I read this story by Hugo Rifkind in the Times today, about a plan for a somewhat different protest in front of Parliament in London. Comedian Mark Thomas has issued an open invitation to all comers, to apply to the police for a “lone protest” licence (which needs six days’ notice and apparently tends to be granted). And then for all the “lone protesters” to turn up next Thursday, in what could be termed an orchestrated cacophony of protest; in order to stay within the law, every person must protest about something different. The law they are not-protesting about banned demonstrations without a licence within a kilometre of Parliament; see related story here. You can almost imagine everyone with individual and personalised tiny gapingvoid cartoons on business-card sized banners….
Smart mobs taking an unusual turn? Let’s see what happens :-)
Day: 25 August 2006
Success
I now have a name for the boy in the photograph. A location. A date. And a small piece of evidence that may help me find out who has the rights to the photograph, so that I can acquire a large print, or even the rights to the photograph itself. Amazing what the blogosphere and the web can do. More when I know more.
Who knows, maybe in a few years’ time, or maybe sooner, I will be able to move my cursor over any photograph to find out who has the rights to it and how to contact that person or persons; maybe even the price, or a Creative Commons watermark. Wouldn’t that be nice?