... and this is all we get?
That second Wired News article goes into quite a bit of detail in order to explain
to us how to get information from a grafedia link. One of the paragraphs
in that article tells us:
Anyone can make grafedia, too. To do so, a user selects a rich media file (image, video or sound) and then chooses a word (say, "wirednews") to go along with that file. The user then uploads the file from a computer or sends it from a cell phone to, using this example, wirednews@grafedia.net. The user can then paint, draw or tattoo "wirednews" in public spaces in blue with an underline to identify it as grafedia. Viewers can interact with the grafedia by sending a message via their computer or certain cell phones addressed to "wirednews@grafedia.net" to get the content behind the link.
After a paragraph like that, who wouldn't send an email to that address? I certainly
would, and did. Strangely, though my emails to other Grafedia addresses receivied
immediate responses, this one took quite a while to arrive, though that probably
had nothing to do with Grafedia's server. Still, it took long enough for me to
start wondering whether the people at Wired News had actually gone through that
entire explanation, yet hadn't actually uploaded an image which would permit it
to "complete" the example, to "get the content behind the link".
After a rather considerable wait, however, a response, consisting (like all the
other responses) of one small .jpg image, arrived:
Just what I was supposed to learn from this, beyond the fact that the system works,
is beyond me. Admittedly, I didn't find a blue-markered, underlined, word on the
street that whet my curiousity, causing me to make this inquiry. Still, rather
than getting the feeling that I was being invited to continue to take part in
an interesting experiment, this response from Grafedia, posted to them by Wired
News, only succeeded in reinforcing the feeling that this was a project with much
more bark than bite.
Go to: The internet loves a trend, or
Go to: Taking to the streets
