Dead Drops for the Rest of Us
Posted by: J. McMahon on 09/25/2013 11:08 AM
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Ok. Sometimes while wandering around The Net you run into something that is probably unnecessary and certainly could be done more efficiently --- But still a cool idea non-the-less. With that in mind, I give you - DeadDrops.
Dead Drops is an idea thought of in 2010 by German media artist Aram Bartholl while in NYC. In a nutshell, you find a wall, chisel out some mortar, drop ion a USB stick seal it up and then submit the location to their map database. At that point, anyone can look up the location of these 'drops' and share files at any location, whenever they like.
It's sort of like a USB version of SneakerNet - with a slight bit of public property defacing thrown in.
Currently there are over 1200 Dead Drops worldwide with over 6 GB of data storage, making it perhaps the largest anonymous network on the planet. That is quite impressive on its own, but it makes you wonder what people are actually sharing. I can think of a few neat ideas; Photography, Art, Jokes, Etc. However, this sort of system is inherently unsecure and anonymous which makes imagining the dark side of what could be loaded on these USB sticks pretty scary.
According to THE MAP, there is one a mere 60 miles from me not too far from a few casinos. Looks like I'll have to find out for myself what is on these things in a follow up. (Can you say expense paid road trip? Oh yeah!)
If you want to go look for one of these drop and write back what you found, that would be sweet. Just remember, in both love and technology always use protection. By no means should you consider a Dead Drop as "safe", but they are clearly interesting.
What do you think? Cool idea? Useful? What do you thinks out there?
Dead Drops is an idea thought of in 2010 by German media artist Aram Bartholl while in NYC. In a nutshell, you find a wall, chisel out some mortar, drop ion a USB stick seal it up and then submit the location to their map database. At that point, anyone can look up the location of these 'drops' and share files at any location, whenever they like.
It's sort of like a USB version of SneakerNet - with a slight bit of public property defacing thrown in.
Currently there are over 1200 Dead Drops worldwide with over 6 GB of data storage, making it perhaps the largest anonymous network on the planet. That is quite impressive on its own, but it makes you wonder what people are actually sharing. I can think of a few neat ideas; Photography, Art, Jokes, Etc. However, this sort of system is inherently unsecure and anonymous which makes imagining the dark side of what could be loaded on these USB sticks pretty scary.
According to THE MAP, there is one a mere 60 miles from me not too far from a few casinos. Looks like I'll have to find out for myself what is on these things in a follow up. (Can you say expense paid road trip? Oh yeah!)
If you want to go look for one of these drop and write back what you found, that would be sweet. Just remember, in both love and technology always use protection. By no means should you consider a Dead Drop as "safe", but they are clearly interesting.
What do you think? Cool idea? Useful? What do you thinks out there?
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