Give Us All Your Data – it’s fine, it’s pink

We’ve complained before about the intrusiveness of the Burning Man Census being pushed at us in our cars on the way in. And the cumbersome bureaucracy of paperwork required if you have a smart phone. And what a pain in the ass it is having to fill out a survey just to have a chance to buy tickets in the lottery.

You’d think that might be enough data for them to gather on us, right?

Well, BMOrg has brilliantly come up with ANOTHER thing they can do to collect “useful”  data on us. And it’s pink, and it’s Moopy, and it sounds completely pointless.

As you come through the gate at this year’s Burning Man event, along with the What Where When, Tip Sheet and map, you’ll get something new from the Greeters – a little pink postcard that’s part of an interactive, social-digital-anthropological experiment we’re about to embark upon.

There is space on the card for you to fill out your name, email, Twitter account, whether you’re male or female, and your zip code or country. That’s it.
You can drop it off at several locations around the playa.

I love the thought of mad scientist BMOrg experimenting on their petri dish of Burners. What could possibly go wrong?

Maybe the BMOrg have figured out yet another way to make money beyond the “officially sanctioned” items – selling our data to all and sundry. Or maybe it’s a matter of fashion – feathers won’t fly because some of them might blow off and hit the playa…but tens of thousands of clown noses and little pink cards is an awesome idea.

Either way I call LAME and will not be doing anything with their stupid cards.

why paper and not technology? Because we can, and it just seemed worthy of our cultural approach around immediacy! Be Here Now!

Errr…not because “we already gathered the data from technology 5 different ways but we still don’t know shit about who Burners are”

With this Pink Post Card project we want to gather information to help map the Burning Man future on and off the playa, and cultivate our culture. We’re asking you to opt-in…Though we have collected information in the past as part of the ticket purchase process, the BRC Census, or for the distribution of the Jack Rabbit Speaks, those mechanisms don’t reflect the “now” of actually being on the playa as a collective experience for a moment in time…What will the Pink Postcard data be used for? Honestly, we’re not sure yet. This is an experiment! A radical self-reliant and expressive civic experiment. We’re trying out some new ideas and trying to solve some complex issues. We suspect that one of the first steps towards doing so is related to gaining a better understanding of who actually attends the event and the related existing connectivity. Fertility 2.0 is the seed. And so are you.

Yep. You’re one big data sperm.

You’ll find Pink Collection Boxes at Center Camp, PlayaInfo, BRC
Census and at the 3 and 9 o’clock Ranger Outposts. We’ll even gift you a
sticker in appreciation of your participation if you come to the Census Camp near the Cafe!

OOOHHH a sticker! More MOOPS.

It remains to be seen just how much future mapping and cultural cultivation Burning Man will be able to extrapolate out of such useful data as “are you here” and “fan of pink? Yes/No/N.A.”, or the valuable demographc information of “Gender:  M/F/Other/N.A.”. I predict ZERO.