Subject:  Viridian Note 00019: Viridian Domains of 
Interest

Key concepts:  Viridian categories, Viridian internal 
politics, automoderating groupware, anarchy, symbols, 
Burning Man, Los Alamos National Laboratory Urban Security 
Project, disaster response, art projects

Attention Conservation Notice:  Mark Beam, who was the 
host for the first Viridian speech at the Yerba Buena 
Center for the Arts in San Francisco, is getting a few 
various matters off his chest here.  Some knowledge of the 
San Francisco art scene might aid reader comprehension.

From infinite@beaming.com^*  (Mark Beam) 

Links:
http:www.burningman.com
http://geont1.langov/urbansecurity.htm
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/story/16077.html
http://www.beaming.com

Entries in the "Big Mike" Viridian Design Contest:
http://www.pinknoiz.com/graphics/bigmike.gif
http://www.spaceways.de/BigMike/Mike.html
http://weber.u.washington.edu/~r1ddl3r/bigmike.html
http://powerbase-alpha.com/bigmike
http://rampages.onramp.net/~jzero/
http://www.well.com/conf/mirrorshades
http://www.57thstreet.com/viridian/
http://www.ioc.net/~bini/bigmike.htm

Mark Beam writes:
((and bruces comments in triple parentheses))):

    As the proud host for the formal physical launch of 
the Viridian Movement and the eloquent proclamation 
documented in Note 00001, I offer these first 
observations.

    Viridian postings should be categorized for future 
reference.   Viridians with certain disciplinary expertise 
should gather items of wisdom within a particular domain.  
A disciple of economics, of energy, of networks, a 
minister of propaganda, etc., could supplement the ideas 
arising from the list by adding a more comprehensive 
approach.. Here design becomes crucial, political and 
dangerous.

(((Absolutely, brother.)))  

     Key junctures that link Viridians together could grow 
future self-organizing limbs.  To do so without some form 
of human delegation may be possible, but would seem to 
require initial filtering, sophisticated object oriented 
databases and search engines.

(((Even more absolutely!  Bring on the all-wise 
automoderating robot!  While you're at it, let's run it 
for public office.)))

      Disciples or ministers, recorders etc. would not 
entitled  to any political capital within the movement, 
other than true Viridian currency == Viridian reputation 
capital.  This top down approach would be balanced by 
having Viridians assigning emphasis/aesthetic guidance in 
the particular areas both in the formation of categories 
and in discovery by example (bottom-up).

(((It sounds so plausible, poetic, and  beautiful, doesn't 
it?  <sob>)))

     Regarding visually effective design principles 
criticized in Note 00005, I am reminded of Larry Harvey's 
two basic principles of spontaneous human organizationm 
established over years of experiments in the Nevada
desert.  1) Distribute people randomly, and they will 
spontaneously generate some order, first by forming 
circles...not squares or triangles... but circles around a 
point of interest.  2) Points of interest (attention) are 
created by a) Movement of axis in space- i.e. hold 
something up high, (a mobile?), or b) Movement of space 
around axis- (i.e. a mobile?).

     What Viridian icon do we hold up high or put in 
motion?

    (((How about Larry Harvey himself?  But wait a minute 
== I've actually met this "self-organizing anarchist" 
Larry Harvey, and as the Pope-Emperor of the Burning Man 
festival, Larry works harder at organization than anybody 
I've ever met.)))

     What does it mean to hold something up high, or to 
put something in motion in Viridian terms?   What does 
this mean in other less networked, but high CO2 emitting 
countries?  Our visual icon should have global appeal.

      Existing infrastructure to leverage:  The Los Alamos 
National Laboratory has created the Urban Security 
Project, using centralized computer systems to help cities 
respond to earthquakes, chemical or biological attacks, 
and other unforeseen disasters. 

(((Now you're talking!  We need to rent one of those Urban 
Security babies and put it in charge of the mailing 
list.)))

     The researchers are currently looking at what happens 
in these emergency situations to transportation, energy 
distribution, weather, infrastructure, water distribution, 
ecosystems, economy, geology and demographics.

(((See, it's got the problem all broken-down into 
convenient Viridian categories already!)))

      The program is designed to help cities anticipate 
problems in their emergency response systems and make 
changes to improve their overall readiness.

(((Security systems like this are of intense Viridian 
interest.  What are "cities," if not the people in the 
cities?  Systems of this sort should be promulgated 
worldwide and made publicly available as a matter of 
course.  Every environmental hazard in one's own 
environment should be made visible to you at the click of 
a web button.  Not only that, but you should be allowed an 
honest and immediate look at how they handle these 
problems in *other* cities.)))

     Finally, this reminds me of a concept for an art 
project I've developed.  It consists of a Dow Jones-style 
tickertape machine, which scrolls genuine corporate 
symbols, followed by a different sort of symbolic 
tally...for instance,. down three trees (symbol for 
certain quantity of dead trees), up two solar powers (sun 
symbol). This scheme symbolizes the true economic measure 
of "growth" in terms of environmental destruction.  
Perhaps this could be Viridianized to reflect CO2 
emissions/remissions.

Mark Beam (infinite@beaming.com^*)
"Where a society is defined by its boundaries, a culture 
is defined by its horizon == a phenomenon of vision."  J. 
CARSE