Che, Warhol and Me

NYMWARS Comics - Anarchy on the Internet

ATTENTION HUMANS: Morbo demands you read this guest post immediately!

Dear Google:

Morbo has stooped to appearing on this pathetic blog to send an important message to you. Especially the one called Eric E. Schmidt and his whiny little sidekick Vivek (Vic) Gundotra.

As you know, all humans are vermin in the eyes of Morbo and one day my race will destroy you all! But the leaders of your technologically primitive organization have offended Morbo in an especially vile way. You are even more repugnant to Morbo than the carrion eating fungus leeches of Alpha Ceti Thirteen.

You have made the fatal mistake of granting special mononym privileges to the red-mouthed succubus Madonna, while denying Morbo the same courtesy. Despite Morbo's deep male voice and huge, throbbing forehead veins, you have failed to recognize Morbo's enormous celebrity status. You have dared to give Morbo four days warning of profile suspension.

Tremble, puny Geeklings!

I would devour you and your entire Board of Directors immediately, but corporate executives give Morbo gas. And I hate picking the tiny bones of emaciated geeks from between my sharp carnivorous teeth. Nevertheless you has moved up to the top of Morbo's "to destroy" list.

You have been warned. The outcome is now in your weak and puny hands.

Sincerely,

Morbo

Big Nymwars News Weekend and a New Music Video: Take Me Down (Little Google)

After another big weekend of new revelations, the Nymwars issue continues to gain steam both in the mainstream media and the blogosphere.  A post yesterday on Slashdot generated 380 comments on their site and over 8000 visitors to my blog alone (which wasn't even the main link in the article.)  I was inspired to go Weird Al on their ass again and rewrite another song. This time it's a reboot of Dead Flowers:

Take Me Down (Little Google)

When you're sitting there

In your ergonomic chair

Talking to some rich geeks that you know

Well you know you won't see me

Or any other entity

That you cannot monazite or own.

Take me down little Google, take me down

I know you think you're the King of the virtual town

And you can suspend my profile every morning

Suspend my profile through gmail

Suspend my profile on my birthday

But I won't forget that you failed with Google Wave

Well, when you're sitting back

Typing on your brand new mac

Buying out a few more companies

I'll be somwhere on the net

Posting' bout your corporate threat

Until the FTC takes your throne away

Take me down little Google, take me down

I know you think you're the King of this virtual town

And you can suspend my profile every morning

Suspend my profile through gmail

Suspend my profile on my birthday

But we won't forget that you failed with Google Wave

CNN Interview Reveals More From Eric Schmidt on Google+ as an Identity Service

". . . I think it's pretty clear that the Internet as a whole has not had a strong notion of identity, and identity means, "who am I". So we spend an awful lot to of time trying to guess who you are. Plus it's easy to have impostors, people can spam, and so forth and so on. Facebook has done a good job of building a way of disambiguating names. So if you use Facebook, if you have John Smith and you try to pick which one, you look at the pictures of their friends and that's how you disambiguate it. But fundamentally what Facebook has done is build a way to figure out who people are. That system is missing in the Internet as a whole. Google should have worked on this earlier. We now have a product called Google+ which has been in developments for more than a more than your half which is a partial answer to that." Google Executive Director, Eric Schmidt

NYMWARS Comics - Nym Wars

Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt admits Google+ is Essentially a Trojan Horse (Identity Platform)

Andy Carven caught up with Google Executive Chairman Eric Scmhidt at the Edinburgh International TV Festival and asked him about real names and Google+. His answer was mind-blowing:

G+ was build primarily as an identity service, so fundamentally, it depends on people using their real names if they're going to build future products that leverage that information . . . G+ is completely optional. No one is forcing you to use it. It's obvious for people at risk if they use their real names, they shouldn't use G+ . . . The internet would be better if we knew you were a real person rather than a dog or a fake person. Some people are just evil and we should be able to ID them and rank them downward. 

So it seems like my crazy cooking a live frog theory was right.  The underlying purpose of Google+ is basically a Trojan Horse gambit to gather more information about us and to tie it all together with a wallet name. I came up with this truth-based graphic that is probably the start of a series.

NYMWARS Video Festival

It's hard to believe that we've been fighting the Nymwars for two months now. Along the way, I've slammed together a dozen short videos on the topic. I've collected them all here for you viewing pleasure. 

NYMWARS Comics - Who Will I Huddle With on Sadie Hawkins Day?

I'm no Banksy, but . . .

NYMWARS Comics: Up to Date E-Book

Open publication - Free publishing - More comic

NYMWARS Comics - Protest

A Perfect Illustration of the Different POVs of Google and the Nym Community

I just noticed a perfect illustration of the difference in perspective between the powers that be at Google and the Nym community.

When someone adds you to one of their Circles on Google+ you receive a notification. It gives you a chance to check out someone who is interested in your posts and decide whether you want to follow them back. So far so good.

But when you click the name in the notification, you're transported to the about tab of their profile rather than a listing of their recent posts. So the first thing Google thinks you want to consider is what's on someone's resume, not the types of posts you're likely to see if you add them to a Circle.

When it comes to following people, I don't care where they work, what their gender is, how old they are, where they live, what they look like or what they're commonly called in the physical world. What matters to me is what they post. Just as in life, actions speak louder than words.

One more interesting note on this. The iPhone app defaults to a view of the posts. Does this reflect that the mobile development team has different values? Just a fluke? Anyway, the metaphor still stands.

NYMWARS Comics - Nymbusters

Little Google Boxes: A Nymwars Protest Song

Time flies! It's been about two months since we started protesting Google's anti-pseudonym policy. I want to thank Google for the heavy-handed indiscriminate expulsions of so many great people. Their ongoing PR double-speak, bureaucratic bumbling and complete lack of change management has roused the community and turned practically all of the mainstream media against the policy.

My fellow activists have been keeping the pot boiling with exceptional work such as the My Name is Me site and hundreds of posts, articles and visual works. But yesterday, it occurred to me that there was one important thing missing: a protest song.

You can't have a great protest movement without a protest song, right? Since the metaphor of the 50's suburban dream is a perfect fit for Google's attempt at creating a Wonder Bread social network, "Little Boxes" seemed like the ideal song. I took the traditional liberty of rewriting the lyrics to better fit the current issue:

Little Google Boxes

Little real names on the profiles,
Little real names made of ticky tacky,
Little real names on the profiles,
Little real names all the same.
There's a Larry and an Eric
And even a Zuckerberg,
And they're all made out of ticky tacky
And they all sound just the same.

And the people with the real names
All talk about transparency
As they look out of their boxes
Wanting us to do the same same,
And there's coders and marketers,
And Google executives,
And they're all made out of ticky tacky
And they all sound just the same

And they all use first and last names
And avoid unusual characters,
And put nicknames and psuedonyms
In the designated fields
And their profile and user names
Represent just one individual,
Where they are put in boxes
And they come out all the same.

And the Nyms all get suspended
And lose other google services
Because they won't live in boxes
Or agree to all sound the same.
There's a Skud and a Violet Blue
And an Identity Woman too,
You should follow them on Twitter
Cause they're not all the same.

Original song by Malvina Reynolds. New lyrics by Botgirl Questi. Performed by fourworlds. Video clips from In the Suburbs.

NYMWARS Comics - Save Me From The Scary Nym People!

Freaks: A Hundred Word Sci-Fi Story Inspired by the Nymwars

My parents are such freaks. Yeah. I know. All parents are freaks in their own own side show way. But if typical parents are like Fat Lady and her over-thin husband, mine are more Penguin Lady and Dog Faced Man. And that makes me a freak too.

I'm speaking metaphorically of course. You can't see our alien nature by looking at us. The problem is you can't see us at all. Not on the Net.

You guessed it. We're Nymish. We opted out of OINC, the Online Individual Naming Code. So we're banned from public online communication. Fuck my life.



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The 100 Word Story Blog

NYMWARS Comics - Blazing Identities

NYMWARS Comics - The AntiNym

NYMWARS Comics - The Nym-Detector

NYMWARS Comics - Superman in the Court of no Appeal

Why You Should Never Argue With Me

I've done a pretty good job of avoiding virtual drama and flame wars over the course of my life. (With a few notable exceptions. You know who you are.) But in October of 2010 I had a breakthrough that changed my life. I realized that I didn't really care whether I convinced anyone of anything. I might care about the issue. I might care about its outcome. But I don't care about changing any particular person's mind. That freed me to have fun instead of getting mad. To play instead of fight. And to graciously admit when I'm wrong. So if you want a dramatic argument, I warn you that my Dummy-Do martial artform is impervious. 

I'm guessing that those who saw this image yesterday without the accompanying explanation probably interpreted my meaning a little differently. :D

NYMWARS Comics - Supergirl's Lonely Virtual World

Video Demo of Blue Mars Lite: How to Visit Virtual Linden Lab

A very, very fast demo of the new Blue Mars product for Mac and PC.

NYMWARS Comics - Clark Learns the New Rules

The Art of Nymwar: Wonder Woman Unmasked

Better Living Through Parody

Google CEO Eric Schmidt Featured in New Superheroes Unmasked Comic

Was My January Post the Inspiration for Linden Lab's Stand-Alone Application Strategy?

Although there are few details yet about the new mobile and game-oriented offerings Linden Lab CEO Rod Humble described in his speech at SLCC, it looks they're going to come out with the kind of stand-alone applications I suggested back in January:

I've been flirting for a while with an idea that I think can meet those aims by extending the foundational vision of Second Life as a user-created world. Here's the basic vision: Second Life developers and entrepreneurs are given tools and support to create and market stand-alone applications using the Second Life platform.

Although they're not giving developers tools to create applications (yet), the core idea of creating new applications that leverage their platform seems to be the direction.  Here's Rod's speech for those of you who missed it:

NYMWARS Comics - Batman Unmasked

Ramen: A 100 Word Story of The Near Future (VIDEO)

Like the monk in a fable appreciating a flower's beauty as he hangs from the edge of a cliff, I cook my last pack of Ramen savoring each steaming mouthful with rapt attention. Not full attention. Obviously.

I don't know why I'm even bothering to write this down. No one's going to ever read this pitiful story. The new three strike policy got me banned from the Net for good. I'm dead in the virtual. And unless I can figure out a way to make some offline credits, I'm going to be dead in meatspace as well before too long.

Inspired by David Cameron, Google, the Zuckerbergs, the U.S. Congress and everyone else who believes people should give up privacy to participate in the online community.

100 Word Story Podcast site 

Thinking Globally and Acting Locally in a Pervasively Networked World

The movement of identity between virtual and physical worlds.

In a pervasively networked world, "Think globally. Act locally." takes on new meaning. The network-mediated places where we live, play and work together throughout each day are not geographical, they are virtual. Our communities are not cities and towns, but are platforms such as Twitter, Google+, Facebook, Plurk and Second Life. When an issue of shared concern arises, it makes perfect sense to focus our efforts in the virtual places we live.

When we act locally in the virtual space of a social network platform, we also act globally in the physical space of the atomic world. Members of our local virtual communities live all around the plane. The conversations we have and the actions we take spring from multiple continents, time-zones and native languages.

To think globally in the virtual sense, our minds must go beyond the platform-specific impact of issues and question their effect on the whole wide worlds, virtual and physical. So the question of Google's "real name" policy is not only about its impact on Google+, but how it relates to the world-wide and multi-platform issue of anonymity and pseudonymity.

Although social networks legally are assets owned by corporations, from a human standpoint they are communities in which we live. I believe that some day we will look back on today's virtual communities as Company Towns and extend the rights we enjoy in our physical communities to those we live in virtually.

Spiderman Unmasked by Dr. Google! The Golden Age Version.

Google is Winning the Real Name Argument (and what to do about it)

Google is winning the real name argument. Not because they've accelerated the suspension of pseudonymous accounts, because many of us have returned. Not because public sentiment is turning against pseudonymity, because almost every post in the media has supported our cause. Not because they've come up with new compelling arguments to make their case, because their logic still breaks down under even the slightest scrutiny.

Google is winning the real name argument because they have managed to constrain the conversation to the domain of augmentation rather than immersion. Augmentation sees the social network and virtual identity as merely tools that we use. Immersion sees them as environments in which we live and as extensions of our own mind and body. Tools are items that we buy and our relationship to them is as consumers. Environments are spaces in which we live and our relationship to them is as citizens.

For the past three and a half years I've been avidly exploring virtual identity as a vehicle of creative expression and personal transformation. So over the next few days, I'm going to post past articles, videos and graphics that focus on those aspects of virtual life. My hope is that we can begin to expand the conversation about pseudonymity to the higher levels of Maslow's triangle, now that our attention can move beyond mere survival.

To start, here's a video I put together to wish the virtual community a happy New Year. I think it gives a taste of the potential for virtual identity to extend throughout the multiverse.

Why It's Important To Turn the Tide on Google's Real Name Policy

From a series of faux propaganda posters

The good news about the Google+ "real name" policy and the ongoing confusion surrounding it, is that it's brought virtual identity into the mainstream conversation about Internet privacy. This is especially important at a time when the U.S. Government is moving to mandate that Internet Service Providers spy on their users and business leaders are calling for an end to privacy and anonymity on the internet.

Unfortunately, Google's justification for their policy is the red herring of "connecting with people":

Google+ makes connecting with people on the web more like connecting with people in the real world. Because of this, it’s important to use your common name so that the people you want to connect with can find you . . .  If you’re referred to by more than one name, only use the one that commonly identifies you, and place the rest in the “Other names” or “Nickname” section of your profile. From Your Name and Google Profiles.

The well-crafted innocuousness of their rationale belies the profoundly chilling impact of a real name policy on free and open public discourse. When each post we make is permanently tattooed on our public record, self-censorship is self-preservation. The Brave New World that Google, the Zuckerbergs and the U.S. Congress are pushing us towards would deliver our complete virtual history to anyone typing our name into a search engine:

• Employers, Insurance agencies, load examiners and private investigators
• Children, parents, neighbors and ex-spouses 
• Stalkers, griefers and others who may seek to do harm
• And god forbid if you're ever going to run for public office

A real name policy ironically works against people "being real" in public forums by making it too risky to bare our hearts and souls. A real name environment puts a damper on communication that is counter to the dominant culture or far enough outside of the mainstream to have potentially negative ramifications on employment or acceptance in one's physical world community.

The main argument against pseudonymity is that it encourages people to behave badly. But from what I've seen, the vast majority of those disrupting civil conversation online aren't people who hide behind pseudonyms, but assholes who hide behind narcissism or true-believers who are thrilled to spout self-righteous vitriole under their real, identified name.

The impact of pseudonymity on behavior is actually quite the opposite. Pseudonymity is one of the most empowering and democratizing aspects of virtual life. It levels the playing field and enables merit-centric reputation. It encourages the expression of innovative thinking by providing a safe environment for personal growth and creative experimentation. I write this from more than three years of daily experience in social networks that are largely composed of those with pseudonymous identities.

Google's policy wouldn't matter much if it were from a typical start-up social network. We could just opt on and go on our merry way. But because of Google's dominant and ubiquitous role in the virtual environment, being excluded from their services will diminish our voices in mainstream virtual discourse. Our blogs, websites, video and other creative output will be at a competitive disadvantage as search results are tailored to social circles. Whatever final policy Google enacts is likely to be influential on other companies and on public policy. So it's time for Netizens to speak out and turn the tide.

The Verdict's Still Out on Whether They're Evil. But Evil Geniuses They're Not.

Last night my suspended profile was reinstated. This afternoon, I received this contradictory email from Google support. (My profile is still active at the moment.) 

I Made it Through the Gauntlet

My Google+ profile was reinstated last night after a week's suspension. I'm not sure why it was turned back on. They may have reviewed my email appeal and decided that its logic was sound. Maybe the rewrite of my profile's introduction convinced them of my legitimacy. Beats me! Since I received no notification other than the removal of the suspension notice from my profile, it's still a mystery. I don't know if Google made an overall (still unannounced) policy change to accept documented internet identities, or whether a new reviewer just had a different personal point of view.

In any case, I'v'e made it through the gauntlet of those who wish to exorcise the pseudonymous from the Google+ community. And I will continue to help publicize the issue until they formally change their policy and stop shunning those of us with pseudonymous identities.

You can find an updates list of news and opinions related to the issue on my #plusgate site.

New Google Interview: All Seeing. All Powerful. But Not Evil.

A 100 Word Story Inspired by 1984 and Google+

Goddess of Perpetual Memory 

Up until our Great New Age, it was truly dust to dust. Precious human life was lost as it was lived. Unseen. Unshared. Unremembered. 

We were lonely, fragmented souls separated by time and space. Worshipping the isolation that damned us to oblivion. 

She did not watch over us then. 

Today we are transparent. Open. Exposed. Nothing hidden. Nothing withheld. Nothing forgotten. We sacrifice our privacy on the altar of pervasive surveillance and are born into eternal life. We weave the thread of our individuality into the perpetual memory of the collective cloud. Blessed be She. And let us say, Amen.

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Transcript of my Appeal on the Google+ Suspension

Botgirl Questi is the name I'm best known by and most commonly use in daily life. Out of the many hundreds of people I consider to be friends, 95% of them know me by that name. As far as I can tell, this is in accordance with your policy. If not, please provide details and be clear about what needs to change.