Dancing in the street

Hard to know exactly how to characterize this but cognitive dissident John Perry Barlow has been leading revelers through a series of public dance mobs in the vicinity of the Republican convention (Dancarchy Reigns!)

He seems happy with the results so far:

Republicans were hard to encounter at first. They are being quarantined behind the blue membrane of the NYPD (for whom my affection and respect has only increased through this experience). In addition, they spend much of their time inside the Garden having a lot less fun than we were. (As several of them told us.) Levels of engagement have increased with fine-tuning. The results vary, ranging from the Stepford husband whom we made so nervous that he walked into a plate glass window to the sweet young delegate from Oklahoma who tore off his tie and joined us for the balance of the evening.

Liza Sabater, one of the contributors to my blog-about-blogging, Radio Free Blogistan, was involved in organizing one of Barlow's dance "pods."

Barlow was scheduled to speak last night at the blog panel called IMHO at P.S. 122, but didn't show. Throughout the evening Liza got text messages on her phone with news updates of his whereabouts and escapades, along the lines of "Barlow is currently being chased by the police."

(The panel discussion deserves more coverage. I took notes and will write something up when I have time to digest. The topics covered frequently strayed beyond strictly blogging into the realm we've been calling the living web in general. Jeff Jarvis moderated crisply - boy the man talks fast! - and Douglas Rushkoff provided some of the most nuanced insights of the evening (although all of the panelists did a bang-up job, in my humble opinion).