Web Spotlight: Color Wars 2008

I was directed to Color Wars 2008 a few days ago, c.o. the website of troubadour extraordinaire Jonathan Coulton. As a product of the imagination of Ze Frank (the man behind the fantastic, and now defunct The Show), my interest was immediately piqued. Ever since The Show ended in March of last year, I've been eagerly awaiting Ze Frank's next big project. And here it is. And even if, as a Canadian, I'm baffled by the misspelling of the word colour, I'm intrigued.

So what exactly is Color Wars? Basically, it's a competition where a bunch of teams (represented by, gee? I wonder? Colours?) compete in a series of online challenges. This seems a natural evolution of The Show, where Frank would often try to engage viewers, challenging them to compose songs, submit videos of themselves, play a game a chess, and even write a whole episode. Color Wars simply takes Frank off of the digital stage, and places the emphasis solely on the onetime audience.

Whether or not this digital cultural phenomenon of user-created content has any longterm prospects, it remains interesting to watch. Contests so far have included the creation of Nerd Rap, photo duplication (where entrants try and recreate a picture of them as a child, with them at their current age), and, my current favourite, creating videos of people spinning with a broom 30 times, throwing said broom down and then jumping over it.

At just under a month old, Color Wars is still in its infancy, but it's already attracted enough attention - and participants - that I think it's going to be well worth watching to see what comes out of all the fun and games, aside from a good time for all involved.

So check it out, join a team or start your own, and join the world's first (?) online summer camp.