New Mind Space: Viral Facebook Cult or Interactive Public Art?

I'm sure by know you guys have begun to realize that I like to put a little of my life's stories in my blogs and in light of me being back in Toronto for the week, here's an interesting little one about a viral action phenomenon called "New Mind Space". I first got a taste of it myself when I was in Toronto this past summer in a city wide pillow fight outside of Toronto's City Hall - Nathan Phillips Square. 

(yes that is me excitedly getting ready to slap someone)

So how did this all begin? They apparently started in New York as an interactive urban bliss, a getaway if you will for people in the big cities to let loose and have fun. Much like the concept of a "Flash Mob" in Asia (similarly people get together to do really random things for a 'flash second' and disperse rapidly). So one random day, I took a look on my facebook account and saw an invite to a city-wide pillow fight, and I thought "this must be some joke?" Looking into it further, I realized that there were thousands of people signed up to go to this event and tons of comments of anticipation for the pillow fight to happen! As curious as any urban city dweller would be, I grabbed a pillow and went off to City Hall.

I think the biggest lesson learned out of this is that Facebook has now been used as more than just a medium for social networking and ads, but also a collective movement (a call-to-action). So for all those online marketers out there, this is a way to harness Facebook's social presence and engage users to act in either hitting strangers with pillows or buying the next cutting-edge consumer technology.

Feel free to check out where the viral action all began - www.newmindspace.com