So, the fun thing about technology and the availability to the average person is their ability to create “stuff.” We talked in class about viral videos and game videos and anything else you can do with youtube and other online places that create networks.
So my question is, wtf is Britney Spears still making money when there are people like this out there.
On a happier note, this chick rocks and if you haven’t heard any of her stuff check her out. It will blow your mind what an amateur with a web cam can pull off. Puts a lot of “real” music people to shame in my opinion. http://www.youtube.com/user/MarieDigby
Interaction Culture 
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Just like this notion of the web and U-Tube as a channel for the underdog artists, there’s the dark side notion of the web and U-Tube as a vehicle for faux-underdog self/promotion.
Case-in-point: Marie Digby. Her U-Tube videos have been viewed over 2 million times, prompting a recent suggestion in The Wall Street Journal that her “amateur with a webcam” motif may well have been nothing more than a well-planned buzz strategy, carried out as part of a campaign developed by her (already secured) label. Digby has denied that her grassroots fame was the result of such “astroturfing”, but even if she’s telling the truth, it’s not like this kind of thing can’t or won’t happen, more and more.
In fact, as good HCI/designers, wouldn’t such practices be just the kind of thing that we should be thinking up and suggesting to our clients?
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Marty you raise a good point.
I would be curious to know for sure if this is all a “scam” (and I use scam in the most loving way possible) or if she really did manage to garner all of her support. Not that its related, but Tila Tequila supposedly managed to make herself famous with myspace. Of course she went the nearly naked route as opposed to the singing beautifully route, but hey, whatever works for you I guess.
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More than the details of the Digby case, what I’m even more interested in is whether this whole “astroturfing” practice is legit or not.
Fact is, it may be an okay thing. For the most part, at least.
To elaborate, my kneejerk on the astroturf practice is to say that it’s just another lame example of The Man subverting something real and organic and decent and clean, etc. for greedy corporate purposes. But on further thought, I couldn’t help but figure that (if Marie Digby is indeed a staged product) it was probably a pretty tech-savvy, with-it digital designer type who thought the whole angle up. And arguably, this is exactly the kind of thing that we HCI/d-ers are supposed to invent for our clients. It’s not necessarily the ideal, but not all of us are going to be working in firms that only do what’s ideal.