The city is here for you to use (and you're invited)

March 27, 2007 11:02 AM

Not rilly a meetup proper, but I definitely wanted to invite my MeFi bredren an' sistern to a talk I'm giving in NYC on April 9th. Details inside.
posted by adamgreenfield to MetaFilter Gatherings at 11:02 AM (37 comments total)

The talk is called "The City Is Here For You to Use," and it's about the influence of ubiquitous and ambient informatics on the form and experience of the city.

It'll be held at the Great Hall of the Cooper Union at 6.30 pm on April 9th, which is at 7 East 7th Street. (Courtesy of the unstoppable Mike Essl, here are the obverse and reverse of the poster he designed for the talk, in glorious PDF. More details of the talk can be found therein, for those interested.)

Please do come. It'd be great to see some friendly faces, and there will assuredly be beering afterward.
posted by adamgreenfield at 11:05 AM on March 27, 2007

I'm intrigued, so I googled "Ambient Informatics".
But I didn't get a true sense of what your focus is.
Could you tell this blockhead what you'll be discussing, in a general sense?
posted by Dizzy at 11:13 AM on March 27, 2007

Or I could just read the damned PDF.
I hope I can juggle some stuff around and make it.
posted by Dizzy at 11:25 AM on March 27, 2007

The word from the miss lynnster thread a few weeks ago about whether posting your personal events/performances to MeTa was ok was that the ok/not ok line was pretty fuzzy, and that the miss lynnster event was barely on the ok side, because there were some MeFites who had helped her and encouraged her and she really wanted them to come or something. Right? This one is on the "not ok" side by my lights. Flagged.
posted by Kwine at 12:56 PM on March 27, 2007

Sure, why not. Fun!
posted by hermitosis at 12:57 PM on March 27, 2007

Sorry, it's actually a Dave Faris MeTa about a miss lynnster thread: Here.
posted by Kwine at 1:05 PM on March 27, 2007

On the OK side by my lights. Flagged as fantastic comment/post even though it really isn't, just to keep things Fair and Balanced.
posted by y2karl at 1:10 PM on March 27, 2007

Speaking as one who is way too far away to attend, I think it is fine for Mefites to invite other Mefites to things.

Metafilter: We Are Family!
(and sometimes we fight like it too.)
posted by konolia at 1:24 PM on March 27, 2007

I'm such a freaking troublemaker. Damn!
posted by miss lynnster at 1:24 PM on March 27, 2007

I wish there was a flag for "I Don't Understand Why This Person Felt The Need to Tell Us They Were Flagging This".

Sounds very cool, adamgreenfield. Not sure if I can make it that early on a Monday, but I will see what I can do.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 1:25 PM on March 27, 2007 [1 favorite]

Not rilly a meetup proper

Yeah. Not.
posted by Dave Faris at 1:46 PM on March 27, 2007

it's about the influence of ubiquitous and ambient informatics on the form and experience of the city.

*doubles over in helpless laughter*
posted by quonsar at 2:26 PM on March 27, 2007 [1 favorite]

I think it is fine for Mefites to invite other Mefites to things.

Well, duh. That's the very purpose of metatalk. Evite.
posted by justgary at 2:31 PM on March 27, 2007

I would hate to see every mefite with a theater/music group post to mefi this way (projects works so much better for it) so I'll close this so people that want to go can still get the reminder and we can head off the does-NYC-suck-or-not stuff. ~ mathowie

The thread was indeed closed.
posted by SeizeTheDay at 2:59 PM on March 27, 2007

Oh, for those who do not care for pdfs, the website has the same info: http://lubalincenter.cooper.edu/

On a separate issue. If I were to say, want to invite people to meet me at NYC at a dance performance choreographed by a friend, would that go in projects, even though it is really my friend's thing?
posted by Karmakaze at 3:26 PM on March 27, 2007

I suppose keeping it to yourself isn't an option, is it?
posted by Dave Faris at 3:30 PM on March 27, 2007

Not if I wanted to specifically invite this group of people to the talk, Dave, and to the drinks afterward. Right?

I mean, I suppose I could have written a script to scrape userpages for email addresses and cross-referenced those against lat and long...but I thought it would be a little friendlier to, y'know, ask you to come.

Hope to see you there.
posted by adamgreenfield at 3:35 PM on March 27, 2007

I suppose keeping it to yourself isn't an option, is it?

Delicious irony!

I might try to come since I never get out enough, but unfortunately TPS is right that it's sort of early for a Monday. Still!
posted by cyrusdogstar at 4:14 PM on March 27, 2007

Dang.
Any MeFite who can prove he or she is part of the hive using the password " MattH" or "JessA"--- I will buy them a really big beer and I don't care who knows it.
adamg deserves it.
posted by Dizzy at 5:06 PM on March 27, 2007

I suppose keeping it to yourself isn't an option, is it?

In my case, it's an option. It's not as though I never go places that I think other MeFites might enjoy. I just don't feel popular enough to demand the attention.

It was a theoretical question, mostly. By and large if I arrange an expedition, I post the logistics on my livejournal, on the assumption that's a more targeted audience.
posted by Karmakaze at 5:18 PM on March 27, 2007

One of these days someone's going to post an attention-whoring pseudo-meetup thread and, using scarabic's "dispose of the body" instructions, cull several unsuspecting Mefites from the herd - and get away with it.

I'm not saying adamgreenfield is that someone, but he seems kind of shifty to me, y'know?
posted by mr_crash_davis at 5:49 PM on March 27, 2007

You're everywhere I want to be.
posted by ND¢ at 5:57 PM on March 27, 2007

I've got these really fluffy cookies.
In my basement.
No need to tell yer mama.
'Cause they're really fluffy. Cookies.
posted by Dizzy at 6:10 PM on March 27, 2007

Delicious irony!

Poisoned sarcasm!

As punishment for this thread, I think adamgreenfield should be grounded and should have to stay home from his presentation in his room. Without dinner.
posted by carsonb at 6:16 PM on March 27, 2007

Also, the practical solution to this MetaTalk self-meetup conundrum lies in the fact that I am a very poor favorite whore, but a favorite whore nonetheless. I can do short and sweet, superfluous links, meaty, interesting, and well-timed—not to mention alliteration and a cheerily conversational tone. Also accepting prepared scripts, though you must be open to necessary editing. Email in profile. Kidding.
posted by carsonb at 6:25 PM on March 27, 2007

Wow, he's selling a book?
posted by SeizeTheDay at 6:26 PM on March 27, 2007

If the mods don't mind letting people post self-promotional things disguised as meetups, well really, who are we to argue?

Why not take the opportunity to post a link to your paypal page, adam?
posted by Dave Faris at 7:25 PM on March 27, 2007

Not if I wanted to specifically invite this group of people to the talk, Dave,

This would be a lot more convincing if your seminar wasn't also plastered on the front page of boingboing. You gonna invite those specific people for drinks, too?

Next time, buy a text ad.
posted by Dave Faris at 7:43 PM on March 27, 2007

adam, will any copies of your book be for sale at the "meetup"?
posted by Kwine at 7:48 PM on March 27, 2007

...but I thought it would be a little friendlier to, y'know, ask you to come.

And what makes you think this "friendliness" is something we encourage around here, adam?

I gotta say, though, it's ultimately probably not a good idea to make these kinds of posts to MeTaTalk. Cause if everyone starts doing it...

But hey, all y'all come to my next gig in Tokyo, OK? Drinks afterward?
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:50 PM on March 27, 2007

It's ok. He's going to do research for his next book about a serial killer who stalks community weblogs.

It puts the comment in the text box and it posts it on the MetaTalk....

Dave Faris is Dhoylent Green

posted by y2karl at 8:54 PM on March 27, 2007

Any chance of this going up on YouTube for the non-NYC residents among us? I'm interested in the talk but I'm rather far away.
posted by saraswati at 9:16 PM on March 27, 2007

You gonna invite those specific people for drinks, too?

Jesus, Dave, why don't you go back and read mathowie's last comment in the thread you started two weeks ago about this:

I think the takeaway is we need to think about it a bit more and come up with a solution that strikes some happy middle ground between not being in everyone's face and not being a subsite no one visits, and the stuff on it has to be somewhere in the middle between super huge offline project announcement and thousands of teeny little microevent announcements.

I'm sure we'll come up with something but it'll probably take a few more months of thinking about it.

[closed because we don't need another nasty thread attacking people's motivations for promotion, and I think this has been as productive as it can be.]

Is there a reason you're showing up in this as-yet-unclosed thread to *once again* attack a member's motivations for promotion? Or is it just fun for you to poke while the moderators are busy doing other things before getting to your pet peeve? Matt said he's gonna work on it after a few more months of thinking about the problem. Quit acting like a jerk in the meantime.
posted by mediareport at 9:43 PM on March 27, 2007

I feel kind of sad and sorry that I have to make this explicit, but:

- I'm not selling a book. As far as I know, my book will not be available for sale at this event.
- As the bb link indicates, I would have other channels available to me if all I was interested in was "self-promotion."
- I've enjoyed spending time and sharing drinks with quite a few of the NYC MeFi regulars before. I was merely hoping to have the pleasure of (some of) your company.

I won't make the same mistake next time. I did think about posting this to Projects, but that felt silly - this isn't a project, it's an opportunity to get together. I apologize if any feathers were ruffled.
posted by adamgreenfield at 9:57 PM on March 27, 2007

I have ambient informatics in my pants and they're doing a great job.

Well, it's refreshing that it's not a fish.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:37 AM on March 28, 2007

I think the topic is still a "grey" area. Not sure that attacks on his motivations are warranted. Anyway, I might be able to stop by. I'd be the one lurking in the back.
posted by yeti at 11:35 AM on March 28, 2007

Given that adamgreenfield had other outlets for promotion, he doesn't have any immediate profit to make from this (unlike websites with click-through ads, say, or a book) -- I think it's fine.

Sounds intriguing -- very media-arty, if I may say. I do wish that these events were more prevalent in NYC. I'll probably stop by...
posted by suedehead at 3:47 PM on March 28, 2007