The Library of Congress understands the power of new media

The Library of Congress has just uploaded over 3000 images from their collection that have no known copyright restrictions to Flickr. The announcement today on the Library’s blog says:

The real magic comes when the power of the Flickr community takes over. We want people to tag, comment and make notes on the images, just like any other Flickr photo, which will benefit not only the community but also the collections themselves. For instance, many photos are missing key caption information such as where the photo was taken and who is pictured. If such information is collected via Flickr members, it can potentially enhance the quality of the bibliographic records for the images.

The flickr folks are calling this a pilot for a new program, The Commons, with the stated goal of making the collections of public images more available as well as expanding the body of knowledge about the collections. It’s a fantastic start to a potentially amazing project.

See the crowdsourcing at work on The Library of Congress’ flickr album, which is already buzzing with activity.

I was thrilled to quickly find some fantastic photos of a sideshow at the 1941 Vermont State Fair. Kudos to the librarians!

[Update] Jersey City, NJ – New Hub of the Universe

A while back, I decided to launch a campaign to become the Future Mayor of Jersey City, NJ. I got myself a powder blue sports coat. I threw a stoop sale. I even went to Liberty State Park during the 4th of July to shake the hands and kiss the babies. All in an effort to get the word out that at some point in the future, I planned on leading the fine people of Jersey City. Surprisingly (not really), people seemed pretty jazzed by the idea. Even certain members of the police force consented that they would vote for me. A movement had begun.

That movement has recently begun to attract those with hopes of benefiting from the positive energy sweeping across the city. Just last week, presidential hopeful Barack Obama held a rally at the Yanitelli Center at St. Peter’s College. Mere blocks from my apartment. A coincidence? Doubtful.

And it hasn’t stopped there.

This morning, the Coachella Music Festival has announced it’s plans to, for the first year ever, present Coachella East. The location? Liberty State Park in, wait for it, Jersey City, NJ. Also, a mere few blocks from my apartment. Headlining the show is rumored to be a little band called Radiohead. Maybe you’ve heard of them?

City Hall, here I come.

Update: The festival will officially be called The All Points West Fest and is happening from August 8 – 10. You can read a post about the origin of the name and how the entire festival came to be over at Brooklyn Vegan. Click here for the post.

If you see something, say something.

Tourists didn’t know what to think over the weekend when 900 New Yorkers braved the cold and dropped their trousers for the seventh annual No Pants Subway Ride.

Improv Everywhere, a group that causes scenes of chaos and joy in public places, organized the event where participants split up onto three different lines–the 6, the R, and the 2 trains, which they rode from downtown Manhattan to Union Square.

The group is creating buzz in other cites by encouraging folks to organize No Pants Subway Rides in their home towns. Improv Everywhere has executed over 70 missions involving thousands of undercover agents.

Check out video and pics after the jump. Continue reading…

STATEN ISLAND UPDATE: Have you seen this Ninja?

**Update** Popcicle iPod Giveaway

This almost slipped passed my radar as I’ve been engulfed with everything else surrounding the new year. Remember that great promotional giveaway that we posted about, where Unilever put 10,000 iPod shuffles in fake Popsicle cases? Well, Gizmodo received some images from their friends at Brainstorm9. If you look closely the shuffle is actually in it’s own plastic wrapping, inside a fake Popsicle, that is also wrapped in plastic. This is to protect against the temperature and humidity of freezers all across Brazil. Check out the packaging pictures after the jump. Continue reading…

3 Million Downloads Sold and Counting

17-year-old rapper Soulja Boy became the first recording artist to rack up 3 million downloads of his hit “Crank That (Soulja Boy).”

This young Internet phenom’s music video, “Crank That,” which shows off Soulja Boy’s snazzy dancing skills, has been viewed 28 million times on YouTube. But just in case you’re jealous of his moves, he breaks them down for us in his “Soulja Boy Tellem – How to Crank That – Instructional Dance Video,” which has been viewed 22 million times on YouTube.

This is viral video at its best and I’m sure it can be directly correlated to this groundbreaking achievement for a musician.

No Pants! Subway Ride 2k8 this Saturday

Comedy collective Improv Everywhere is calling for participants in the 7th annual No Pants! Subway Ride. The annual No Pants! stunt is a carefully orchestrated ballet where a couple hundred people riding the 6 train all take their pants off at the same time. It’s a lot of fun and if you’d like to join in, everything you need to know is here.

Capturing the New Vote with Facebook

More than any other candidate in this year’s race for the White House, presidential hopeful Barack Obama has gone above and beyond his opponents by embracing the ever-popular social networking site Facebook into his campaign strategy. The overwhelming turnout of the usual lazy voting block of young people aged 17 to 29, has help put Obama ahead by one delegate for the Dems.

This is due to the help of Obama supporter Chris Hughes, a co-founder of Facebook, who had a leading role in creating my.barackobama.com, a Facebook clone designed specifically for the campaign.

View more from the original article here. [bloomberg.com]

Staten Island Ninja Burglar – UPDATE

As some of you know, I’ve been obsessed with the Staten Island Ninja Burglar. For those not up to speed, basically, a dude dressed up in a ninja costume is terrorizing Staten Island – he was just credited with his 19th burglary and hundreds and thousands of dollars in loot (his last burglary netted him $225,000 is diamonds a jewels!). But the best part was that he got caught a few weeks ago in mid burgle and *allegedly* beat up a home owner with his nunchucks and got away! How awesome is that?! (Not that someone was beat up, but you know, the nunchucks part).

ANYWAY, the NYPD has just declared that the alleged Ninja Burglar is NOT A NINJA and shouldn’t be treated as such.

That is all.

We’re HUGE in Japan!!

Campfire is proud to be featured in this month’s issue of the Japanese publication “Kokoku-Hihyo”. Similar to “Creativity”, “Kokoku-Hihyo” featured Campfire in their column introducing new and unique creative shops in the US.
Thanks very much to Kaede Seville who took the time to get to know the Campfire team!