rant> but i just don’t understand why Google has not introduced a more sophisticated means of having site owners *help* to target ads. the reality is that FutureMe is sparsely (but effectively) designed (nice job Jay!) and there is not much text to parse. so I want to be able to add terms in my AdSense account about *how people use the site* which is *different that what the site says*, and I would argue, much more relevant to what kind of ads to serve…</rant>

FutureMe is famous…again…

So the whole 15 minutes of fame thing? Warhol was prescient indeed, but I think the sentiment needs to be updated to account for the dynamics of the Internet. It seems to be more like 8 minutes, then 28 minutes, then another 17 minutes in a little while, and maybe some more after that.

Yes, FutureMe is famous again. We were a feature story in the LA Times magazine last weekend. Check out this pdf of the article itself. Full-page-spread. Of me. So. Weird.

And I just a few hours ago did an interview with Scott Simon of NPR that is apparently going to run on Weekend Edition Saturday.

I’m a little sheepish about all of this to be honest. FutureMe is cool. But is it really that cool?  I guess it’s kind of fun.

Lily Allen / Reading Lots / iPod in the Bathroom

Ezra and Sal introduced my to Lily Allen last week. Holy cow she’s rad. Edgy lyrics, variety of instruments, clever syncopated rhythms, multiple (slightly predictable) harmonies. Maybe Gwen Stefani meets a (white British) Missy Elliot. That’s not quite right. But she’s rad. If you’re looking for two good tracks to start with, I recommend: Littlest Things and Alfie. Apparently she’s all the rage in the UK, but I can’t even buy her full album on iTunes. What gives?

Apparently she is catching some flak for being a rich girl fronting like she’s from the hood. Whatever.

———-

So far I’ve read a lot during break:

1. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: Jonathon Safran-Foer – uncannily similar in tone and structure to his previous book (multi-generational, quirky/poignant/sad), which is an interesting choice and I’m not totally sure what to make of it.
2. Half-asleep in Frog Pajamas: Tom Robbins – this dude is a straight-up wack job. a bit preachy and pretentious at times, but funny if not taken too seriously.
3. The Blind Side: Michael Lewis – story of a) how the Left Tackle became such a highly valued position — the second most highly paid position after quarter back, and b) how an inner city kid from memphis goes from the most ghetto of ghettos to the rich ‘burbs living with rich white folks to one of top recruits in the country, at, yes, left tackle.
4. Bonfire of the Vanities: mostly funny, with a bit of sad and disturbing mixed in, portrayal of NYC’s i-banker “Master of the Universe” mentality.
5. Just started “Sick Puppy” by Carl Hiaasen

———-

this has to be a joke. really. please? god forbid you sit on the toilet without your iPod.