Ended up at a party last week for Fame Game. Name aside, there is not much of a game playing component to the Fame Game (perhaps the name moreso comments on the nature of today's society). The site "maps the networks of capital, influence, and attention that drive New York’s cultural economy." Aside from social network-like profile pages, an algorithm they call ANDY determines connections and identifies the fastest rising movers and shakers. Weekly changes in "fame" percentile rank are published and displayed like stock tickers.
The idea of understanding degrees of seperation and power structures through visualizations has been around for awhile. Older websites (albeit with less dynamic data sets) have been mapping connections of influence. NNDB Mapper allows exploration of over 33,000 "noteworthy" individuals and the creation of maps like "Silicon Valley Boards". Early in 2002, They Rule was recognized by Ars Electronica for its visualization of relationships between powerful corporate executives.
Unlike the more educationally driven objectives of past sites, with Fame Game's focus on the structure of celebrity and its dynamic use of the constant media that builds on celebrity, will public fascination and advertisers interact and follow?
Recent Comments