Slashdot Mirror
The Company Therapist (dot.com)
When the employees of a fictional San Francisco tech company need psychiatric help -- a not-unheard-of phenomenon out there -- they turn to their fictional Company Therapist, Dr. Charles Balis. I've used the word "fictional" twice because after a few visits to the site, readers quickly forget that this isn't a real shrink working with the stressed-out employees of a real company.
Balis, who completed his psychiatric residency at Columbia Presbyterian in New York City, headed west to set up his own practice, we learn. A shrewd and conservative businessmen, he contracted with CalaCare, Inc., an HMO, and agreed to spend more than half his time providing mental health counseling for Silicon Impressions, Inc., a huge hardware and software firm.
On the site, the stories of Dr. Balis' work unfold through his files, written collaboratively by "patients" who visit the site and create identities. We see transcripts of therapy sessions, phone conversations, personnel records -- even doodles. Over time, the continuing stories of Dr. Balis' patients, their psychological problems and dramas, allow the kind of character development normally associated with well-crafted novels, but not with websites.
The stories are almost shockingly realistic and compelling. We get drawn into them, often forgetting that they aren't quite real. Or are they? Some of the created characters -- patients Helen Gregory, Decker Jenkins -- are so contemporary and recognizable that they surely must reflect, at least in part, the lives of their creators.
The site sees itself not only as entertainment but as an educational vehicle to help writers polish their work -- an idea with broad applicability for other professions, from medicine to the law to other arts.
According to Information Arts: Intersections of Art, Science and Technology, a book edited by Stephen Wilson where I first learned of the site, a company called Pipsqueak Productions devised this hyperfictional environment as the perfect vehicle for collaborative fictional storytelling in cyberspace. Very original move. A therapist's office is a font of narrative, a great device for collecting different stories, honing different voices, full of interesting characters with evolving problems and case histories, able to draw on telephone calls and office transcripts, a place to discuss theories of treatment. Balis's world -- the pressured, constantly changing world of hi-tech - emerges vividly. Updated daily, The Company Therapist provides nearly two years of well-organized, easily accessible stories, doctor's notes and other materials. Since it's written by its collective audience rather than a single author or the site's creators, the range of tales and voices is fascinating.
Every contributor retains a recognizable style, yet is still able to move the collective narrative forward. In fact, many stories are moving forward at once, relating both to "work" and the personal lives of the patients, each told in an idiosyncratic voice and representing the challenges of a different life, yet collectively, painting a vivid portrait of a culture. This site is unique on the Web, both for its originality and quality of design, strong testimony to the notion online, technology and art are fusing to create things that are as new as they are exciting.
to explain this article for me
dot dot com? 2 dots? oh, JonKatz. I should've known.
------
Random, useless fact: I type in startx entirely with my left hand.
That is kinda cool how they have all this neat art stuff on the internet these days. Wait, I forgot, art sucks.
-Eric
Its like a Studdering Sean Conery "Ill take The The Rapist.com for 300. Damn you trebeck you with your greasy hair and dego mustache."
"All I can tell the "lesser of two evils" folks is that if they keep voting for evil, they'll keep getting evil."-Lp.org
You can't spell therapist without rapist
"I'll take the rapists for $100 Alex"
Those people who don't "get it" will eventually, as long as their business is one that is clearly in need of Internet.
Here in Africa, Internet is very expensive, but HUGE amounts of development money are spent connecting people, because Education and Development can only be improved by having access to the wonderful resources made available on the net.
The Americans have already got it. These virtual company psychiatrists are all very well, but the point is that this is stage two or three of the process, not stage one.
I'm all for content like this, but frankly what I am really interested in is information for development, learning, self improvement. It's only the developed world that have gone on from the "obvious" that is net and are spending time with such frivolity.
Conversion Rate Optimisation French / English consultant
/. is a commercial entity. goto slashdot.com
are all better, and cheaper, than therapy
This looks liks Soaps for the internet generation.
Is this a review of a website (thetherapist.com)?
Being paid to submit a story about the website?
Getting more hits on the website?
Sorry for seeming rude, but you picked a website and wrote about it. Its like an 8th grade book report.
I don't see where the meat of the topic of what you are speaking is...
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
Kinda reminds me about how Majestic was suppose to be a revolution in gaming. Only this time the revolution is in an art form, and they are not charging for it.
I definately like the section with "The Anonymous Faxer", I wonder if the idea of using puzzles as a part of a story is original (for a non-game) or has someone seen this type of storytelling before?
- The new medium becomes available.
- Artists create works in the new medium that mimic works in the old medium, learning in the process.
- Artists move on to new ideas in the new medium, launching a whole new class of art or fiction.
This can be illustrated by the examples of photography, film, television, etc, for all of history. It kind of disappoints me that people are using the web to imitate television, books, newspapers, etc, instead of doing more with the medium. Maybe we're still just getting there.
A good, if dated, book on the subject of creativity and possibilities on the net (especially concerning non-linear narrative) is Hamlet on the Holodeck by Janey Murray.
* (referring to artistic works, but I think it applies to other types as well. programming?)
Jon haven't you argued about a hundred times before that culture is being destroyed by Cyber space? Not the other way around?
Perhaps if you actually believed in your stances your articles wouldn't read like such utter crap.
The Generation
I'd say something witty here, but I'm not that bright.
I don't know art, but I do know a bit about writing and I really can't say I like the site at all. If this is an example of the web "opening up" and "exploring new frontiers" then I am afraid we have a LONG way to go. This strikes me as more of the mindless self indulgence of a bored post grad than work of any worth. I see this sort of trite crap every day and I am NOT impressed. (and before you flame, yes I did read through the site). There are plenty of other sites out there for writing development, and most of them are a bit more low on the "hopelessly unemployable and overeducated" scale.
Find out about my new childrens book: SS Death Camp Criminal Batallion Go To Monte Carlo For The Massacre
The Company, TheRapist.com?
I figured it was one of those rape fantasy fetish sites.
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
This site could eaisly keep me from getting any work done today, tommorrow, and possibly most of next week. I better stop now.
__
Choose mnemonic identifiers. If you can't remember what mnemonic means, you've got a problem. - Larry Wall
In Nazi Germany, Jews were labelled as being 'different' by being forced to wear Yellow Stars. After the introduction of Subscriptions, Slashdot culture has divided into the "elite" and the "unwashed masses". Talk was made of letting subscribers have Gold Stars next to their Usernames.
For a pseudo-libertarian gestalt like Slashdot culture, to suddenly shift to a "two tier" system of "haves" and "have nots" is clearly WRONG. How can we believe the credo "Information wants to be free" when Slashdot has taken one more step towards becoming a subscription only format.
Look at the ghetto of -1 postings. Good, well reasoned, thought out postings, such as this one, are doomed to languish at the bottom of the pile. Rendered UNREADABLE by the actions of crapflooders and page wideners. Slashdot has the power to fix the page widening posts, but CHOOSES NOT TO.
Why? Because they only appear on Internet Explorer, and only appear at -1. Therefore abusers of the Slashdot community are clearly targetting a supposed 'minority' of users.
This is just another form of racism. I choose to use Internet Explorer as it is the most stable, most reliable, most standards compliant browser available. To ask an IE user to change their browser would be like asking a Jew to grow their foreskin back. DISCRIMINATION.
I also choose to read at -1, for this is where the truth is written.
Ask yourself why Slashdot would WANT to discriminate so blatently against -1 IE browsers. The answer is simple.
CONTROL. The editors seek to viciously and pitifully control what YOU read, but yet they still espouse freedom as if it still means something to them.
Forms of filtering the adverts out, (Which, if you check the latest hooks they've added to Slash, shall soon become more disruptive. Pop-unders, interstitials, etc.) are treated with, of all things, FUD by the Slashdot editors. Then code is added INSTANTANEOUSLY to Slashdot to remove the Ad filtering userbox code. BUT WHY DON'T THEY FIX PAGE WIDENING.
Clearly Slashdot is dying, and shall surely become the haven of Warez traders. For Warez traders ALSO espouse freedom, whilst trading their foul DDos code to restrict the freedom of others.
"Why did they cancel my favorite Sci-Fi show? I downloaded ALL the episodes!"
Who lets this guy write for slashdot? Is he real or what?
Thank you.
sulli
RTFJ.
"I like this site. This site is cool".
Just visited it. Cheap soap opera, not very well written, and definitely not interesting. Actually, it's pretty Jon-Katz-esque.
Actually, it should be:
The Company Therapist (dot com),
Not:
The Company Therapist (dot.com)
This means:
The Company Therapist (dot dot com)
Similar to:
Windows 2000 - based on NT technology
According to Microsoft, NT stands for New Technology
So this means:
Windows 2000 - based on New Technology technology
A small gripe, yes, but if we're expected to see monetary value in this website, someone should be doing simple quality assurance on it. It's a basic principle of good web design.
"A terrorist is someone who has a bomb but doesn't have an air force." -William Blum
Okay I've rarely read a JonK article that I enjoyed, but I figured that other people must like it so no biggy there. But what the heck is the point of this story? The site isn't that interesting and the article is pointless.
I am very curious; is there any voting or anything to determine if a JonK article is posted or does he have a post-o-matic button?
Why is Mr. Katz starting to sound suspiciously like Ron Popeil?
Sort of like that interactive game, I think it was text based where the computer would ask you a series of questions and would tell a story. I cannot remember the name
i know it's a troll, but i'm gonna bite anyway :)
:)
subcription based descrimination, while not-nice, is nothing like racism.
People are born with their race, and, unless they're michael jackson, they can't change it. The nazis kept jews in the gheto, and the jews had no choice in the matter. They we're oppressed by an army with GUNS and shit. Th jews didn't have much choice in the matter.
Slashdot readers have choices. They can choose to subscribe, or not to, they can choose what threshold to read at, or they can choose to read different websites instead of slashdot. Or, to get really crazy, they could even choose to get their ass off the computer alltogether and go do something productive. (!!!/I)
So comparing subscriptions to WWII doesn't cut it.
But I'm sure you already knew that, and just wanted a response like this one. And I don't want to bring shame to my (somewhat)good username by being the sucker that took the bate, which is why this post is AC.
I also choose to read at -1, for this is where the truth is written.
Perfect! Wonderful! If I wasn't a filthy AC I would use that as my signature.
The web spawned document simulation fiction (of which "The Company Therapist" is an example), fan fiction, hyperlink fiction ("choose your own adventure"), and nebular fiction (browse your way from site to site and figure it all out). While these are all interesting ways to tell a story, they really do not hold a candle to a book.
It would be great to see some of this work actually make it into a book - in the form of a story with narration.
The public still often thinks of the Net in terms of thievery, retailing, pornography, and hacking and cracking
Actually, the public thinks of the Net in terms of flashy annoying banner adverts, pop-up windows, and the 500 "MAKE MONEY TODAY!" spam emails they get every day in thier AOL email box (And AOL 7.0 is FAST!)
Jon, you really need to avoid the broad, sweeping generalizations that portray the world from your own, rather isolated and biased point of view. "The Public" ain't as naive and stupid as you'd like to portray them as in this website review.
You are my favorite poster. I read every slashdot article (well, just the comments) hoping for the next update.
..Katz is a little late on this one. First off, they arent accepting submissions any more , so I would beg to differ that it is a 'collaborative' web site... What collaborative web site (in the utopian 'everbody can submit' sense of the word) closes it's doors to all but a few select writers?
And secondly, it looks as if this web site hasnt even been updated in quite some time. Did Katz just find the nearest 'collaborative' site to use as his example in this article, or does he really think of this as a text book example of that kind of web site...
I lost my concept of community when my community lost all concept of me.
I see "The Rapist"
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
Some of us have long argued that culture isn't being destroyed in cyberspace, but is actually being reborn here
Culture in America died years ago. It's called "content" now. The Internet is a massive hole of cultureless junk. "Geek culture" is not a culture, it's a reporters tag line.
Those searching for meaning within the confins of the Internet are constantly disappointed.
More than half of modern culture depends on what one shouldn't read.
Oscar Wilde - The Importance of Being Earnest
www.thesextherapist.org
"We put the 'org' in orgasm!"
-- www.globaltics.net
Political discussion for a new world
... but I could have downloaded about 4 or 5 porn video clips instead of trying to figure out the signifigance of this Katz revelation.
If there is another slow day for Jon, I have a mole on my ass that he can write about.
Collaborative fiction has been going on for years on the web, in various forms. For example, this
Transformers based RPG I write on. From what I can tell (couldn't get very far into all the self-indulgent writing on The Therapist) the site Katz mentions mainly succeeds because it has a more accessable topic to the casual random websurfer than, say, a Transformers rpg. However, it seems to me very light on the "collaborative" aspect. The patients only talk directly to the therapist, which might be less confusing for the reader than having them talk to each other, but I find a lot more dull from a writer's standpoint.
As something that wakes people up to the possibilities of collaborative fiction and art, good site. As actual collaborative fiction, not as good. Perhaps, though, that people are noticing is a good sign for this kind of work in general.
Oh, and a few good points about collaborative fiction that I'm almost surprised Katz missed-
1. Breaks down the barrier between artist and audience (a key feature of "New Media", and one of those things the MPAA/RIAA are deathly afraid of)
2. A great way to improve your writing skills- you'd be surprised how much more actually writing with other writers (many who are better than you) helps than the traditional proofreading/critique/editing process.
----- I don't believe in wisconsin.
Jon, I'm not one of your usual critics, but it's articles of this type that have driven me away from Slahsdot in recent months...
Why do you feel this desperate need to prove the importance of the web?
Belief that the web is "creating culture" is as silly as those who accuse the web of "destroying culture". The web is part of a culture, and it is socially significant -- but in the end, the hubris that brought on the "dot bomb" boom is going to deflate those who have high aspirations for the "significance" of the web as a cultural engine.
Oh, I once believed that the web would be a force for social change, providing an outlet for all the lost voices in the wilderness, uplifting the masses, and providing the masses with information about critical issues. In truth, the web did (and does) not create culture -- it reflects the culture it is embedded in. Having a universal, uncensored forum didn't suddenly make poeple want to listen to issue they'd ignored -- they kept right on ignoring those issues, and the web accomplished little or nothing in terms of enlightenment.
The web is a powerful tool and a useful resource, but it won't remake humanity or redfine society as a whole. Such change require real human interactions...
All about me
While I hesitate to jump on the bandwagon of people who like to abuse Jon Katz for sport, articles like this do make it seem like he's spinning his wheels.
I have not read through Katz's earlier work at Wired, when he might have been accountable to an editor, but certainly most of his essays here are the sort of vague, grandiose pontification that any proper college writing teacher should cull out of a student. I recall being endlessly frustrated in college by the idea of having to write 4 pages about 5 lines of some piece of literature, but upon leaving school, I discovered that people are much more interested in what you can say cogently about a small point
than hearing you sketch sweeping paint-by-number landscapes you can't possibly hope to fill in.
In short, Katz, your ideas are moderately interesting but very overstated, and by focussing them into sharper points about tighter subjects, you'd make them interesting to read. I wish you luck tightening your writing.
It's funny. Every time I see a Katz article, I think of how cutting-edge and revolutionary his statements on online culture and multimedia revolution would be... If he had written them in 1992.
:)
So the Internet is being used to create art? Wow! Fancy the thought!
I've been writing collaborative fiction since about 1986 on the Island of Kesmai CompuServe message boards. It's commonplace among the online RPGing community (which wouldn't exist without collaborative fiction, though admittedly it's of widely varying quality). Most gaming sites now have associated bulletin boards (thanks to ezboard), and collaborative fiction is common among them. Sites for some games even let you build a hierarchy of pages to emulate a virtual world described and contributed to in text (e.g. the Shadowland fan-site for the Shadowrun game). And then there are MUXes....
If the literary/artistic community is only noticing this now, they are way behind the curve.
"The Company Therapist (dot.com)"
Sorry but I couldn't help but think of the Saturday Night Live Jeparody skit with Sean Connery.
"I'll take the rapists for twenty!"
;-)
I used to MUSH. I played Star Wars MUSHes, as well as a few generic cyberpunk and feudal ones.
Some of these MUSHes had little bits coded so that players could post logs of role-playing. These coded objects tended to exist in OOC (out of character space). Some carried meta-data about the role-playing, and most were text-searchable, at the very minimum.
New players were encouraged to read over these "classic" role-playing sections, and in this way could understand how good role-playing worked (Wizards/Admins controlled content submission), and contextualize their own character at the same time.
This would be, oh, about 10 years ago. Maybe a bit more. Some of those scenes carried some quite incredibly well written dialogue. Characters evolved constantly, their relationships changed. Much moreso than the patients involved on the Therapist.
On this site reviewed by Katz, the only axis is the "therapist", with some occasional links between patients (but not many, no no). This drags it an order of complexity below the MUSHes and what-not that I was playing well in advance of big fancy terms like "colloborative thematic fiction-based website".
If this is the best you can come up with for new and neat ideas on the internet, Katz, I'm afraid you missed the boat by about a decade. The interface may not have been so pretty, but it was all there, already.
People who understood a bit about the subculture wrote articles, back then, about MUSHing as a method of interactive, continually evolving fiction.
That was back when it was a new and interesting idea.
-leem
The stories are almost shockingly realistic and compelling.
Maybe I just hit the lemons, but neither adjective applied to what I read. If you want compelling, experimental short fiction, by a true master, may I suggest Donald Barthelme.
Sorry, it's not hypertext, or cyber-anything, but it is great literature.
What you know about "the art" isn't much.
Hi! I'm Homer Simpson! I'm a complete idiot! I can do anything I want to and get away with it! I live in a mansion and eat lobster 'cuz I'm Homer Simpson!
or
Hi! I'm John Katz! I'm a complete idiot! I sit around all day and surf the web looking for stuff! I can publish inane crap on Slashdot 'cuz I'm an idiot!
Fascinating stuff.
This isn't really culture. It's a self-centered rehashing of more dot-com lemmings' experiences and thoughts about their pitiful jobs. It's a meeting place of people who have no lives outside of their jobs, and need someone else to rehash their miserable lives (jobs) with. Perhaps the people involved with this project would be happier if they just turned off the computer, both at home and work.
Some culture indeed. Yeeccch.
Thanks for bringing this up. It's one of the sorry facts of life on the web that one terrible logical flaw has led to a tidal wave of dreck.
Just because something is simple doesn't mean it's easy. This applies to HTML and the English language. Sure everybody knows how to throw a few tags together and create a web page. Most North Americans have learned how to form sentences (if not paragraphs) in English.
But the mere ability to do either of the above does not even begin to qualify one to write well, or to be a decent web designer.
I've ranted about this before, and likely will again before I finally retire from this wasteland called the web.
It comes down to this: Writing is HARD. Design is HARD. Doing both well is harder still. Yes, there are a few people around who combine a thorough understanding of how the Web works with real writing ability, but you can count them on the fingers of one hand.
Pipsqueak Productions devised this hyperfictional environment as the perfect vehicle for collaborative fictional storytelling in cyberspace
I'M GOING TO HYPERFUCK YOUR MOMS CYBERPUSSY
It seems like any troll with a keyboard can throw stones at Katz. Bitch all you want but how about actually COMMENTING ON THE SUBJECT MATTER INSTEAD OF THE AUTHOR? What a concept!
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
It seems everytime there is an article written by JohnKatz, he goes down in flames. What's so wrong about his writings?
Damn it, it's EDITORIAL COMMENTS. That means you don't have to agree, but that doesn't mean he's an idiot or incompetent.
If you are not happy with his view on the internet or the industry in general why not write your own website with editorial comments about whatever you like?
Come on people, give the poor guy a break!
Therapist: Now, what seems to be the problem? CEO: My dotcom crashed and burned 18 months ago, but I can't stop speaking b-school jargon going forward. Therapist: Perhaps we can leverage your subconscious with some free-association... sound good? CEO: Sure. Therapist: Take a look at these inkblots.... what do you see? CEO: Umm.... it's a paper shredder. Therapist: Good. OK... this one? CEO: Uh.. Deal memo? Therapist: Good.... this one?
There's no way JonKatz is a real person. Someone did a cat to /dev/random on some beast of a machine in the basement of Bell Labs that only after 20 years is starting to make sense.
shut the fuck up jon katz - i hate your stupid ass articles - die fucker die!
ok, it's fine to bash this site, but if you're enlightened, be constructive and point us to a site that *is* worthwhile.
I hardly ever post on /. but this issue is really starting to bug me. You guys make fun of Katz's writing style, and sure it is a bit corny at times, but that doesn't affect the meaning of his articles. I'm not the biggest Katz fan out there but I admit I enjoy his pieces, and I even find some of them *gasp* insightful. If you want to disparage his writing then go right ahead. But there is really no need to go overboard on the man for a few excesses in style or content.
/. know that there is at least ONE Katz supporter out there. :D
Anyways feel free to flame me or whatever. I just thought I'd let
For all too many people in this world, hate remains the greatest motivator, so the tiny proportion of SlashDotters who have learnt to hate Jon become much more motivated to attack him and post more aggressively than however many there might be who enjoy his writings, to say nothing of the multitudes who either don't care or who just treat his writings on their merits.
/. turned me into a regular here, so substantive reasons others might have for hating him aren't reasons I relate to.
I guess I should at least come clean and admit that finding Jon writing for
To me the even bigger question is why those who are so loud in their hatred don't apply the tools Slash has available to exclude Jon's articles from their view?
Surely they cannot claim technical ineptitude.
More seriously, the one thing that slightly worries me about the persistent attacks is that it is a measure of the reluctance of too many narrowly productive people to admit that a wider world view might have any relevance to them.
These might be representative of the kind of people you could hire to develop truly evil technologies without them giving the outcomes a second thought.
I somehow doubt that anybody who respects what Jon brings to SlashDot is going to be a party to things that might do the world substantial harm.
-- Our systemic servants do not good masters make.