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Tag: reddit

Swarm networks and meme warfare

This is a draft of a paper titled Swarm networks and the design process of a distributed meme warfare campaign, which I co-authored with my PhD student Travis Wall, to be presented at the IAMCR 2017 conference in Cartagena, Colombia, July 16-20, 2017.

This paper aims to develop a systemic perspective of the mechanics of generation of targeted memes forming a meme warfare campaign, by analyzing the swarm-like topology of 4chan’s /pol/ forum, and the logistics of the swarm’s rapid prototyping, coordination, production, and dissemination of content. The paper uses as its case study the #DraftOurDaughters campaign, which is documented in its entirety from inception to completion. The main focus of the argument is in developing a coherent and systemic perspective on the logistics of distributed memetic production in online spaces potentiating swarm-like behavior in their user-base. We examine this process in its entirety, from the logistics of swarm formation to the rapid prototyping of ideas leveraging short feedback loops, and the collaborative creation of semantically targeted media. Anonymous online spaces such as 4chan are identified as environments fostering a powerful feedback loop of distributed ideation, content production and dissemination. Through examining these phenomena, the paper also provides perspective on the manifestation of collaborative design practice in online participatory media spaces.

Disruptive Media

This is a Prezi from a guest lecture on Disruptive Media I gave last week. The argument is organized around four concept provocations – artificial scarcity, big data, iFeudals, and hive-mind. Each provocation in turn is centered around a digital artifact, where my artifact zero is raw footage from the war in Syria, featuring a tank column dash-cam and a blurry recording from a rebel group attacking the same tank column. I then disassemble this artifact into the four conceptual threads structuring the provocations – the deluge of raw data, the absence/irrelevance of gatekeepers, the inability of content farms [legacy media] to deal with raw data, the power of the hivemind [reddit/4chan] to aggregate and process raw data. These being provocations I don’t provide any summary or an encapsulating framework; instead my coda is a quote from Gabe Newell that really resonated with me. It is from his keynote at the D.I.C.E. summit this year in which he charted a future for gaming built around open auction houses, free-to-play, and user generated content [watch it here], but it equally applies to the scenarios I describe: ‘We can’t compete with our own customers. Our customers have defeated us, not by a little, but by a lot [and that’s a good thing].’