I'm the last to give out the OFFICIAL PROPS to my team because I wasn't able to access my email, etc. for the last several days (see previous posting). Again, I'd like to say "Congratulations on A Job Well Done"...sounds like the front of a Hallmark card. Maybe the scavenger hunt can serve as a model for a "virtual" party for the upcoming holiday season of HipTop activities, who knows....

&:} BustAGroove via HipTop // AIM: BustAGrooove Send Me a Text Message For Free

Woo hoo... confirmation of what we already knew, we kicked ass. :-)

Congratulations everybody, and especialy Cap'n Drew, who appears to have nailed the top individual prize as well. Only fitting, I say. Along the same lines, it looks like we had _5_ of the top 10.

We're listed as having 284 points, which is _higher_ than our estimated total of 276. Looks like the judges gave us some we weren't sure we had... always good news. :-)

Now for the continued waiting toward the next big question: what the !^#%#(*! did we win??

...especially to DrewG and countzero.

- Phil

IM: z6p6tist6

E-MAIL: zapatista@tmail.com

Thanks for the feedback! I'm very excited about this, and I really want everyone to be contributors to this paper. We were (are) a team.

One thing I would encourage. If anyone is interested in sharing thoughts, ideas, and experiences about the Hunt for this paper, you should write them down ASAP. Memories fade.

Speaking of fade, I wonder if this Team Raven site will "fade" sometime soon, as in disappear from the Web. Shoot...we all put so much work into it that I'd like to see it stick around forever. :P

And the suspense is KILLING ME regarding waiting to see who actually WON this event......ack.....tally faster..PLEASE....TALLY FASTER!!

:)

count, Your abstract sounds great and very ineresting. If you are slected please let me know what you need from me. I was definitely impressed by how we came together and personally experienced different emotions throughout the day. I started off being a bit peeved with davecpmx because I claimed items and got out and drove around ay 4am only to find he took the photos without claiming them. I then moved into someone who just wanted to help a little because I figured why waste my time. Then we got the system figured out and I became competitive and even took a short day at work to get more photos. Overall a great experiment!

Thanks,

Matthew

Just from reading your rough draft sounds intriquing...thank you for including your teammates in this latest venture. Count me in for input. &:} BustAGroove via HipTop // AIM: BustAGrooove

I was just listening to a CalFed bank radio promo featuring head of customer service, elvis Schmidekmp....and then there's Elvis Costello. &:} BustAGroove via HipTop // AIM: BustAGrooove

Let me know if you need any help with that. I'd like to see how it turns out.

>>> Andrew AIM: drewgsidekick

So I'm sitting around today, all inspired by what happened yesterday. I think something really amazing happened, sociologically as well as technologically.

So....I wrote an abstract from scratch....and I submitted it (a day late, but that's OK) to this conference:

http://hcii2003.ics.forth.gr/

If they accept it, then I gotta write a paper. And I want our entire Team Raven group to be co-authors. Heck, mike at Hiptop Nation should be a co-author too. Whaddyathink??

Here's the abstract. Kinda "out there" and rough, but hell....it was an "out-there" experience and I conceived and wrote it all in a few hours. :P

I'll keep people posted. This could be really fun.

--------------------------

"Integrating and Evolving a Mob: The Growth of a Smart Mob into a Wireless Community of Practice"


The concepts of "smart mobs" and "intelligent swarms" are a growing field of interest in social science and computer research. With the introduction of commmunication tools such as wireless PDAs and sophisticated cellular telephones, individuals are able to be extremely mobile yet stay constantly in touch with each other. These technologies are enhancing and creating new kinds of bonds between human beings, such as "smart mobs." Patterns of smart mob behavior have been observed in various cultures, particularly Japan, and these patterns are beginning to be seen in the United States and Europe.

Most communities of human beings evolve over time, changing their membership as well as their fundamental purpose and social structure. Smart mobs, enabled by portable communication technology, are a new cultural phenomenon and as such little is known about their evolutionary process. Do smart mobs evolve over time? What stimulates them to change? What do they change into? What are the technological tools necessary for these changes?

This paper examines the successful evolution of a specific smart mob into a wireless community of practice. It begins with an examination of a popular wireless blogging website "Hiptop Nation" (http://hiptop.bedope.com). "Hiptop Nation" acts as a central blogging site for owners of the "Sidekick" device, a portable handheld data communications device recently introduced by Danger (http://danger.com). The Sidekick supports wireless AOL Instant Messaging, email, SMS text messages, and web access. Users of the Sidekick can post wireless public blogs on Hiptop Nation via their Sidekick device, as well as upload photographs from the Sidekick's digital camera.

On Halloween, October 31 2002, Hiptop Nation sponsored a photo-scavenger hunt competition across the US. Participants were users of the Hiptop Nation blog site who were placed into competing teams, and participants coordinated their actions as well as acquired and uploaded photographs across the US exclusively via their Sidekick wireless devices. The hunt lasted for 24 hours.

The author of this paper participated as a member of one of the teams (Team Raven), and witnessed firsthand the evolution of an unorganized and homogeneous wirelessly-connected group of people (smart mob) into a highly motivated and organized group of team members with very common goals and flexible roles (wireless community of practice).

This paper will explore the step-by-step social and technological process of this unique evolution. It will also closely examine the new technological tools that were created within the smart mob itself, and how these new tools contributed to the team's own evolution and growth (e.g., custom tools combining MUDs, chatrooms, and central triage centers for coordinating team movements). The paper will finally examine the unique characteristics of a "wireless" community of practice as opposed to a "tethered" one, and propose general theories that predict how other smart mobs may evolve.

I just wanted to mention that this team definitely wins the sportsmanship and teamwork awards. I was just looking at the other teams' boards. We're the only group who've given each other pats on the back since this ended last night!

Way to go team! Have a great weekend!

- Phil

IM: z6p6tist6

E-MAIL: zapatista@tmail.com

I had a great time participating in this event with all of you. My only regret is that I wasn't able to post more.


A million thanks to our team captain and everyone who spent hours upon hours on this project.


I'm looking forward to future extravaganzas from our incredible host. Thanks Mike!


(Post 400?)


- Phil

IM: z6p6tist6

E-MAIL: zapatista@tmail.com

I don't know how long they'll leave the team blogs up but I wanted to thank all the hunters... my biggest regret over the aim bot not working out is that most of you missed out on the conversations between triage central and the people in the field. some funny stuff there. my favorite is the image I got in my head when drew was at the mall hunting kids in costumes... "chasing a pikachu", etc.

several of you did a ton of work going all over the place, getting up early, crawling around in dark, freezing your fingers off, etc. and drew giving blood and count zero adopting a cat... talk about going the extra mile!

here's to long life for this device and community.

Well Team...it's been a blast...the "ringers" put in a lot of effort, time, loss of sleep and brainstorming to pull things off. I was impressed with emrys and drewg's direction in putting together the MUD, web-based chat log and keeping the hunters posted as to what needed to be claimed and then keeping the lists updated as close to real time as possible.

It's been fun and I hope we win...if we don't win, that's cool too. I am sure the other four teams are just as anxious as Team Raven to find out the final results.

Of course, the Hunt, team and public blog, themes of the week would not have been possible if it were not for MikePop aka DrJellyFish also putting in a lot of effort, time and assistance -- especially to "newbies" to get HipTop Nation off the ground. Thanks also to the judges and Danger for being a part of the community that had some people stretching themselves to get that one photo opportunity that they may not have went for if it had not been for the "coolness" and fun factor of the SideKick.

&:} BustAGroove via HipTop // AIM: BustAGrooove

You guys rock! Drew was a great Team Captain and Emrys was invaluable the entire day as our main organizer and coordinator. Some of you guys were absolutely amazing at getting photographs of really difficult items. I'm really tired from driving around all day and It's still snowing outside (It's around 19 degrees) but it was worth it. I had a lot of fun.Thanks Team Raven!

--lazo

You guys rock! Drew was a great Team Captain and Emrys was invaluable=20 the entire day as our main organizer and coordinator. Some of you guys=20 were absolutely amazing at getting photographs of really difficult=20 items. I'm really tired from driving around all day and It's still=20 snowing outside (It's 19 =B0F) but it was worth it. I had a lot of fun.=20 Thanks Team Raven!

--lazo

I think our teamwork was outstanding. Thanks to Emrys for setting up and keeping the list going. Without this system, and the html chat setup by (I think) lazo, it wouldn't have been as organized and tergeted. Thanks to Drew for serving as captain and getting those high point value shots at the zoo. Everyone did a great job and I sure hope we win and get some danger gear.

palmsolo

Do I ever feel rotten today. But I definitely want to thank everyone who participated yesterday for making that event fun. I think we got the win personally, but even if we didn't, I hope you guys had a good time. Aside from some minor technical snafus at the beginning, I think it went much more smoothly than I had anticipated and the lengths that some of you were willing to go to in order to get the pictures we needed was pretty impressive. Here's hoping Mike posts the results soon! I've got to get to work now...


>>> Andrew AIM: drewgsidekick

Picked up at King Soopers Grocery store. You actually have to be 18 to buy this stuff, ha ha. They actually carded me! --lazo

Item 18, cat in costume. Well, I think this will be my last entry, so here's something special.

First of all, it's a cat in a cat costume. And it's a CATerpillar costume!

But notice that it isn't my black cat, Ariel...

Remember that photo I posted earlier of a pet store with the cat and dog (I included it here)? The cat was a beautiful and loving Burmese kitten. Store owner let us take her out of her cage and hold her next to the dog room window for that pic.

Well, after I took the picture, I kept playing with and holding the kitten. And I fell in love with her. So I bought her! (see pic of sales receipt)

Now I have two cats. They already are getting along nicely (just a tiny bit of hissing, but that quickly passed). I think I will name her Spooky, since I got her on Halloween.

And I have HipTop Nation's Scavenger Hunt to thank as the event that brought us together. So....thanks!

It's not as big a deal as getting married or having a baby born today (two of the hunt items)...but cats are like family, so maybe getting a cat today will count for some points somewhere...

Kudos to all my Team Raven teammates...you all ROCK....and props to everyone who participated in this event. Hope you all had a blast. I know I did.

Cya, Count Zero

Item 168.0, moon rock. Well, I couldn't find a rock from the moon (local science museum had lent theirs out). BUT, I do own a SPACE rock. Namely, a METEORITE, from the Sikhote-Alin Fall on Feb 12, 1947 in Siberia, Eastern Russia. It is an iron-coarse octahedrite, and is mounted on a plexiglass cube stand. Also see the certificate of authenticity from where I bought it, "World of Science."

Not from the moon. But the moon is in space. And this rock came from space. Think about it...