

GoCrossCampus - jakewolf
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/21/technology/21ivygame.html?ex=1363752000&en=9099cccee96172b0&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all

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Prrometheus
This relates to a recent idea I had - "true social software" or perhaps
"locally social software".

Many people comment on the irony of how the modern world makes people feel
isolated despite giving them more means of communication than ever before. For
example, I don't know anyone that lives in my neighborhood, and I think this
is common. Social software doesn't help with this, typing "A/S/L" into an AOL
chat room doesn't really enhance my social life, neither does posting a pic on
Myspace.

Now think of the appeal of geographically local communication tools. For
example, maybe a chat room would be localized so as to only cover a local
coffee shop. People in the chat room could leave away messages about what
they're reading, and others would comment on it. After a good IM conversation,
people might walk a few feet and have a conversation in real life. I might
meet someone everytime I go to the coffee shop, whereas now I might meet a new
person every few months. "True social" software facilitates socialization in
meat space and helps to break down the social barriers that prevent us from
knowing our neighbors.

Another example, I would like to have a bulletin board that only covered the
community where I live. Then I could post messages about the barbecues we have
and I would finally be able to meet people that live around me.

Craigslist is "true social", and so are dating sites today. I would like to
see the genre expanded.

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wumi
how does this compare to Kirkland North?

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pg
This is the ConnectU of Kirkand North. Except apparently they know someone at
the Times.

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jakewolf
How about a few emails from us to Brad Stone about Kirkland? Here's his page
with a link to email him directly.
[http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s...](http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/brad_stone/index.html?inline=nyt-
per)

~~~
pg
Good idea. I just did. The NYT has been completely pwned in this case.

Either Stone didn't ask whether there was anyone else doing this (unlike a NYT
reporter) or the GCC founders lied to him, because they certainly know about
Kirkland North. After all, KN's founders include the original author of the
game at Yale.

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jakewolf
I did too. Stupid autoreply, "Thank you for writing to us. Your message has
been received and will be forwarded to the reporter you contacted. Please note
that messages are delivered once per day, at 8 a.m. (EST). Because of the high
volume of responses we get from readers, not all communications can be
responded to personally. But be assured that we want to hear your thoughts.
(Please do not reply to this e-mail as this address is not monitored for
incoming messages.)"

So much for getting leads to reporters easily in a timely manner.

~~~
bootload
_"... I did too. Stupid autoreply, "Thank you for writing to us. Your message
has been received and will be forwarded to the reporter you contacted. ..."_

Wait for the reply. The NYT is pretty good in this respect. I've managed to
nail them down to admit an advert for google jobs was dressed up as an article
~ <http://flickr.com/photos/bootload/1685662827/> from this hackernews article
~ <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=70827>

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jimbokun
Good summary of politics on the Internets:

"Could such a game augur the outcome of the next presidential election?
Probably not. The armies of John McCain and Barack Obama have already been
routed, and Hillary Clinton’s forces are trapped in New England.

Jockeying for control of the rest of the country are the armies of
Representative Ron Paul of Texas and the comedian Stephen Colbert."

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LogicHoleFlaw
Oh, this is very clever. I've been an officer in a club that runs online (and
offline!) games such as Werewolf, Diplomacy, and Assassin. The appeal of many
of our games tends to be restricted to people who, well, take their game-
playing seriously. These new games seem to have broken out into the greater
population and that really opens up new possibilities.

One aspect I love of online games is that they eliminate many of the social
barriers of age, profession, race, and financial status. If a game like this
can bring together a local community across those boundaries I think the
entire society will be enriched.

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aston
This game is currently in full effect at MIT. I really assumed no one would
have time to play it, what with all the psets, but no. Lots of people are
into, and they're even trying to pull alums (read: me) in.

Not sure how big a deal this sort of thing will be, but it's certainly taking
off.

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joshwa
c.f. ze frank's twitter color war 2008:

<http://tailrank.com/5494270/colorwar-2008>

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ajkirwin
There are a lot of social games like these being played in colleges. It's nice
to see them being talked about!

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jakewolf
All we need now are some games for the working stiffs. Anyone know of
something out there?

~~~
edw519
You're on it now.

