Life in the Network

Well, I am now an author, and it feels pretty good. Like many of you, I did not feel that I was expert enough in anything to alter a Wikipedia page. However, since it was required for this assignment, I thought long and hard. I searched for things that I thought I had a good grasp on, but in many situations felt that I couldn’t add something, because all the information was so extensive. However, I looked up the page of Enterprise Rent-A-Car, which is where I interned this past summer. I went through, and noticed that there was no text dedicated towards the customer service values of Enterprise Rent-A-Car. So, I took it upon myself to add some in. Throughout this process, I tried not to have a biased opinion, but I found it rather hard. However, I believe the final product I placed on Wikipedia was very neutral in that respect. You can see this page by clicking here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_Rent-A-Car. After reading Jaron Lanier’s article on Wikipedia, and how it was a start to something that he saw as very scary, I had some questions, if not more of disagreements with his article. He claimed that, “Wikipedia is far from being the only online fetish site for foolish collectivism.� I find it hard to believe that such sites as Google, Yahoo, Wikipedia and many others are going to lead us down a road where we invite artificial intelligence to completely take over our modes of thinking. He makes a point in his article regarding the Microsoft paper clip, and how users dumb themselves down in order to use it, and be in awe of the artificial intelligence that it has created. First of all, I feel that people first enjoyed the paper clip because it was a fun animation that moved and at the same time could provide them with help if they summoned it. Yes, at times the paper clip pops up when you’re doing something, but mainly only to let you know that there are other possible options for you at your current situation. I feel that people see it more of as a tool that they can use, as opposed to a mastermind of artificial intelligence.

In regard to the Subservient Chicken, I was actually rather impressed with how interactive it was. I really liked the idea of how Burger King used this type of interactive advertising to let its customers know that they could have their chicken any way they wanted it. I just thought it was very clever. However, this brings me to the subject of interactive advertising such as Subservient Chicken, and more specifically viral marketing. I really enjoyed reading Noah Briers viral marketing essay. I found that I agreed with every point that he made in regard to viral marketing becoming an industry standard. I really liked how he said, “In fact, just calling it viral is problematic.� Immediately I agreed with this. Basically when a company comes to an advertising agency today, and says that they want a viral part of their advertising campaign, they are really saying that they want a complete hit. Because, in order for a piece to become viral, it needs to be loved by so many people, and so much that they feel they HAVE to share it with someone else. I just hope that eventually everyone will realize that putting money into interactive advertising such as Subservient Chicken is always a risky move in the online industry, as there are many great campaigns that proved to be unsuccessful.