>>330332
Here's what I have:
Alright this is going to be a long post. It's nothing actionable as far as I can see and has little to do with GamerGate specifically so feel free to just put this on the backburner, but I did find some links between familiar names.
>Starting with this list of Silverstring Media employees: http://archive.today/20140702205555/http://silverstringmedia.com/team/
>I started some small digging into Brian Clark. He's listed as an adviser (like Sarkeesian and McIntosh) and the CEO of a company called GMD Studios.
https://archive.today/bId8C
>GMD Studios call themselves an "innovation lab. We help companies, organizations, and storytellers meet new challenges through the power of experience design."
>Essentially, they are content marketers and native advertisers. You know those ads you see on Gawker. The stories and/or headlines that look like real pieces but are actually native ad content or brand promotion? Places like GMD Studios makes them. I found a link between Brian Clark and Nick Denton - they were co-panelists at an Ad-Tech conference a decade ago, but that's really weak and I couldn't find any other direct links between Brian, Gawker, UBM or Vox. Although I did find a list of companies GMD have worked for:
https://archive.today/udx1w
https://archive.today/UqUEl
>He (Brian Clark) also has a strong interest in creating "transmedia" and have made ARGs in the past, which might be how he caught the eye of Kris Ligman/Critical Distances and by proxy, Silverstring. He mentions Brian by name while bitching about the portrayal of women in comics:
https://archive.today/ce6Hz
>Last year, GMD Studios had a Kickstarter, where people paid them to create a forum where they would be grouped and participate in discussions about gun policy in the USA for a short amount of time. Basically, -$10 with a time limit.
https://archive.today/88xAJ
>This is significant because their project was based on academic research by Don Adams and Arlene Goldbard.
>Goldbard is an academic social activist and heavily contributed to the concepts of 'cultural democracy' and 'critical consciousness'.
>The former is the belief that, "many cultural traditions co-exist in human society, and that none of these should be allowed to dominate and become an official culture. Culture, in this sense, is an all-encompassing idea: it contains the arts, politics, the built environment, and the entire array of voluntary activities that are part of human life. If we"re to act effectively in the world, we have to understand the interrelatedness of all aspects of culture, rather than succumbing to the view that each aspect is a specialized enclave, best left to experts. In short, culture must be seen as a public interest."
>The latter defined as "a popular education and social concept, grounded in post-Marxist critical theory."
https://archive.today/NKN5A
https://archive.today/NAyOR
>Finally, the latest event on the GMD Studios website is something called "Bit by Bit: Experiments in Digital Storytelling", a workshop/conference where "a group of storytellers, hackers, makers, game developers and experience designers came together for a day full of experimentation, coding, networking and fun. Experiments in Digital Storytelling invited participants to challenge the way stories are told and experienced. The challenge - harness storytelling and technology as a way to create a storytelling experience that evokes emotion and empathy."
>Brian was a speaker and listed as a "mentor" for the event.
http://vimeo.com/88224920
Sounds and looks like postmodern wankery if you ask me, but the event was co-organised by Brown's Institute of Media Innovation, and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
Guess who went to the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism and is an occasional contributor to the Columbia Journalism Review?
Leigh Alexander.
None of this is meant to prove acts of impropriety or conscious links between any of these people or parties, but it shows just how pervasive the ideology is, and how it's able to filter from academia into the real world. So just keep it all in mind.
After all, "culture is an all-encompassing idea: it contains the arts, politics, the built environment, and the entire array of voluntary activities that are part of human life. If we"re to act effectively in the world, we have to understand the interrelatedness of all aspects of culture, rather than succumbing to the view that each aspect is a specialized enclave, best left to experts."