Photo Project

[adam berk]

(moving from doc to discussion - forgive me, some of the formatting
did not survive the transition:)

And cameras for all
-or-
Public Cameras

***update 7/6/11***

From the get together...

Do we have boxes? no, not yet. The boxes themselves are easy to get,
the technology to open them with an app is the tricky part, but this
is something that is a vital part of the sharing infrastructure in
general (more on that later). The boxes, and even the boxes as “art”
are secondary... we have the cameras, the eyi.fi cards, the
destination website, etc. All we really need for the first pilot
program is someone in some park to “support it” by referencing it
somewhere or, better yet, displaying the photos in real time, in the
park itself or online. As for distribution, I can hand the cameras out
myself if I needed to, until the boxes were ready:)

Could this turn into a for profit undertaking? For the sake of brevity
and transparency, the answer is yes. I won’t get in to the relative
merits of profit (here at least) but I will say that while we could
have the same sort of program as SoBi, but for cameras instead of
bikes, neigh*borrow would NOT be the exclusive benefactor. I propose
that anyone who makes any material contribution to the project up
until X date, would share exactly evenly in the venture. Open to other
suggestions on structure.

Why? some of this answer is repeated below - public cameras, IMO is a
fantastic showcase of both the benefits of access vs ownership and the
organizations pushing the access economy.
the general infrastructure and design of things is shifting from hard
to share to easy to share, I’ve spoken about reactionaries who will
push to the left (“impossible to share”) let’s build something all the
way to the right... (impossible NOT to share - cant charge the camera
or remove the images until its back in it’s public dock)
dont have to pack or travel with a camera but can use one when i need
it
can use a REALLY awesome one for a little while (if i have a history
of respecting the access economy) rather than using a MEDIOCRE one ALL
THE TIME
cool social experiment to see how people respect the items
cool art project- the access to the cameras and the photos people take
with them being displayed in parts of the park or city, in real time

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original document
start-------------------------------------------------------

OBJECTIVE - An art installation where people are given access to
cameras in the city’s parks to use as they please for the day. The
cameras use a special memory card that tracks the location of the
camera, and automatically uploads (and tags) the photos into a
collaborative gallery. Visitors can view gallery online, and even on
a live monitor in the park, in real time as the photos are taken by
anyone and everyone with one of the cameras. The result being public
cameras, an art project in and of itself, used to create a real time
slide show of how visitors see the city through a public,
collaborative lens(es)...

SECONDARY OBJECTIVE - unapologetic spotlight on the access economy and
how the infrastructure of “things” is changing to make the world more
social and things more sharable.

SUPPORTING ORGANIZATIONS - keywifi.com, neighborrow.com,
socialbicycles.com, albumpl.us, shareable.net , ioby.org

POTENTIAL / NECESSARY PARTNERS - parks dept, central park
conservatory, kodak/nikon? http://bigscreenplaza.com/?

LOGISTICS PHASE I
A locked and weatherproof but transparent box, located in Central
park. (secured to something so it can't be stolen of course)
Inside this box is a DIGITAL CAMERA (neighborrow.com)
Anyone with authority* can open the box with an app
(socialbicycles.com)
The user can take pictures in the park or anywhere else for 24 hours
The camera is equipped with an eye.fi card SO...
as long as there is a wireless network present (keywifi.com) the
photos will stream automatically...
HERE -> http://www.albumpl.us/gallery/cpcon with no uploading no file
transfers etc.
Everyone gets to enjoy the art of the transparent self serve boxes,
free access to cameras they might not otherwise have, and the
collective collage of all the other photos taken and voted on by
visitors



SECURITY - the box itself needs to be so that no one can break in or
just take the whole box. I am less concerned about secondary security
where a user is granted access to open the box but then doesn’t return
the camera. Since this is not only an art project, but a social
experiment, I have no problem stocking the boxes myself with
relatively cheap digital cameras- point and shoots, as part of the
pilot program. Rather than asking for a credit card, they would simply
have to “apply” for the library card... which, if they tweeted
something or emailed us a photo standing outside the box or scanned a
QR code and we told them it was on the honor system and that they were
now registered to all the participating cococo sites, that would be
enough for me.

Then...

I’ve been talking a bunch recently of how not only is user behavior
changing towards sharing but the infrastructure of the items
themselves. The SoBikes are a perfect example. I’ve said how I get
questions about how companies might make it so items are impossible to
share, to protect their profit margins. What if we made a camera that
was impossible NOT to share! If we made it so that there was no way to
get the images off other than through our dock, no way to recharge it
other than to return it... imagine! 12 hours of charge an 1000 pics
then the memory card is full and the power is dead, only way to
automatically recharge and put the photos into your automatic online
account, is by putting it in the dock and locking the door:)

------------------Erin's comments------------------------ from now on
just respond---------------------------------------------------------


This is Erin chiming in: Maybe we could do it in many parks? Like the
public pianos: http://www.streetpianos.com/nyc2010/

I’ve got the solar panels and generators and I’ve got someone at CPC
and Parks that I can talk to.

[adam berk]

I've just published a (longish) blog post - would love your feedback.
I am going to hit the pavement and learn as much as I can about how
this will work best, so that when we have the boxes and the wifi and
cooperation with the parks etc, we are not flying blind. A little lean
startup prototyping and user experience testing, I'll just hand out
the cameras myself to folks downtown in the beginning...

Some of the design stuff in the post I've been sitting on for a while
but was inspired to put it out there by you Cam- let me know if you
would like a shout out somewhere in there.

I probably won't make green drinks tonight, but will be at the next
one... I'm going to put up the next version of the SharedSquared
landing page this evening so look out for that.

Thanks all-

http://neighborrow.blogspot.com/2011/07/intelligent-design.html

> conservatory, kodak/nikon?http://bigscreenplaza.com/?

>
> LOGISTICS PHASE I
> A locked and weatherproof but transparent box, located in Central
> park. (secured to something so it can't be stolen of course)
> Inside this box is a DIGITAL CAMERA (neighborrow.com)
> Anyone with authority* can open the box with an app
> (socialbicycles.com)
> The user can take pictures in the park or anywhere else for 24 hours
> The camera is equipped with an eye.fi card SO...
> as long as there is a wireless network present (keywifi.com) the
> photos will stream automatically...

> HERE ->http://www.albumpl.us/gallery/cpconwith no uploading no file