rickwebb:

rachelfershleiser:

nukuler:

Well, I just invited 20,000+ strangers to a picnic.

If you haven’t heard of it, The Listserve is an amazing experiment out of ITP where one person a day from the list is chosen to send one email out to everybody. I got picked a couple days ago.

Most of the time, people tell stories or give life advice or share recipes. I thought it’d be interesting to take it beyond the screen and bring it into a different medium: PICNICS.

Here’s what I wrote:

Hello, stranger.

My name is Nicole. I live in Brooklyn, NY, work at Kickstarter, and I like knitting, tiny instruments, and avocados.  I’m interested in internet communities, but what really tickles me is bridging that terrifying gap between cyberspace and meatspace.

So, let’s try something.

On Sunday, August 26th at 1 pm EST, I am going to be at the following coordinates:

40.667602,-73.970831

(Note: If you’re using an iPhone, Google Maps does a weird thing where sometimes it shows you an incorrect pin on a path nearby, which isn’t the right place, but it should show the correct pin on a computer. If it looks like it’s in the middle of nowhere, it’s correct. Email me for details. Or leave it up to fate.)

I will bring a blanket, a kite, a ukulele, and food. You will be there too, bringing your friends, your dogs, your friends’ dogs, cookies, napkins, instruments, brown-bagged beer, and anything or anyone else you’d like. It’s entirely possible that it’ll just be you and me, sitting awkwardly around a bowl of browning guacamole. Or maybe it’ll be you and me and 20,915 of our closest internet friends. Who knows?

I have a mole under my eye and I’ll be wearing red.

See you soon.


Nicole He
brooklynpicnicole@gmail.com
Brooklyn, NY

I’ve gotten about 80 emails in 30 minutes, so it seems like it won’t just be me and a couple friends knitting under a tree. (I’ll try to respond to everyone, but it’ll probably take me a bit!)

And since I’ve already invited most of the internet, I think I should take this opportunity to invite everyone to this thing, even if you aren’t on The Listserve. You too. I’m inviting you.

As for more verbal directions to getting to those coordinates, here they are: if you enter Prospect Park from Grand Army Plaza, you’ll see a huge field. Walk across the field until you see a line of trees on a hill. I’ll be there with a picnic blanket I just ordered on Amazon.

So, see you Sunday, internet?

So cool!

I got this email this morning and was very excited to see this. 

Thank you God for the Internet