Re: Vanity fair
Subject: Re: Vanity fair
From: Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com>
Date: 7/4/10, 13:45
To: John Knefel <johnknefel@gmail.com>

John-

Have just spoken again to Robert Green and we are proceeding as planned. Here is a description of one major aspect of what we are doing, aside from the television project. There is another, more important aspect to this which we are keeping relatively quiet at this point but which I think you would be down for despite its relative craziness. Again, give me a call if you get a moment as this portion does not go into writing. So far it is only known to Hastings, a few of my close friends, and lawyers, but I get the impression that you would approve.

***

Information flow is fundamental to the success of every manner of human collaboration. Nonetheless, the processes by which information is gathered, handled, transferred, and acted upon receive far less attention than is warranted. The purpose of Project PM is to change this dynamic by developing new techniques with which to more efficiently conduct information.

Because the great preponderance of information crucial to the success of a representative government is transferred through the media, Project PM focuses primarily on media reform. Our first and foremost effort has been to establish a distributed media cartel made up of bloggers as well as journalists who work at least in part through online media. Rather than simply assembling this group of exceptional media professionals into an online outlet similar to those currently in existence, we are instead organizing our participants into a network which itself operates under a unique schematic designed to take best advantage of the internet as a medium while simultaneously avoiding the drawbacks common to even the best online communities.

In order to seed the network, we have recruited around two dozen bloggers and journalists whom we have identified as particularly competent and intellectually honest. Each of these individuals is encouraged to bring other bloggers into the network based on their own judgment; these new participants are then connected to the blogger who has brought them in and may likewise bring others into the network,and so on . As such, the network grows perpetually while maintaining a high average quality in terms of its participants, as is explained further below.

Upon the launch of our network, each of the initial bloggers will be connected to each other via a widget which is embedded on their respective blogs, as well as connected to those whom they’ve recruited. When a particular individual composes a piece of work that he considers to be of particular merit, the individual pushes a single button which causes the article in question to be sent to all of the bloggers to whom he is connected. Each of those bloggers in turn then decides whether or not they agree that the article is worthy of greater attention; if so, they push the button and thereby send it along to every blogger to whom they themselves are connected. Thus it is that information deemed worthy of attention by some great number of erudite and honest individuals from a variety of backgrounds will tend to perpetuate through the system and gain a larger audience than they might otherwise receive.

As the network expands by way of the process described above, it is inevitable that there will be failures of judgement on the part of participants when choosing additional bloggers to bring into the network. Let us say that Blogger X, who is rather competent, brings in Blogger Y, who is only moderately so, and who in turn brings in Blogger Z, who is a giant douchebag. Blogger Z begins composing and pushing forward posts to the effect that Barack Obama was born in Tehran or that ethanol subsidies are awesome or some such thing – but these posts only initially go to Blogger Y and whatever horrid bloggers Blogger Z has brought in himself, assuming he has brough in any. Blogger Y may or may not be inclined to push forward these nonsense posts, but Blogger X will almost certainly delete them immediately and is quite likely to disolve his connection to Blogger Y for displaying such poor judgement. Thus it is that the system is defended from deterioration by the high competence of the initial round of bloggers and consequently comparable competence of those brought in gradually afterwards, coupled with the nature of the schematic itself. No supervision is necessary for the network to expand while maintaining a high level of quality.

A few other characteristics bear noting. Any participant may connect to any other participant who agrees to the connection, no matter “where” each participant resides in the network, and thus the network is likely to evolve from the shape of a pyramid to that of a web, which is advantageous in terms of ensuring that good information does not become overly “regionalized.” All participants are equal regardless of the order in which they joined. Participants are free to bring on as many other bloggers as they would like, although they will find that it is to their own advantage to be selective in this regard.

The system is capped off with another widget distinct from that used by the bloggers – the reader widget, a downloadable application which displays those posts which have been pushed forward a certain number of times (as set by the individual reader). The end result should be the best system of news and information filtration that has ever existed.


On Sun, Jul 4, 2010 at 12:17 PM, John Knefel <johnknefel@gmail.com> wrote:
Barrett,

Looking forward to the reading material, and I'll (quietly) see if I can round up some bloggers and technocrats. 

J


On Sat, Jul 3, 2010 at 2:28 PM, Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi, John-

Yes, I've had both of my lawyers look into him and have spoken to him myself. I'm currently preparing some documentation for him regarding the network schematic and some of my longer-term goals, after which point he will begin preparing a presentation for use in acquiring large-scale donors, and we'll also begin figuring out how to coalesce the blogger network and the proposed cable network.

Green's plan regarding poaching Stewart and Colbert is unlikely and probably unnecessary, but raising tens of millions of dollars is easy due to the current mood and the demonstrable viability of our plan. I've already managed to recruit over a hundred people and things had already begun to accelerate due to Hasting's coup and the upcoming release of my second book; we did this with no money. All we have to do is get the same proposal in front of a few of Green's wealthy contacts and we'll have all the money necessary to start fucking things up real fancy-like. 

In the meanwhile, quietly spread the word to anyone you know who's competent; remember that in addition to the blogger network, we are also building up a network of technocratic types in order to serve as sort of a distributed online think-tank. I will send along some reading material when I get a moment (just moved out of NYC and don't have internet installed yet), but in the meantime feel free to hit me with any questions, and have anyone else do the same if necessary. If I can't be reached, you may get in touch with my lawyer Clark Robinson at robinsonchicago@gmail.com.

On Sat, Jul 3, 2010 at 9:51 AM, John Knefel <johnknefel@gmail.com> wrote:
Barrett,

That is goddamn wild e-mail to receive.  I mean, if the guy is legit and has the kind of fundraising capacity he says he does, that's basically the best news imaginable.  Of course, both Molly and I would like to be involved in any way possible.  What are the immediate next steps to take?  Are there things we can do to make Green's offer more likely to happen? 

As far as the plan itself, it's incredibly ambitious, but I agree with his analysis of the news -- namely that working on the periphery (Current TV, etc) is a losing battle.  Outlets like Democracy Now! are crucial and important, but creating a new model of a major news organization would be huge.

I didn't follow his links or do any research on him, but your folks seem to think he's on the level?

J 

On Fri, Jul 2, 2010 at 3:56 PM, Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com> wrote:
John-

Take a look at the below e-mail and give me a ring. I spoke to Green the other night by phone and he's basically offering to raise tens of millions of dollars to establish a new cable news station which will be coupled with my Project PM schematic and then put me in partial charge of running it, in which case I would want you and your sister to be involved as well. Of course, this is all confidential for now. Let me know what you think; I've had my people look into him and this guy really does have the access to funds that he says he does, and seems damned serious about doing what needs to be done.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Robert Green <robertogreen@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Jun 28, 2010 at 2:27 PM
Subject: Vanity fair
To: barriticus@gmail.com


Great article about hastings, barrett.

I’m interested in hearing/learning further about project PM.

I’ve got my own nascent project that I’m working on.  I come from a background of production/development/finance in the feature/tv/web world.    I’ve produced a TON of stuff in all different media over the years (bona fides in the signature below, check my imdb page).  I also come from a background of a dad on the board of The Nation, and your basic view of the world that such will engender.

Between these two worlds I’ve reached the following conclusion:

The time is NOW to create/fund/finance a 21st century news media org that takes what you/me/jay rosen/michael hastings/etc. Etc. etc. know—that information isn’t “he said she said”, that information isn’t better with “access”, that information isn’t better with “one consultant from x, and one consultant from y”, that information IS better when transparent, that news should be measured by one analytic and one only—how informed is your audience after hearing/reading it.

Here’s how to do it:

Grab about 1 billion dollars approx (give or take) and create the new CNN.  That’s it.  There’s no other way.  You can’t hope to have any useful impact around the margins.  You can’t hope to do anything important at a Current TV level, or blogging for a magazine as hopelessly addicted to horseshit celebrity as VF, and really change things.  You just can’t.  

I know some people with some real money.  And their hearts are movable to the right place.  The thing is to aggregate all the people who are a)smart b) doing it already c) energetic and put together the plan.

Starting point, and yes, this is a tendentious one:  just say to jon stewart and colbert “what’s your buyout number”, and pay it.  Make them the figureheads.  Figure that’s 50 million right there.

I’m sure you have your own plan, and you don’t know me, so take all this with a grain of salt.  But if you ever do have time to spend 5 minutes discussing this further, please don’t hesitate.  

In the meantime, keep up the great work.

best

Robert Green
Another Green World Productions
310-804-1812 phone
323-446-7639 fax
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1299657/
http://linkedin.com/in/robertogreen
http://twitter.com/robogreen
skype:  monazu1




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Regards,

Barrett Brown
Brooklyn, NY
512-560-2302




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Regards,

Barrett Brown
Brooklyn, NY
512-560-2302




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Regards,

Barrett Brown
Brooklyn, NY
512-560-2302