I hope you’re having a great weekend. I’ve been thinking a lot about stickers. We’ve talked a little about virtual stickers as a kind of of metadata, but what about real stickers? Stickers can be used to track bike thieves, create real-life geocaching trails, help cities collect trash, advocate for your political or social positions, label material, help target liquid, offer rewards, indicate civic involvement, create circuits, and act as warning labels, among hundreds of other use cases. Could they be used to tell the news? For example, could you:
Let’s play with that last idea for a second. Let’s say you get a sticker for every 10 civic stories you read. Could local businesses honor the sticker with some kind of reward? What incentives could be developed through stickers?
And from last week….
Some highlights from the Randomly Generated People Experiment:
From Francis: “I was surprised that someone in Beirut was on your newsletter! And even more surprised that she is not only totally fluent in English, but is incredibly well read and prolific. She shared a “meta passion project” — she and a group of friends form a support group for working on their passion projects. Hers is sending letters to her younger sister. Even a brief dialog was totally enriching. I got three book recommendations, an idea, and a pen pal half-way around the world. Amazing to see how universal global youth culture is. The internet has made a one-world culture.”
Sonja and Kaitlyn wrote down the coolest things they said to one another.
Ben and Alex collaborated on a Medium post called “How To Keep Your Passion Project Alive While Doing Other Shit.”
Have a great week! Mel