The future is now

A bit of cross-pollination from my other blog. The concept of fully geographic and temporal tagging of photos is something that fascinates me, especially when combined with total online storage of your photos securely as private or public. Just think of being able to do a search of all photos taken around the Empire State observation deck at a certain time and creating a 3D animation of them.

social photo justice

Some posts over the last few days from people who used their camera phones to catch flashers on the New York subway - two women used their photo phones to catch an old school trenchcoat flasher post act and a scarily 'normal looking' guy mid act [NSFW]. Ug.

The act of catching and 'revealing' the revealers is potentially very powerful in reclaiming social spaces, especially in such dis-jointed societies as New York. Reading through the posts, especially on the flickr image, gives a great overview on the different aspects of this type of action. Is it a positive thing? Will it lead to this guy being caught? Or will it lead to this guy being attacked by roaming mobs before it's ascertained that he has a mental condition and needs help rather than a beating? Either way it enabled these two woman to regain their own sense of personal power after someone had impinged on their space.

On this subject - check out the 'Participatory Panoptican' talk given by Jamais Cascio.