Anonymous Sharing Project Cements USB Drives Into Random New York City Walls(socialtimes.com)
socialtimes.com
Anonymous Sharing Project Cements USB Drives Into Random New York City Walls
http://www.socialtimes.com/2010/11/dead-drops/
3 comments
Some previous discussion here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1851088
oops, sorry ...
This seems like a good way to spread some viruses around via usb autoplay.
Seriously, I can't see this becoming a huge hit, if you need to walk to a physical location to get a file (what if someone has already deleted it, or there's a queue?), to say nothing of the difficulty of holding a laptop steady at chest level while connected to a usb drive embedded in a wall.
Is there more to this than a half baked idea at taking a virtual process (file sharing) and taking it into the real world? Is it more convenient? What value does having an anonymous drop spot have that bittorrent, or megaupload does not?
Seriously, I can't see this becoming a huge hit, if you need to walk to a physical location to get a file (what if someone has already deleted it, or there's a queue?), to say nothing of the difficulty of holding a laptop steady at chest level while connected to a usb drive embedded in a wall.
Is there more to this than a half baked idea at taking a virtual process (file sharing) and taking it into the real world? Is it more convenient? What value does having an anonymous drop spot have that bittorrent, or megaupload does not?
The aim is not practicality. It seems to me that the artist's hope is that this will function as a way of connecting people in a specific geographic region. Unlike bittorrent, there's a nontrivial chance that you could run into/meet up with someone whose files you found on these dead drops. The anonymity, combined with the fact that there's going to be at most a couple thousand people using any one dead drop, makes it less intimidating to share things like music, writing, or visual art. To top it off, there's a pretty good chance that it'll be seen by a couple hundred people with more patience and vested interest than the average internet reader.
lack of ownership. No one owns the data, no one can claim responsibility, and the only people that can effectively remove the vandalism is the property owner, and that's only if they know it exists. How often do you scrub your property for hidden drop points?
For me this story has all the ingredients for a great 'mainstream news' piece without having any real viability as an actual thing anyone would use.
It's a cute idea, but it's success/interest is a media concoction and nothing more.
It's a cute idea, but it's success/interest is a media concoction and nothing more.