Fun Friday - Street Art

I love street art. Can't get enough. Not the lame ass name tag that deface property. I am talking real art. I don't care if it is on public or private property. Trust me. The art almost always improves the wall it is on.

We all know about Banksy and Shepard Fairey. But there is so much more. So here is some great places for you to explore and see what great art is out there. Just remember to keep your eyes out and pay attention when you are outside during your commute or shopping.

Venice Graffiti Walls

Kind of sucks that these are now regulated by the town. Used to be anyone over 16 with a can of spray paint could paint here. I would ride my bike down to see the new work all the time. My ex-neighbor and friend from Redondo Beach TikiJayOne was very prolific in West LA. He had me help him do the whole set of walls one night something he felt was never done before.

You know for a fact that white is the most AWESOME white ever painted. Well of course it was me! I remember getting half way across covering the previous art and my friend said 'Slow down. Just in case some of that art was done by gangsters'. I assumed because it's one thing to paint something new, and another to look like a do gooder cleaning the place up at 2am!

In NY my friend @ElCelso - LINK has a loose group of great artists that were known as the Electric Love Crew, kind of a street art collective. Here is a great repository of photos or you:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/elc/

Celso does incredible Nudes!

His studio is in a building visible from the West Side Highway. They used to have this amazing amount of art outside for all to see until the owners decided to paint a lame ass jungle scene.

Before:

After: LAME!

Some of Celso's friends do incredible work, check the web for Abe Lincoln Jr - LINK, Choice Royce, Plasma Slug, Dark Cloud, Keely, GoreB, DirtyBoards, or follow people like @cmonstah (Celso's lovely wife) - LINK or Luna Park  - LINK

Another great source for NYC Street Art is http://www.brooklynstreetart.com/theblog/ and you can also follow them on the Twitter @BKStreetArt

Lastly this is a site based in Moscow. It is in Russian but the Art Speaks for itself: http://vivacity.ru/ and they are also on the Twitter: @vivacity_ru

Some really incredible movies are available on Netflix as well. I highly recommend:

Exit Through the Gift Shop - A Banksy Film

Bomb It - A Film by John Reiss - he goes around the world incredible stuff

Beautiful Losers - by Aaron Rose - which has a lot of street art history

I love going on walking tours of street art, especially in NYC's Lower East Side and Williamsburg. But it can be found everywhere.Some from my travels:

SoHo

Manhattan

Woodside, Queens

Woodside, Queens

Williamsburg, Brooklyn (Celso v GoreB)

Williamsburg, Brooklyn

94.8% of the Earth is not using Social Media...ERR...Communications Technology Today

I blogged last October about the fact Social Media has nothing media about it. It is all Communications Technology Platforms. All of it. LINK  The misnomer drives me crazy. So many really smart people naming something wrong. It is one of many communication tools.

Recently there has been lots of the 'Social Media' talking idiots trying to force what is happening in Egypt as proof of revolution via the one small segment of human communication they happen to profit from or be employed because. Two lively discussions trying to have a reality view point are going on at Gini Dietrich's SpinSucks LINK and Shonali Burke's WaxingUnlyrical LINK

Most of our communication...MOST...not some....MOST...like 98% occurs outside of Social Communications Technology Platforms! 

I don't care how big Facebook is. For every 2 Log Ins only one piece of content is posted. 250-300mil people log into Facebook and spend 38 minutes each posting a total of 125-150mil pieces of content. Think of that. How much content do you see, read, and hear every day. Do you know how little Facebook represents. Not much.

Twitter has 200 million accounts. But only 110mil tweets per day. Which means about 30 million people world wide are using the service. Or 110mil who send one tweet? Which I guess means they spend their time reading the feed or log off never to be seen again that day? We know that is not true. My studies have shown I get about 4 Tweets in my feed for every account I follow. 

So basically most people on Earth are not using Social Communications Technology today. Want to know how many?

94.8% of everyone on earth is not using Social Communication Technology today!  

That is being generous. I am assuming 350mil people use some form of Social Communication Technology! So Egypt? The discussions on their demographics is well documented on the two blogposts above and the many comments there.

But people are Talking in Person, Talking on the Phone, Emailing, SMS Texting (183 SMS texts are sent for every Facebook update!), Webcam/IPhoneCam, using Instant Messenger/Skype, Hamm/CB Radio. That is just two way! Add TV, Radio, Internet, Movie etc consumption as passive receiving. That is the overwhelming volume of communication happening in this world. Especially in a country where half the population makes only $2 per day!

So seriously, for someone who uses Social Communications Technology every day more than most users, it makes up maybe 2% of my total communication use and consumption. So the volume of Social Communication Technology as part of the worlds Communication Volume is what? 2% of 5% or 0.01%? MAYBE? 0.001%? Maybe?

Where I see Social Communications Technology having a HUGE impact, is as a threat to traditional news sources for fast moving stories. It has enabled the story of Egypt to reach outside of Egypt very fast and challenged news and journalism outlets for readership!

Here is a nice Time story about a Tweeter outside of Egypt helping get the story out. LINK And of course the few people like @SandMonkey who is there and sharing with the world. Or this nice video via Angela Natividad's Live and Uncensored LINK . But Social Communication Technology is not the communication driver in Egypt for the protests.The story is not finished yet. But my guess is Malcom Gladwell is still right.

UPDATE: Feb 4th: LINK Sandmonkey has been beaten and arrested (or so it seems) I can not type my thoughts here but lets say simply I hope Mubarak is hanged.

Google's Brillant Chrome Do Not Track Feature

There was an article in Media Post and Marketing Voxx recently about Google incorporating Do Not Track features into their Chrome Browser. 

LINK

LINK

Overwhelmingly people reject behavioral targeting. If you have not read this study from the Social Science Research Network you should.

LINK

The results of this study should make anyone who runs a digital ad network that does behavioral tracking across websites to crap their drawers.

But Google isn't doing this because they care about what people think. This is a completely strategic bottom line move. It is completely brilliant!

1] How does Google make most of their money? 

Paid Search! If Ads were to show up anticipating what I want it would reduce my need to Google for information!

2] What other revenue source is big for Google?

 

The Google Ad Network! If Brands and Agencies could more accurately target consumers using Tracking Software, this reduces the number of Ads they have to place!

3] What is the biggest threat to Google's Ad Network and Paid Search? 

FireFox which allows blocking of all Ads including Google's Paid Search! 

There are 1 million downloads of Ad Blocker Plus per week from Mozilla! That technically enables 52million computers per year to deny Google revenue for Google Search or Ad Placements. What if a FireFox user decided to choose Chrome just so they are not tracked? They just converted 1 person and opened their computer to their main source of revenue and another big driver!

BRILLIANT!