New York-based stunt comedy troupe Improv Everywhere [1] is making good on its name, launching a global social network [2] for "agents" (what they call their members) following the "success" (i.e. media coverage [3]!) of their recent 10-city No Pants! Subway Ride [4]. Like Facebook, I.E.'s expanding by throwing open the doors, transitioning from a NYC-based group to a loosely organized global network of groups. Smart. A quick feature rundown from the launch post:
You can: - Create your own member page complete with Agent Name and Location. - Create your own group page for your hometown and start organizing with others near you. - Start discussion threads and brainstorm ideas at the local level. - Participate in global discussions and plotting. - Upload photos and video.
About 35 Chicago residents dropped trou earlier this month and rode the C.T.A.
The new site features groups of IE agents from major cities around the world. As of this post, the San Francisco [5] group leads the non-NYC pack with 21 members, followed by L.A. [6] with 16, the United Kingdom [7] with 12 and Minneapolis/St. Paul [8] with 10. Where's Chicago? ...deep in pack with a measly 3 members [9].
After the relative success of the no-pants initiative here in Chicago [3] and this week's comedian-led fake protest of the Montrose Hole [10], you'd think we'd have a better showing. It's hard to imagine St. Paul having more people into this stuff than Chicago.
CMS nerd alert: It's funny to see IE using Ning [11] (a service that lets you set up your own social network, which is essentially what IE's doing) to power the new site rather than use a self-hosted setup. But it makes sense. These guys are comedians, not developers. And I doubt much money is being made off IE...at the moment. That said, the Ning site's pretty harsh on the eyes. I don't know how much control they've got over their template, but someone should really dial down the bold on the headers. Ning's has been in the press this month. Tech bloggers are saying most of their traffic is porn-oriented [12]. Ning's response? "We're agnostic on the issue." [13]