Lighthearted Discussion Thread

Hi everyone

I know this is a place for serious and topical discussions, but I wanted to inject some humor here, too.

Here is my question (and it comes following a comment to a friend about the need for a Superhero to battle the spam making its way onto a shared blog site of ours):

If you were to invent a superhero defender for the world of Web 2.0:

* What would their name be?
* What would their strengths be?
* What would their weaknesses be?
* Who would be its archenemy?

Now, here is where Web 2.0 might come into play.

Once you answer the questions, head to HeroMachine (http://www.marvelvc.com.br/Hero/) and create a picture of your hero and see if you can insert it into your discussion (Will Ning allow that?).

You will need to save your hero as a screenshot, then upload it as a file with your response (see mine down below -- I was experimenting with a hero I invented a few months back called WritingMan, but then I created a new hero called SpamFilter in my response down below, too).

I look forward to seeing a group of heroes ready to defend the Web. (sync the theme music)

Kevin

Tags: art, superhero

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Attachments:

writingman hero.JPG, 36 KB

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Permalink Reply by Kevin H. on April 21, 2007 at 4:36am

My hero is called SpamFilter.

His strength is the ability to move along the fibers of the Internet and invade computers of Spammers in the mere seconds before spam is released. He has the uncanny ability to know where to go because he was once given the gift of insight by a purple mole in the ground. (see comic book edition 5.1 in the SpamFilter series -- just kiddin')

His weakness is that he sometimes confuses a malicious spammer with an innocent emailer, and has to venture into the world of the Ethernet Zone to retrieve non-spam. These journeys often take days and he encounters many strange creatures along the way, such as Spybot the Spyware Machine; InSecurity, the man who wasn't sure of himself; CCStealer, who steals credit card numbers at unprotected sites, and Twist, the little furry creature that lives in the wires behind computers and twists them into knots.

His archenemy is Legitimate, an alien from the planet Zune who poses as a legitimate web presence and then takes over people's computers from afar, using the collective CPU power as a source for anarchy in the Web 2.0 world (kind of like a reverse Google, with no advertising).

You can view my hero with the attached file.

Kevin

Attachments:

SpamFilter.JPG, 44 KB

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Permalink Reply by Linda Loder on April 21, 2007 at 11:33am

Verite would immediately identify all the predators out there who reach out through Web 2.0 to our students. She would zap right through the Internet and render every attempt made by these scumbags to contact anyone entirely futile. In addition, Verite would tag them permanently as being ‘nonentities’ in the virtual world.

Her weaknesses would be her emotions – to want to do more than just tag them as nonentities in the virtual world. She would want them to spend the rest of their lives incommunicado with the rest of humanity, physically as well as virtually.

Who would be her archenemy? All who misuses ‘free speech’ by interpreting it to mean some have the right to prey on others.

BTW - Thanks for the idea; I'm going to try this with our i-team students and see what they come up with!
:) L.

Attachments:

Verite.jpg, 45 KB

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Permalink Reply by Kevin H. on April 22, 2007 at 7:23am

Ahh -- the power of bestowing "non-entity" status -- very nice touch.
I liked the "truth" on your hero's shield.
Kevin

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Permalink Reply by Elizabeth Davis on April 21, 2007 at 11:35am

The Communicator - faster than a speeding electron, able to form bring people together across thousands of miles. She's a window, she's a door, she's The Communicat-or!

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