OccupyWallStreet: Headed back to Washington Square Park

General Assembly at 10:00pm at Washington Square Park.

Music to march by:

and for the purists:

OccupyTogether: October 15- Global Day of Action

Update 6:54.  Will have to leave momentarily to take a kid to a dance.  Tell me if anything happens.

Here’s the best live feed so far: http://www.earthcam.com/usa/newyork/timessquare/

Update 6:35: At 6:37, Dwayne reports, they are all going to sing a song.  They are singing, “This little light of mine”

All together now!

Update 6:24:  Dwayne’s feed is very chaotic but he’s right there watching the horse mounted police coming into the crowd.  Voice commentary is good. http://www.livestream.com/occupywallstnyc.

6:16 The earthcam let’s you see it all.  In brutal detail.  http://www.earthcam.com/usa/newyork/timessquare/

It is very, very crowded down there.  Think New Year’s Eve crowded.  I can only see part of Times Square but the crowd is chanting “The whole world is watching”, which can’t be good.  Now, massive Booing.  That’s not a good sign.   I hope things calm down before curtain time.  It would suck to have just spent a small fortune on Broadway tickets and not be able to get to the theatre.  That would be seriously uncool.

Update 5:59:  Ok, this is ridiculous.  There are thousands of people jammed on the sidewalk who can’t cross the street.  They are bound to spill into the street.  It would be impossible to keep them confined for much longer. Ruh-roh, here come the police on Vespas.  One of the earthcam webcams is overwhelmed.

From the livestream chatroom moderator:

 the revolution is experiencing technical difficulties.
piscaa: expect interference from

Update 5:57pm: The square is really filling up now and making some noise.  The problem with Times Square is that there is a main thoroughfare right through the middle of it so the protestors have to stay on the sidewalks.  On a normal Saturday evening, the sidewalks of Times Square are crowded.  I don’t know how the police are going to keep people from spilling into the street.  I just hope everyone stays calm.  It looks from the webcam that the police are preventing people on the sidewalk from crossing over into the area beneath the big marquee.  That’s not a good plan, IMHO.  There’s still plenty of room over there.   In the meantime, Occupy Berlin is having interactions with police.

Update 5:19pm:  If you are following along on the Earthcam, you can hear the occupiers coming into the square.  It sounds like they are singing “We ARE the 99%!”  They’ve got a band!  Did the Musicians Union join them?  

Update: Here is what Times Square looks like from the Earthcam live cam at http://www.earthcam.com/usa/newyork/timessquare/

You can hear the Occupiers chanting on the earthcam as they enter the square but the crowd is still small at this point.  Watch it grow.

Marchers should be entering the square from the bottom of your screen if you are watching the Earthcam.

Update 4:45pm: Dwayne and the media team are in a cab headed up to Times Square.  Broadcasting live from the back of the cab.  I found a live cam broadcast from Times Square.  check it out here: Times Square Cam.  There are a couple different angles to choose from.  Hit the “See more Times Square Cams” in the upper left hand corner.

Update 4:25:  The police have shut down Times Square.  (unconfirmed)  WTF?  There are people who have shows to do up there.  Musicians, actors, singers, restaurant people, Sephora salespeople…  Curtains go up at 8:00pm.

There are two streams of marchers headed for Times Square.  One stream is headed up Broadway, the other is headed up 7th avenue.  The Mic Check just said that the police will be searching backpacks at the train station on the way to Times Square “SO DON’T BE STUPID!”  This is OK by me.  Security is notoriously tight around Times Square when they expect crowds.

Update 4:07pm: Dwayne is MCing the live feed from Zuccotti park.  He is headed to Times Square in a cab so that they don’t lose air in the subway.  He says crowd estimates in Times Square are supposed to be 50,000 people.  There are rumors in the chat room that police are getting antzy at Times Square, which is too bad.  Because if there was ever an ideal place to party, it would be Times Square.  Why ruin it with riot police?  For that matter, why ruin it with riots?  If you’re there, stay on the sidewalk, follow traffic rules, keep an eye on your fellow occupiers.  Keep safe and cooperative.

HAVE FUN!!

Update 4:11:  There are arrests right now at Broadway and 16th street.  Times Square is at 42nd street so they still have quite a way to walk.  No indication of what is setting off the arrests.

Today, OccupyTogether has events all around the world for the first Global Day of Action.  There’s probably one near you.  Go, and say hi.  I guarantee that there will be someone there your age.  Maybe you’ll be the first but if you do it, others will join you and that’s what this movement is all about.  Stand together in solidarity with the other 99% and demand that your hard work and playing by the rules are rewarded.

In Manhattan today, there are several events planned today for OccupyWallStreet.  There is an OccupytheBoardroom,  and Take Times Square Convergence and Occupation Party at 5:00pm.  The Times Square occupation could be an amazing event.  Times Square is generally packed on Saturdays anyway.  There are people from out of town to see plays and there are three hours to kill before curtain time.  This could be a really inspiring community event.  When the lights come on in Times Square, I hope people have their cameras at the ready.

Alas, I won’t be one of them.  Brook is going to a Homecoming Dance tonight and I will be acting as stylist and limo driver.  I wouldn’t miss that for the world.  But I will be checking in through the various livestreams.  If you have similar pre-engagements, you can still participate by joining the conversation on the livestreams or through twitter at #occupyWallStreet

Here are some livestreams to follow:

GlobalRevolution Livestream (this one is the busiest and will cut in with events from around the world)

OccupyWallStNYC – This is mainly from Zuccotti park but features other occupations as well

Avaazwallstreet – A Euro-Middle East collaboration activist organisation.   Their livestream was pretty good yesterday.

I don’t know if OccupyWallStreet will be able to do what the left on its own has not since 2008 but what the heck, why not try to promote each other?  It couldn’t hurt.  So, in the spirit of re-engagement, check out the livestream from Firedoglake.  They will be covering events live.  Check out their live coverage post here.  I expect quality work from Jane Hamsher’s crew.

Also doing a bang up job covering a number of OccupyTogether sites are our friends at Corrente.  Indignés is covering OccupyParis from Corrente.  And while you’re there, make sure to tip your host.  I keep thinking that Lambert is on the verge of a great idea about collaborating in the blogosphere.  Let’s help him over the critical threshhold of creativity.  If you have any ideas for how to do this, see this post: Readers, how do we publish ourselves to the occupiers and indignants?

I don’t know but what if we could put together an application like The Daily app for the iPad?  Just a suggestion.

Finally, for those of you who are still confused about how OccupyWallStreet works, check out this episode of Virtually Speaking with Jay Ackroyd, Stuart Zechman and Alison Kilkenny.  They discuss the Open Source model, which is quite unlike what many people are used to as an organizing philosophy.  If you hit your stride in your career at the beginning of the internet age, you will probably grok this idea pretty easily.  Here’s a brief wiki summary of open source philosophy:

The open-source model includes the concept of concurrent yet different agendas and differing approaches in production, in contrast with more centralized models of developmentsuch as those typically used in commercial software companies.^[2] A main principle and practice of open-source software development is peer production by bartering and collaboration, with the end-product, source-material, “blueprints,” and documentation available at no cost to the public. This is increasingly being applied in other fields of endeavor, such as biotechnology.^[3]

The internet made this collaborative organizing model possible.  If you’re not familiar with Open Source, Allison, Jay and Stuart will walk you through it and tell you why it’s so powerful even if it’s leaderless.

In addition, Stuart explains why the parties are probably dead.  They’re too badly compromised.  He has a field report from an independent Democrats (the “good” guys) meeting he attended in Manhattan recently.  They also talk about why they don’t think either party or MoveOn type organization is going to have an easy time co-opting the Occupation.  In short, the 99% are disgusted by the parties and orgs and want something new.  If Obama was planning to turn the Occupation into a new version of OFA, he and the other Democratic leadership should shelve that idea pronto.  I don’t think the Occupation even wants endorsements from them.  They’re going to do things their way from now on.

So, livestream and learn and get out there.  I plan to go to Zuccotti Park tomorrow after all of the excitement is over in hopes that the party carried on through the night and I haven’t missed a thing.