Ulmer - Electronic Monuments Part One

Although I am not quite sure of some of the points that Ulmer makes in his book, I found many of his statements very interesting.  9/11 will always peak the interest of Americans, so I liked that Ulmer used this example as a springboard into some of the terms he describes.  I've never been a fan of coining terms (i.e. Al Gore, George W.), but in this particular instance I think it is necessary since he is discussing concepts and ideas that do not currently exist.

Florida Rushmore?

After reading the introduction, the text reminded me of when I met Paul Flemming, founder of P.F. Changs.  Between 2002 and 2008, Paul Flemming opened 110 restaurants, while the average publicly traded restaurant group actually closed locations.  His message in explaining this statistic was that it will always benefit people to be proactive rather than reactive.  This is similar to what I gathered from Ulmer when he addresses how we as a society have reacted to tragedies such as 9/11.  He describes America as an "idea," and tragedy gives us the opportunity to reflect on our values and possibly alter them.  

In the past, the media has essentially controlled the mourning of our nation because they construct the text and images that are presented to us.  As the internet has evolved, we are exposed to much more information, creating the needs for citizens to be self-informed.  The idea of a MEmorial is an electronic monument that would involve citizens (netizens), much like an ongoing town hall meeting.  This would provide a type of collective intelligence that would benefit democracy in general and create more of a unity between "self" and "nation."

I can certainly understand the idea of a MEmorial, and even the relation that it has with tourism.  The example of Mount Rushmore was a great example because it is a symbol of achievement rather than mourning.  However, I am not quite sure of the relationship it has with tourism in an electronic sense.  I read and re-read the proposal concerning Florida Rushmore.  It is a very interesting concept but I think that an electronic monument loses the critical feature of physical presence.  I really like the concept of forming a collective identity to solve social problems, but I don't see the relevance it has to an increase in tourism.  Each "tourist" having an opportunity to be a "living" monument is a great idea that I think would be very successful, and like Ulmer said adds functionality to the monument (46).

The Real Florida Rushmore?

The idea of an electronic monument definitely makes sense in reference to things that are generally overlooked or devalued.  Ulmer points this out with the idea of victims of car crashes, and presents some alarming statistics to support it (41,821 deaths in 2000).  I think that people place more value on lives that are lost in the pursuit to maintain our self interests (i.e. military), but not necessarily because of monuments associated with them.  Its interesting to compare the two because the military and the ability to drive and automobile both have assumed risks.  More value is assigned to the military or any other national tragedy because it is supporting the idea of America, and driving an automobile is a self interest that we are provided because of the freedom we have.