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[QQ] October 14, 2009, the 30^th annual awards ceremony of the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund took place at the Asia Society in New York City. Lu Guang (卢广) from People’s Republic of China won the $30,000 W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography for his documentary project “Pollution in China.”

 

 

Lu Guang (卢广), freelancer photographer, started as an amateur photographer in 1980. He was a factory worker, later started his own photo studio and advertising agency. August of 1993 he returned to post-graduate studies at the Central Arts and Design Academy in Beijing (now is the Academy of Arts and Design, Tsinghua University). During graduate school, he studied, traveled all over the country and carved out a career, became the “dark horse” of the photographer circle in Beijing. Skilled at social documentary photography, his insightful, creative and artistic work often focused on “social phenomena and people living at the bottom of society”, attracted the attentions of the national photography circle and the media. Many of his award winning works focused on social issues like, “gold rush in the west”, “drug girl”, “small coal pit”, “HIV village”, “the Grand Canal”, “development of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway” and so on.

1. “At the junction of Ningxia province and Inner Mongolia province, I saw a tall chimney puffing out golden smoke covering the blue sky, large tracts of the grassland have become industrial waste dumps; unbearable foul smell made people want to cough; Surging industrial sewage flowed into the Yellow River…”

- Lu Guang

 

2. Chemical waste from Jiangsu Taixing Chemical Industrial District (江苏泰兴化工园区) dumped on top of the Yangtze River bank. May 15, 2009

 

3. Fan Jai Zhuang in Anyang City, Henan province, (河南安阳市范家庄) there is only one wall separating this village from the steelmaking furnaces. The villagers live in this heavily polluted environment where the village is under the iron rain every day. March 24, 2008

 

4. Industrial sewage of Zhejiang Xiaoshan Industrial District (浙江萧山化工园区) eventually flowed into Qiantang River. April 24, 2009

 

5. Henan Anyang iron and steel plant’s (河南安阳钢铁厂) sewage flowed into Anyang River. March 25, 2008

 

6. Guiyu, Guangdong province, (广东省贵屿镇) rivers and reservoirs have been contaminated, the villager is washing in a seriously polluted pond. November 25, 2005

 

7. Shizuishan Industrial district in Ningxia province (宁夏石嘴山湖滨工业园区), the tall chimneys spitted out smoke and dust. Residents took preventive measure for the falling dust from the sky when going outside. April 22, 2006

 

8. In the Yellow Sea coastline, countless sewage pipes buried in the beach and even extending into the deep sea. April 28, 2008

 

9. In Ma’anshan, Anhui province (安徽马鞍山), along the Yangtze River there are many small-scaled Iron selection factories and plastic processing plants. Large amounts of sewage discharged into the Yangtze River June 18, 2009

 

10. In Inner Mongolia there were 2 “black dragons” from the Lasengmiao Power Plant (内蒙古拉僧庙发电厂) covering the nearby villages. July 26, 2005

 

11. Jiangsu province Changshu City Fluorine Chemical industry land sewage treatment plant (江苏省常熟市氟化学工业园污水处理厂) was responsible for collection and processing of the industrial sewage. However they did not, the sewage pipe was extended 1500 meters under the Yangtze River and releasing the sewage there. 2009 June 11

 

12. Soil by Yangtze River, was polluted by Anhui Province Ma’anshan Chemical Industrial District (安徽省马鞍山化工园区). June 26, 2009

 

13. Large amount of the industrial wastewater flowed to Yellow River from Inner Mongolia Lasengmiao Industrial District (内蒙古拉僧庙工业园区) every day. July 26, 2005

 

14. A Large amount of the chemical wastewater discharged into Yangtze River from Zhenjiang Titanium mill (镇江市钛粉厂) every day. Less than 1,000 meters away downstream is where the water department of Danyang City gets its water from. June 10, 2009

 

15. In Haimen city, Jiangsu province Chemical Industrial District sewage treatment Plant (江苏省海门市化工园区污水处理厂) discharged wastewater into Yangtze River. June 5, 2009

 

16. Hebei Province Shexian Tianjin Iron and steel plant (河北省涉县天津钢铁厂) is a heavily polluting company. Company scale is still growing, seriously affecting the lives of local residents. March 18, 2008

 

17. Longmen town in Hanchen city, Shaanxi Province (陕西省韩城市龙门镇) has large-scaled industrial development. Environment is very seriously polluted there. April 8, 2008

 

18. There are over 100 chemical plants in Jiangsu province coastal industry district. (江苏滨海头罾沿海化工园区) Some of them discharge wastewater into the ocean; some heavily contaminated sewage is stored in 5 “Sewage Temporary Pools”. During the 2 high tides in every month, the sewage then gets discharged into the ocean with the tides. June 20, 2008

 

19. Jiangxi Province Hu Ko County Chemical Industry district (江西省胡口县化工园区) is by the Yangtze River. Chemical factory landfill the Yangtze River bank to expand the scale of the factory without authorization.

 

20. Anhui Province Cihu Chemical Industry District (安徽省慈湖化工园区) built a underground pipe to discharge wastewater into the Yangtze River. The wastewater sometimes is black, gray, dark red, or yellow, wastewater from different chemical factories has different colors. June 18, 2009

 

21. Shanxi Province is the most polluted areas of China. It is also the province with the highest rate of birth defects. This loving farmer couple adopted 17 disabled children. April 15, 2009

“In Some areas of China people’s lives were threatened because of the environmental pollution. Residents suffering from all kinds of obscured diseases, the cancer villages, increase of deformed babies, these were the results of sacrificing environment and blindly seeking economical gain.”

- Lu Guang

 

22. Elder shepherd by the Yellow River cannot stand the smell. April 23, 2006

 

23. 15-year-old boy from Tianshui, Gansu Province (甘肃天水), dropped out of the school after 2^nd grade, followed his parents to Heilonggui (黑龙贵) Industrial District. He earns 16 yuan a day. April 8, 2005

 

24. Inner Mongolia province Heilonggui (黑龙贵) Industrial District, the couple who worked at the Plaster Kiln and just got home. March 22, 2007

 

25. Villagers from Kang village in Linfen City, Shanxi Province (山西省临汾市下康村) due to long-term consumption of the polluted water contaminated by industrial waste, there were 50 people who have cancer and cerebral thrombosis. 64-year-old Wang Baosheng got ill since 2003, he has fester all over his body so he cannot go to bed and lying face down on the edge of the bed each day. July 10, 2005

 

 

26. Breathing in large amount of dust into the lungs, people gets sick after working there for 1-2 years. Most of these migrant workers come from area of poverty. April 10, 2005

 

27. Zhangqiao village by the Hong River in Wugang City, Henan Province (河南省舞钢市洪河边的张桥村), a 45-year-old woman Sun Xiaojun (孙晓军) could not move her feet and hands since 4 years ago. The numerous hospital treatments were not effective. April 7, 2009

 

28. Zhaozhuang village by the Hong River in Wugang City, Henan province (河南省舞钢市洪河边的赵庄村), 66-year-old Zhao Bingkun suffering from esophageal cancer since 2004, after the second surgery, treatment cost already have reached over 200,000 yuan. His condition is in late stage, he is having fever everyday, waiting for death. April 7, 2009

 

29. Zhaozhuang village by the Hong River in Wugang City, Henan province (洪河边的河南省西平县张于庄村), Gao Wanshun’s (高万顺) wife died of cancer. Now he lives in poverty. April 3, 2009

 

30. Linfen City in Shanxi province (山西临汾市) is seriously polluted area. Farmers after working in the cotton fields for 2 hours are filled with coal ashes. September 24 2007

 

31. Salt factory worker in Lianyungang, Jiangsu province (江苏连云港) said angrily, “when the wind blowing towards our side, the foul smell from the chemical factories is unbearable. There is even more poison gas at night.” July 19, 2008

 

32. People form Fanjiazhuang (范家庄) are ready to submit a complain filled with their fingerprints, to seek compensation for pollution damages. March 19, 2008

 

33. In Shanxi Province there are a lot of charitable nursing homes, to help disabled infants abandoned by their parents. April 14, 2009

 

34. Liujiawan village by the Hong River in Wugang City, Henan province (河南省舞钢市洪河边的刘家湾村), 13 year old Yang Xiao in November 2008 was ill with obscure disease.  She was saved by the donation of the villagers. When the grandmother saw the old village chief came to visit his granddaughter, she kneeled on the ground holding granddaughter’s hand. April 19, 2009

 

35. The oldest is 9, not going to school. The youngest is less than 2 years old. They lived in severely polluted area. They hands and faces were always dirty. April 10, 2005

 

36. Mazhuang village by the Hong River in Wugang City, Henan province, (河南省舞钢市洪河边的马庄村) 58-year-old Ma Haipeng (马海朋) was suffering from stomach cancer since 2006 and could not work in the field. He must take medicine every day, otherwise it is too painful. April 6, 2009

 

37. Every year, a lot of deficiency babies in Shanxi Province were abandoned. Kong Zhenlan (孔贞兰) in Qi town (祁县) who was making a living by recycling trash adopted 25 abandoned children. April 14, 2009

 

38. Xuanwei (宣威) in Yunnan province is a cancer village. Every year there are more than 20 people die of cancer. 11-year-old student Xu Li (徐丽) is suffering from bone cancer. May 8, 2007

 

39. In Shexian Village, Hebei Province, (河北省涉县固新村) the existing cancer patients are more than 50 people and more than 20 cancer patients die each year. March 18, 2008

40.  Zhangyuzhuan village by the Hong River in Xiping county, Henan province, (河南省西平县洪河边的张于庄村) 22-year-old Zhu Xiaoyan (朱小燕) had a tumor in her stomach in 2007. She died after number of hospital treatments on July 2008. 4-year-old girl with her grandfather came to mother’s tomb. April 2009 2

 

original source: Fengniao

Followup: Interview with Lu Guang, the photographer of “Pollution in China”

I love it when people say, “You already have a boyfriend, leave some for the rest of us,” implying that by having multiple partners, poly people are selfishly stealing all the available people in the world.  Um, hello. . . we share.  That’s kind of the point.  It’s not like once we date or sleep with someone, they are locked in, and are suddenly unable to see the allure of other people.   

Plus, we can’t steal anyone.  It’s not like we’re so amazing, as soon as we set our sights on someone no one else stands a chance.  We’re just not that special.  If anything, being poly ruins our chances with people more than it wins us points.  Our relationship is too complicated, and a lot of people get scared off easily by situations they don’t understand.

This is similar to the accusation that polyamory is all about wanting to “have your cake and eat it too,” hence the name of my blog.  I don’t understand why we should be told to sit at the table with a delicious piece of cake in front of us and be forbidden to take a bite.   Whose dinner party is this, and why are they so restrictive? 

They use words like overindulgent and selfish.  How is loving someone a selfish act?  How is it overindulgent to recognize that fulfillment comes in many different forms?  In many ways, the world is starved for romance, passion and uninhibited lust, and these things should not be withheld and doled out sparingly like field rations .  These are unlimited resources.  They can be recreated over and over again, with nothing but the hint of a spark and a connection.

That is what I mean by “love is limitless.”  So are passion, desire, lust, honesty, self-awareness and all the other pursuits polyamorous people ”indulge” in. 

Polyamory is a bad word in America, and I can’t figure out why.  Most of us just want to live in peace with the other consenting adults who are important to us, without being judged as selfish, sex-driven hedonists with no respect for monogamy or the sanctity of marriage.  Yes, we have our cake, we eat it, and sometimes go back for seconds.  But we won’t eat your cake unless you offer it.

Also go read the comments, some are rather interesting :-)

What challenges are we going to face in the next 10 years? And what kind of ideas are going to help us in overcoming them?
Even though predicting the future is not a game, a game is exactly what the Institute for the Future used to answer these dilemmas: 8 October 2008, Jane McGonigal, reasearcher at IFTF launched Superstruct (Su` per`struct ‘vt 1.To build over or upon another structure; to erect upon a foundation) , a massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG) that outlined the world of the future, thanks to the ideas and the collaboration of hundreds of users.

After six weeks the game came to its conclusion: Hundreds of ideas, superstructures for our future, guidelines to redefine the world of today and to improve and prepare it for the challenges of the next decade: From big new infrastructure projects to nanotechnology, from overcoming economies of scale to projects of “vertical farming”.

The final report of this first stage of the game was used for the design of our map: The editor in chief of Wired Italia, Riccardo Luna, asked us to visualize the complex net of ideas and assumptions that game’s users produced.

“The goal of the project is to engage a broad public in considering the dilemmas we face in our current, everyday lives and think together about resolutions that go beyond the familiar ways of dealing with problems”

Jane Mc Gonigal, Superstruct game designer

The research for alternative solutions – hence going beyond the more familiar approaches – also requires an alternative visualization.

A map for the future

We began analyzing the keywords provided by IFTF, at the base of which there are 7 key ideas: they are the guiding strategies for the creation of each new “superstructure”, and like satellites they revolve around our future world. They are:

Amplified optimism
Scale extreme
Adaptive emotion
Simulation as game
Evolvability
Collaboration environment
Reverse shortage

Under these, the verbal level, connecting words and concepts that make up the network of superstructures, divided into 5 macrocategories – policy, infrastructure, environment, economy and society- which in turn can operate in three areas:

Networks and individuals
Tools and knowledge
Practices and projects

The map is designed to overlap a semantic level (the network of keywords and groups of ideas) to the allegorical plan of the illustration. Each concept presented in the first level has been reconstructed through an illustration in the second one: the result is a collage drawing influences from the imaginary of the fifties. In this way mapping the future becomes an illustrated game where retro-futuristic imagery references are linked with words and concepts that foresee our future.

From left to right are presented the macro-categories formed by the supersturctures, from the most abstract, like policy and infrastructure, to those which concern more closely in the everyday lives, like economy and society. Amid the environment as a meeting point between abstract and current, with new ideas about global geoengineering and translocalism.

Even for the composition of the collage we want to keep the same sense of reading to level the narration of the world to come: indeed on the left the illustration starts with the abstraction of the map, then move gradually through info-graphics and illustration until reaching collage and photo on the right.

The map, thanks to the layer of allegorical illustrations, not only wants to disseminate the ideas generated during the project ‘Superstruct’ but also provide a starting point, a common imaginary, to start discussion and analysis on the world to come.

In this spirit, the meeting in Rome “A map for the next ten years,” within the cycle of meetings CapitaleDigitale organized by Wired, founding Rome Europe and Telecom Italy, has fully exploited the possibilities of this tool engaging in an interesting discussion on future developments of technology.

Involved in this project:
Creative Direction, Donato Ricci; Concept development, Gaia Scagnetti; Visualizer, Mario Porpora; Artist, Michele Graffieti; Designer, Luca Masud.

Flickr
High res version ‘We will be here’
High res sketch ‘We will be here’

Please view the high resolution map.

You have no idea what a muse is. That’s alright. I won’t hold it against you – unless I really like your work…

Think about the last con you attended – perhaps the giant, flashy clusterfuck that is San Diego Comic Con.  Maybe something smaller like Baycon or Gallifrey One. It doesn’t matter where you went; if you went there in the last few years, you were in the presence of a muse. And if you were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of this exquisite creature, you definitely haven’t forgotten her. Because that’s exactly what a muse is – unforgettable.

What she ISN’T is a groupie. She’s not at the con to fuck a hot dude in leather pants – which is good because they’re rather thin on the ground.  She’s not there because she’s lonely and needs the attention of the rich and famous to feel ok about herself – those girls are busy snorting cocaine in dingy Hollywood bathrooms. She’s not looking for her big break – if she was willing to put up with the trappings of fame she’d already be famous. She is most definitely not queued up waiting to get into the Twilight panel. She’s not that creepy girl trying to get anyone who’s anyone to take a picture with her dirty Pinkachu doll. She’s not squeezed into a Wonder Woman costume that didn’t even fit her ten pounds ago. The muse is sitting at a nearby hotel bar, surrounded by the best and brightest minds in the business, holding court as confidently as the very best of the old world courtesans.

How did she get there? I know you’re tempted to say it’s all because of the artistically displayed décolleté, impossibly tiny waist, and legs that would make Lady Death hang her head in shame. And yes, those are some of her charms. But don’t sell her short, my shallow friends. There’s far more to the art of being a muse than looking like a sex kitten. For one thing, she’s making the head of a film company laugh so hard he’s choking on his over-priced martini. She knows what that editor-in-chief to her right likes in his coffee. The artist to her left is even now figuring out how to sketch her snarky little smirk onto the face of his latest character. And the writer sitting beside her? She’s already read the next three issues of his smash hit – before the publisher has. They’re great, by the way. Especially after he made that one little change she suggested.

The muse is the most passionate woman you’ll ever meet, and she wants to fuck your brain. Some girls like chiseled abs, others get wet for big fat wallets, but the muse lusts after talent. A witty turn of phrase, the right artistic style, a story so raw and urgent that she needs the climax with every inch of her body – these are a few of her favorite things. The greatest compliment you could give her is to let her be your inspiration. If she’s in a good mood, she might even let you think it’s your idea.

She’s Mata Hari. She’s Madame de Pompadour. She is me. She could be you, too. Wouldn’t you like to meet her?

According to a news report, a certain private school in Victoria, BC recently was faced with a unique problem.

A number of year 12 girls were beginning to use lipstick and would put it on in the bathroom. That was fine, but after they put on their lipstick they would press their lips to the mirror leaving dozens of little lip prints. Every night, the maintenance man would remove them and the next day the girls would put them back.

Finally the principal decided that something had to be done. She called all the girls to the bathroom and met them there with the maintenance man. She explained that all these lip prints were causing a major problem for the custodian who had to clean the mirrors every night.

To demonstrate how difficult it had been to clean the mirrors, she asked the maintenance man to show the girls how much effort was required. He took out a long handled squeegee, dipped it in the toilet, and cleaned the mirror with it. Since then, there have been no lip prints on the mirror.

There are teachers, and then there are educators.

Touchez l'instant - Interprète : Grand Corps Malade

On a trempé notre plume dans notre envie de changer de vision
De prendre une route parallèle, comme une furtive évasion
On a trempé notre plume et est-ce vraiment une hérésie
De se dire qu'on assume et qu'on écrit de la poésie
Il existe paraît-il, un instant dans l'écriture
Qui oublie la page blanche et efface les ratures
Un véritable état second, une espèce de transe
Qui apparaît mystérieusement et s'envole en silence
Que l'on rape ou que l'on slame, on recherche ce moment
Il allume une flamme qui nous éclaire brièvement
Cette flamme est la preuve, laisse moi t'en faire une démo
Qu'il est possible de combattre le mal par les mots
C'est tout sauf une légende, on espère juste toucher l'instant
Les quelques secondes du poète qui échappent à l'espace-temps
Les moment rares et irréels que la quiétude inonde
Rouda, n'oublie jamais notre parole du bout du monde
On ressent comme une coupure dans la vie, comme un rêve
On oublie les coups durs de la vie, comme une trêve
C'est un phénomène puissant, je ne te parle pas d'inspiration
Mais d'un souffle plus profond comme une seconde respiration
On voit et on entend l'encre devenir vivante
On goûte et on sent la saveur d'une rime errante
On touche du doigt l'instant qui nous enveloppe de sa puissance
C'est sans cesse la renaissance de l'essence même de nos cinq sens
C'est le moment où on passe de l'autre côté des paysages
On sympathise avec le vent et on tutoie les nuages
Il fait jour en pleine nuit et il fait nuit en plein jour
Profite de cet instant, il ne durera pas toujours
C'est tout sauf une légende, on espère juste toucher l'instant
Les quelques secondes du poète qui échappent à l'espace-temps
Le moment où le voile se lève et la magie s'élance
Là où j'ai croisé Souleymane au bout du sixième silence
Si on a pas atteint le Nirvana, on doit en être au seuil
Pourtant je suis simplement assis là devant ma feuille
Peut-être que cet instant n'existe que dans mon esprit
Et que je suis complètement mythomane lorsque j'écris
Mais laisse moi mon stylo, y'a pas moyen que je m'arrête
J'ai une envie d'écrire comme t'as une envie de cigarette
Et pour m'enlever ce désir je te demanderais de repasser
Car tant que je pourrais écrire je continuerai de penser
Que c'est tout sauf une légende, on espère juste toucher l'instant
Les quelques secondes du poète qui échappent à l'espace-temps
Les moments que l'on redécouvre, que l'on connaît plus ou moins
Tu l'as déjà touché Jacky, j'en suis témoin
On a trempé notre plume dans notre envie de changer de vision
De prendre une route parallèle, comme une furtive évasion
On a trempé notre plume et est-ce vraiment une hérésie
De se dire qu'on assume et qu'on écrit de la poésie.

 

 

 

Last weekend I wrote about how the big social gaming companies are making hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue on Facebook and MySpace through games like Farmville and Mobsters. Major media can’t stop applauding the companies long enough to understand what’s really going on with these games. The real story isn’t the business success of these startups. It’s the completely unethical way that they are going about achieving that success.

In short, these games try to get people to pay cash for in game currency so they can level up faster and have a better overall experience. Which is fine. But for users who won’t pay cash, a wide variety of “offers” are available where they can get in-game currency in exchange for lead gen-type offers. Most of these offers are bad for consumers because it confusingly gets them to pay far more for in-game currency than if they just paid cash (there are notable exceptions, but the scammy stuff tends to crowd out the legitimate offers). And it’s also bad for legitimate advertisers.

The reason why I call this an ecosystem is that it’s a self-reinforcing downward cycle. Users are tricked into these lead gen scams. The games get paid, and they plow that money back into Facebook and MySpace in advertising, getting more users. Who are then monetized via lead gen scams. That money is then plowed back into Facebook and MySpace in advertising to get more users…

Here’s the really insidious part: game developers who monetize the best (and that’s Zynga) make the most money and can spend the most on advertising. Those that won’t touch this stuff (Slide and others) fall further and further behind. Other game developers have to either get in on the monetization or fall behind as well. Companies like Playdom and Playfish seem to be struggling with their conscience and are constantly shifting their policies on lead gen.

The games that scam the most, win.

And some users aren’t dumb, either. For every user who gets tricked into some fake mobile subscription, there’s another who can beat the system. That’s where the legitimate advertisers, like Netflix and Blockbuster, get hit. Users sign up for a free trial with a credit card, get their game currency, then cancel the membership and start over. Netflix has a policy of only paying for a user once. But game developers use a complex set of partner chains to launder these leads and try to get them through for payment. Netflix sees an overall lowering of quality and pays less for leads. Game developers, desperate to monetize, then search for ever more questionable offers to make up the difference. In the end, the decent advertisers are out, and only the worst of the worst remain.

Left alone, the system really will slide into a full blown disaster. The platforms (Facebook and MySpace) are in a position to regulate this, and even have rules prohibiting some scams. But those rules are routinely ignored by developers, and are rarely enforced by Facebook and MySpace.

There can be only one reason Facebook and MySpace turn a blind eye to user protection – they’re getting such a huge cut of revenue back from these developers in advertising. If they turn off the spigot, they hurt themselves.

Zynga may be spending $50 million a year on Facebook advertising alone, fueled partially by lead gen scams. Wonder how Facebook got to profitability way ahead of schedule? It was a surge in this kind of advertising. The money looks clean – it’s from Zynga, Playfish, Playdom and others. But a large portion of it is coming from users who’ve been tricked into one scam or another.

And recent moves by Facebook to shut down application spam only make the problem worse in some way – game developers have to spend more money on advertisers to get users now that the viral channels are shut down. That means the games have to monetize even better. Which means more scams.

It’s time for this to stop. Facebook and MySpace need to create and enforce rules against it so that game developers aren’t tempted to get a competitive edge by scamming users. And if Facebook/MySpace won’t protect users, then the government will have to step in.

There’s an easy way to determine if something is a scam or not. For any particular offer, ask yourself if anyone would buy the product or service if the terms were clearly spelled out for them, and they weren’t being bribed with in-game currency. The answer for many of these is a resounding “no.” A few examples are below.

Examples Of Scams:

A typical scam: users are offered in game currency in exchange for filling out an IQ survey. Four simple questions are asked. The answers are irrelevant. When the user gets to the last question they are told their results will be text messaged to them. They are asked to enter in their mobile phone number, and are texted a pin code to enter on the quiz. Once they’ve done that, they’ve just subscribed to a $9.99/month subscription. Tatto Media is the company at the very end of the line on most mobile scams, and they flow it up through Offerpal, SuperRewards and others to the game developers.

As you can see in the image below, nothing in the offer says that the user will be billed $10/month forever for a useless service.

Another scam: Video Professor. Users are offered in game currency if they sign up to receive a free learning CD from Video Professor. The user is told they pay nothing except a $10 shipping charge. But the fine print, on a different page from checkout, tells them they are really getting a whole set of CDs and will be billed $189.95 unless they return them. Most users never return them because they don’t know about the extra charge. Woot. Again, sites like Offerpal and SuperRewards flow these offers through to game developers. See here for more on the Video Professor scam.

Of course, there’s no mention of any of these payments in the offer itself:

An Industry In Denial

Yesterday I attended the Virtual Goods Summit in San Francisco. In the Q&A session of one panel I asked Offerpal CEO Anu Shukla to explain the ethics of her business, and outlined my ecosystem of hell argument above. Shukla went on a tirade, calling my points “shit, doubleshit, and bullshit” (yes, really), but never really addressed the points. A video of the exchange is below, care of Alexa Lee.

Offerpal now has a blog post up on the exchange, but they still don’t address the issues. They offer misdirection, denials and a shield of rules that are never actually enforced.

Sadly, most of the audience of game developers was on Offerpal’s side. Many of these developers see quick dollars with lead gen scams and they don’t really care about how users are affected.

In one session earlier in the day, IGG Cofounder Kevin Xu recommended that game developers “get users in the door to play free, then monetize the hell out of them once they’re hooked.” Sadly, it’s simply human nature to push the rules until they break. It’s time for Facebook and MySpace to protect their users from this stuff and make sure it stops.

p.s. – An interesting development. Offerpal defended their mobile survey scams on stage and in the blog post referenced above, saying there was no scam involved. But today those offers have quietly been pulled down from all the games I’ve checked. If there’s no scam, why remove them? At least some good is coming from my ongoing rants.

Update: Two Companies That Said No To Social Media Scams

Update 2: How To Spam Facebook Like A Pro: An Insider’s Confession

Update 3: Scamville: Zynga Says 1/3 Of Revenue Comes From Lead Gen And Other Offers

Update 4: Zynga Takes Steps To Remove Scams From Games

Update 5: RockYou Joins The No Scams Parade. But What’s Facebook Up To?

Update 6: MySpace Says Zero Tolerance For App Scams, Changes Terms Of Use

Update 7: Tragedy Of The Social Gaming Commons: A Blueprint For Change

Update 8: Offerpal Tries Out A New CEO. Shukla, Queen Of Scams, Is Out.

Update 9: Facebook To Increase Enforcement Of Anti-Scam Rule

Update 10: ScamVille: New Offerpal CEO Admits Mistakes, Makes Bold Promises

Update 11: Zynga CEO Mark Pincus: “I Did Every Horrible Thing In The Book Just To Get Revenues”

Update 12: Time Magazine: Are You Getting Scammed by Facebook Games?

Social Networking 3.0

By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on November 6, 2009

The information and cultural transformation spawned by social networking may soon upgrade to a new level of sophistication.

According to authorities, new technology will allow automatic uploads of status updates and a variety of social and geographic information.

European researchers are working to merge information pulled by ambient intelligence systems that use sensors and smart objects to create awareness of users’ whereabouts and activities to networking and messaging platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter.

Combined, the two technologies promise to provide an omnipresent or pervasive awareness, that is, an encompassing way to stay in touch with friends and relatives.

“The theory we developed as the basis for our work is that social connections between people are enhanced by both the number and the quality of the interactions between them. Pervasive awareness systems can support and improve this social communication,” says Achilles Kameas, a senior researcher at the Research Academic Computer Technology Institute (raCTI) of Patras, Greece.

Kameas coordinated the EU-funded ASTRA project, which brought together researchers from multiple disciplines, including psychology, interaction design, knowledge engineering and computer science, to take social networking to the next level.

In touch with friends and family, automatically?
Users of a social networking platform based on the ASTRA approach, for example, would rarely have to post status updates manually to let their family know what they are doing or where they are.

Surrounded by smart objects and sensors in their home or office, the system continually updates their status information, automatically telling friends that they are unavailable to receive a phone call while they are busy cooking or that they do not want to be disturbed during a business meeting.

“Not only is this information generated automatically, depending on the criteria set by each user, but it does not have to be displayed on a computer screen or in any other distracting way,” Kameas explains.

“In a smart home or office environment the system could let users know if someone is available for a phone call or not simply by changing the color of the frame of a photo of them.”

The researchers developed their approach based on the so-called focus-nimbus model to determine what information is shared and what is received by different people in a social network. In this context, a person’s nimbus consists of the type, amount and detail of information they want to share with others, while their focus contains the type and amount of information they choose to receive from others, including their reaction to the person’s nimbus.

The ASTRA software architecture allows both criteria to be defined through a rule-based system that governs what information is shared, in what way and with whom. A husband and wife, for example, may each want to know when the other gets home, but a mother may only want to be informed when her daughter returns, not the reverse.

User-defined applications
Different applications, defined by each user or community of users, allow for a wide variety of scenarios, from simple event alerts, to supporting more complex, community-wide situations.

According to Kameas, creating such apps is a relatively straightforward process, particularly for tech-savvy young people who are accustomed to modifying and adding features to their MySpace or Facebook pages. However, the researchers are currently working on a new interface to make the process even easier.

Consumer electronics manufacturer Phillips and mobile operator Telenor have conducted trials of the ASTRA technology, with Phillips testing it in its prototype HomeLab smart home.

The response of test users, Kameas says, has been generally positive, although many have raised concerns about privacy and security issues. In that regard, the ASTRA coordinator notes that the system is similar to Facebook and other online services in that users can choose how much information they share and with whom.

“It’s like a window. You can leave it wide open, pull the curtain, or close the blinds. Then, what you choose to put on display in the window, be it content or an activity, can be seen by others,” Kameas notes.

To meet user concerns, the researchers are planning to launch a followup initiative for adaptive pervasive awareness systems based on the notion of a trustworthy personal “bubble” that ensures privacy. At the same time, they are developing ASTRA-based applications for existing social networking platforms.

ASTRA received funding from the FET-Open activities of the EU’s Sixth Framework Programme for research.

Source: Research Academic Computer Technology Institute

It's not the freak occurrence it might seem, Twitter's co-founder submitting to psychoanalysis before a New York crowd. No, this sort of Jungian free-associating is what microblogging was expressly designed to do.

Shown a picture from psychologist Carl Jung's newly unsealed "Red Book," Twitter chairman Jack Dorsey said, according to the Wall Street Journal, that it "made him think of a map. He talked about his childhood fascination with maps, which eventually spurred him to learn about computer programming so that he could create maps on a computer. He later created a company that dispatched taxis and couriers via the Web." (More in the an excerpt from a WSJ video, above, or full video, below.)

An observer, though, might have thought not of maps but of Twitter. Co-founder Biz Stone has repeatedly said the service's text limits give it "low cognitive load" that "lowers the barrier, and it gets people communicating." Sounds a lot like free association, or the free form journal-ing Jung did in his Red Book. Is Twitter a way to tap the collective unconscious and thus unify humanity? Perhaps.

But the results of micoblogging could be more nefarious. Jung warned that his Red Book scribblings contained an ingredient of insanity:

"The reason... [this] looks very much like a psychosis is that the patient is integrating the same fantasy-material to which the insane person has fallen victim because he cannot integrate it but is swallowed up by it."

Perhaps that's a new slogan for Twitter: It's all good fun until you get "swallowed up by it" and turn psychotic from huffing your own fumes.

Send an email to Ryan Tate, the author of this post, at ryan@gawker.com.