Internet Cities, Double Deckers in Japan, Art Ships, Publicis Chokes

• Are Internet Communities Cities?
  “I propose that the Internet is the truest sense of the modern-day city. There are dense populations, a social infrastructure, complex architecture, rules, and culture. I will suggest that there is transportation as well as residences. Drawing mainly on the ideas of Jane Jacobs I will present the Internet as a modern day city that is governed under what I define as “Democratic Anarchy.”
  (tags: internet digital popculture)



• London double-decker cruises to new life in Japan
  The double-decker Routemaster bus, a phased-out London icon, is gaining a second life in a Japanese city that believes the red road giant fits right in. Families and tourists snapped pictures as they queued up at a bus stop to hop onto a double-decker, which has been running on weekends since April in Shimonoseki, on the southern tip of Japan’s biggest island of Honshu. As a summer breeze wafted along the seafront, passengers waved to people on the streets below from the second level of the Routemaster, which stood out conspicuously in the city’s fleet of non-descript buses. “The scenery of this town is totally different when I see it from the second floor,” said Mayumi Nakamura, a 33-year-old housewife. “I hope the London bus will be a new symbol of Shimonoseki.”
  (tags: london japan routemaster shimonoseki popculture)
• Art Ships Set Sail On the Hudson River
  Street artist Swoon has undertaken an ambitious art project named the Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea. Swoon and a motley crew of contributors have built a fleet of seven art boats that will journey down the Hudson river from Troy, New York, to Long Island City, Queens. Part floating city, part sculpture and part performance, the Switchback team will make stops at cities along the way, performing plays and music for locals. The ships will dock in Long Island City on September 7th for a run of shows until September 13th. The boats were constructed primarily out of found materials from junk yards and construction sites.
  (tags: art popculture newyork swoon)
• Publicis Gives Clients ‘One Neck to Choke’
  It isn’t called the “Insight Factory” anymore, but the integrated-agency model Publicis Groupe announced in November is reshaping the way the holding company handles some of its largest clients. Designed to foster greater cooperation between sibling agencies in different disciplines, the group has begun awarding ownership of some of its major accounts to individual shops. Nintendo, which uses Leo Burnett for creative, Starcom for media, Arc for promotional work and Digitas for digital, is now led exclusively by Starcom, with staffers at the other shops reporting directly to a Starcom lead. Kellogg, on the other hand, is now a Burnett-led business.
  (tags: icp connectionsplanning commsplanning integratedmarketing marketing)