IDEA THIRTY: Twitter Tag

TRUE

I guess it's the Heideggerian in me, but in order to discover how to use something in a next level way (and by that I mean a HARDER BETTER FASTER STRONGER way), I have to first see it used in its most assed-out, busted-up, and/or pedestrian state. I want the usefulness of the tool brought down to its lowest possible level. Like tryin to type yr manifesto on an antique typewriter with dirty keys and a dry ribbon using a piece of sandpaper or celluloid instead of paper, or bombing the half-smashed glass of a bus stop shelter during a rainstorm so that the spray paint streaks and splatters and drips psycho style across the cracks like on a Jackson Pollack canvas... A next level moment can happen anywhere, at anytime, as long as you're open to it. I've had it happen where I'll be sitting thru a tedious, dry and overlong presentation, when suddenly there will be a diagram, or a collection of shapes or graphs meant to illustrate some banality and BOO-YA I'll realize a whole new way of thinking about something. It won't be a something that has anything to do with what the presenter was going on about, but oh well.

(Progress is very rarely a linear process that adheres to cause and effect. Sometimes you gotta break shit to see what's next)

Like on the new Twitter joint. What if u blatantly ignore the question ("What are you doing?") that sets the premise and instead use the broadcasting capability to issue news clip mini-posts about a particular subject at regular intervals, like an old school wire service received on cellys.

If you ignore the question you can use Twitter to publish a serialized horror story or you can "twitter" the first lines of books...

Opposite these innovators, on the other side of the room, stand the great mass of Twitterers tweeting in the most basic and obvious way possible. They announce where they are, what they are doing, where they're going and with whom. They also talk about what they're eating, drinking, smoking, watching, downloading and installing. I've clicked on to the "with friends" link of random kids and it's like listening into a conversation, which is pretty hot. This kind of basic "I am here" message, repeated over and over all around the world got me thinking…

What about a game called Twitter Tag? It would work in reverse to regular tag. The person who was "IT" would be in a general location that was made known, (like Union Square, NYC or Golden State Park, San Francisco) nonchalantly posting tweets from their mobile handy about their surroundings (the rule would be that each post has to DESCRIBE someTHING nearby) while those who are following try to get closer to the person and eventually try to tag them. The person who successfully tags the person who is IT becomes the new IT. They receive the password that allows them to go in and take over sending tweets to the IT account.

There could be some good old fashioned running around tag action as the tweeters zeroed in on the person who was IT.

At the end of the allotted time period for the game (a few hours?…a few days?) the person who managed to post the greatest number of tweets over the longest amount of time wins.

The possibilities for advertising and community building and protest staging are endless! I can see hip chains launching new products with an online map of all the locations where Tag will be played with the players converging on store sites or cafes or clubs…

Descriptions in the tweets would make the game a mash-up between tag and treasure hunt.

Likewise, it would be a great way to sell drugs, if one was so inclined!

Other followers who were not in the vicinity could help by tweeting their ideas of where/who the person was.

The whole thing sounds like fun to me but I don't really play games so some people who do should let me know what they think.