Posted at 1:45 AM on 3-27-08 by Rob T Firefly
Please note: this event has been postponed by one week due to expected rainstorms. The new date is Friday, April 4. (Runs up against our meeting. Boo!) All other details remain the same.
“Wikipedia Takes Manhattan” is a scavenger hunt and free content photography contest, the aim of which is to gather digital photos around Manhattan with which to illustrate related Wikipedia articles.
The event will be held on Friday, April 4, and will run from about noon until midnight. After a day of “subways, street rambles, photography and free culture goodness,” the night will end with a party at Columbia University, with prizes given to the winning teams.
The event is sponsored by Free Culture groups from Columbia University and NYU, along with volunteers from Wikimedia New York City and Wikipedia.
For more information, check out the event’s page on Wikipedia. To register, check out Free Culture @ Columbia.
tags: events, fun, nyc, photos
Posted at 10:25 PM on 3-18-08 by Rob T Firefly
Looking for something to do this Saturday?
Looking to burn off some extra calories?
Looking for a way to relive all those teenage slumber parties?
Looking to meet interesting new people?
Looking for an excuse to hit them with a large foreign object in broad daylight?
If so, you might like to check out the 2008 NYC Pillow Fight.
tags: events, fun, nyc, wtf
Posted at 11:07 AM on 2-25-08 by Rob T Firefly
We’ve recently discovered “Animated Manhattan,” an ongoing series of articles by David Friedman about depictions of Manhattan in animation. From milestones like Oliver and Company, Fritz the Cat, and Madagascar to staples like Tom and Jerry, Futurama, and The Critic, to easily overlooked gems like the opening titles to Late Night with Conan O’Brien, the author delves deep into how the various artists portray the borough with varying degrees of accuracy and/or artistic success.
All in all, quite a good read.
(found via LJ newyorkers)
tags: nyc
Posted at 11:03 AM on 1-28-08 by Rob T Firefly
The Library of Congress has posted two collections of photographs to Flickr. The first is a collection of early color photographs from 1939-1944, and the second is a collection of black-and-white newspaper photos from 1910-1912. It’s worth noting that these photos are in the public domain.
The aim of this project is for the millions of Flickr users to tag and categorize the photos, relying on crowdsourcing and wisdom of the masses to complete what would otherwise be a massive undertaking with few failsafes. You can read more about the project in this Newsweek article.
We are particularly fascinated by the collection’s New York City photos, as well as the use of the Internet crowd to preserve and sort historical documents in such a manner.
tags: history, nyc, resource
Posted at 12:39 PM on 12-10-07 by Rob T Firefly
The so-called “hypersonic sound beam” billboards are beginning to pop up around town. These billboards are equipped with ultrasonic emitters that focus a narrow beam of sound through the air on a highly directional carrier wave. When you walk past a particular spot at a particular time, the result is sound that only you can hear, which seems to come from inside your own head.
Naturally, it’s being used to make people hear strange voices in their heads whispering things like “Who’s there? Who’s there?” in order to market a paranormal-themed TV show.
An insightfully titled Gawker post asks, “How soon will it be until in addition to the do-not-call list, we’ll have a ‘do not beam commercial messages into my head’ list?”
Have you been hit with it yet?
Coverage:
Advertising Age
WFMU
PSFK
Gawker
tags: nyc, wtf
“Wikipedia Takes Manhattan” is a scavenger hunt and free content photography contest, the aim of which is to gather digital photos around Manhattan with which to illustrate related Wikipedia articles.