The Internet Famous Class at Parsons New School is all about studying the art and science of getting hits. Recently featured on Current TV, the course is dedicated to teaching students the most effective ways of leveraging social media to gain the largest possible audience online.
In order to test their theories and experiment with new strategies for gaining popularity, students are expected to develop their own projects, either collectively or on their own, utilizing any and all media in conjunction with the internet.
What makes the course particularly interesting is that students’ grades are based entirely on how much traffic they can pull in. The class utilizes a special piece of software that monitors the popularity of students’ websites and online accounts in real time. Sites such as Digg, YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, Technorati, and Twitter are all monitored and an overall grade for the class is established based on an algorithm that takes into consideration factors such as total views, friend counts, inbound blog links, and the length and intelligence level of comments.
Facebook
Twitter
Digg
Reddit
StumbleUpon
Must be a natural outgrowth of the New York Reality TV School
http://www.newyorkrealitytvschool.com/
I wonder if it’s now officially time for someone to rework Warhol’s model of “15 Minutes of Fame” so that it reflects qualitative differences?
March 3rd, 2009 at 3:15 pm
Is the teacher already famous on the Internet? If not, I’d want my course fees back.
March 4th, 2009 at 2:24 am
It’s the Paris Hilton effect… You are famous, because you are famous. The fact that you are a douchenozzle is of little matter, because you can now be a famous douchenozzle. I’m working on it.
Cheers/George
March 4th, 2009 at 9:21 am
I guess it all depends
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EPx1q_ucOA
March 5th, 2009 at 9:24 pm
Awesome!
June 21st, 2009 at 4:38 pm