Poof, the Magic Dragon

Having taken the time to decompress after nearly a week of pavement-pounding protest in Gotham City, it's time to take stock of the best and the worst of RNC 2004.

Pictured here is one of the worst. Sadly, the dragon I toiled so long and hard to create nearly four years ago was engulfed in flames on Sunday. While the exact cause of the fire has been the subject of much debate, the effect was certainly significant (if thoroughly unhelpful as the singular event requiring news coverage to qualify as 'almost entirely' an otherwise peaceful day of protest). In a series of predictable articles following the blaze, the right-wing tabloids were quick to blame anarchists, while the anarchists were quick to blame provocateurs. Watch news of the dragon from NBC (before) here and C-SPAN (after) here.

One of the best experiences was a testing out new tactical communications strategies. Despite an overwhelming show of force by the police, protesters were able to stay safe by logging onto new text messaging systems dispatching useful information throughout the day. The Ruckus Society maintained one of the best systems using the upoc commercial service (and profiled here by the Associated Press). The bigger story, though was a new app launched during the RNC called Txtmob. The free service allows anyone to create a text-messaging group, providing instant broadcasting ability to anyone who signs on. Oooh the possibilities!!