Clay Shirky: Social Networking Guru/Mug Stealer

teabagging

unforbiddendances — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 05:25:45 +0000

Last Thursday during Design for UNICEF, Shirky decided teabags weren’t only for placing in mugs.

Photo courtesy of atduskgreg.

What a greedy napper

unforbiddendances — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 21:10:21 +0000

UPDATE: MMC’s California Mug

unforbiddendances — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 04:22:04 +0000

So, the mug was not stolen by Shirky. It was in the cabinet above the sink.

The boy was not in the balloon. He was hiding in the attic.

Call off the search!

Incident #3

unforbiddendances — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 03:29:35 +0000

A concerned ITP student wrote CSSMM today, hoping we could help perform a little social justice. Yes, that’s right, folks. ANOTHER mug has gone missing from the 4th floor of 721 Broadway, aka Clay Shirky‘s Batcave.

Michael Martinez-Campos, writes the following:

here’s the case: My coffee mug has gone missing. It has the California state flag, a pic of a brown bear with the words California Republic written underneath. Haven’t seen it for a week. And I bought the damn thing to ward off homesickness.

Do your magic, Sarah!

The bottom of the mug had the cryptic letters ‘MMC’ written on the bottom.

The image on the mug:

Now, we’re not saying Shirky stole this mug. We’re just saying a mug went missing within feet of Shirky’s office. It’s easy to write this off as more Shirky thievery, but could there be a copycat on the loose?

You can help! Obviously, if you see this mug, please return it to its rightful, homesick owner. If you see Clay Shirky, check his hands. Is he holding a mug with this California flag on it? If you are in Clay Shirky’s office, look around. Do you see any mugs? Use that camera phone. Be sneaky. We know you can do it.

Send in your tips. We’re going to catch this predator.

The Clay Shirky mug saga in comic form

unforbiddendances — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 01:01:35 +0000

Eric and Poram created a graphic interpretation of the email thread from the ITP student list that started all of this madness.

Each image is its own .jpg, so I’m just going to link to Eric’s blog. Check it out. Seriously. It’s genius.

Spotted

unforbiddendances — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 22:00:58 +0000

People are already taking precautions:

Another incident

unforbiddendances — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 21:50:11 +0000

Yesterday, October 15, Fiona Daniels lost a white mug on the 4th floor of 721 Broadway. Earlier that day, Clay Shirky was spotted clutching a white mug during his Design for UNICEF class. Since Fiona’s name is written on the bottom of her white mug, it was not immediately obvious to onlookers that Shirky had struck again. But we here at CSSMM headquarters know to always be wary when it comes to Clay and mugs.

The mug in question:

Shirky = Villain

unforbiddendances — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 06:47:17 +0000

The more you know:

“The word shark comes from the German word ‘Shirky,’ which means villain.”

Watch this video, and fast forward to 6:48.

Thanks to Edwardo Lytton for the tip.

The story

unforbiddendances — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 03:22:54 +0000

On October 8, 2009, Sarah Dahnke, a graduate student in the Interactive Telecommunications Program at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, wanted to make a cup of tea. She, like many of her classmates, had brought a mug from home, labeled it with her name, and placed it on the shelf near the water cooler. Since she usually leaves the mug on the same end of the same shelf, Sarah was surprised when she arrived to find her mug was not in its usual place. She searched around in other mug storage places, noting that the large amount of other mugs might make it hard for her to see her mug right away. She enlisted the help of a classmate and faculty member but was unsuccessful in locating the mug. This saddened Sarah, since she had acquired this mug in high school and had owned it for more than 10 years. She was also saddened because she had to make her tea in a wasteful paper cup. It wasn’t that she minded other people using her mug, which was placed out in the open with all the other mugs; she just was hoping to use the mug now and again when she wanted some tea.

Sarah returned to class, complaining about the loss of a mug in such a safe, communal, cooperative environment. Molly Schwartz, a fellow ITP student/Northeast Oklahoma native, heard the complaints and remembered that she had spotted Sarah’s mug earlier that morning in the hands of one Clay Shirky. Sarah’s mind was blown. Clay Shirky? What would he want with her mug? Of all the other mugs in the world, why did he choose hers? Sarah sent a quick email about the incident to the ITP student listserv, where she received double confirmation that Clay Shirky was indeed sipping coffee from Sarah’s Bartlesville High School mug earlier that day.

This story does have a happy ending, though. Arturo Vidich, dancer, hacker, and all-around brave fellow, wrestled Sarah’s mug from Clay Shirky’s hands, forced him to wash it and returned it to Sarah hours after its theft.

Sarah reunites with her mug. Photo by Scott Wayne Indiana

Don’t let this happen to you! Find out what you can do to prevent Clay Shirky from stealing your mug. Who knows? He may have already done it!