May 25, Phoenix, the next Mars Explorer, landed on the Red Planet. Phoenix has a DVD-ROM on it, visible for all aliens, next to the US flag image.

What on Earth and for heaven’s sake, I wondered, does it say in the text block just beneath the disk’s center? This thing, made of a special silica glass, of course is meant to be Me-marketing par excellence: the first digital library representing human kind as such, our archetypal Me, on this most of the time icecold planet nearby.

To get a clue, I loaded a fairly hires picture from the web, oversized it on a PowerPoint slide, put on my +1.0 reading spectacles, focused my eyes, and tried to decipher the text. It wasn’t easy at all, but finally I managed to get the full picture. However, I’m not sure about the word with the (? ? . . . ? ?) behind it. Someone help me please, to solve this final mystery!

Well, below is what I made of it, imho a little hilarious and actually strictly relevant for the record to visitors in some down-to-earth space museum:

“This archive, provided to the NASA Phoenix mission by The Planetary Society, contains literature and art (Vison of Mars), greetings from Mars visionaries of our day, and names of 21st century Earthlings who wanted to send their names to Mars. This DVD-ROM is designed to be read on personal computers in 2007. Information is stored in a spiral groove on the disc. A laser beam can scan the groove when metallized or a microscope can be used. Very small bumps and holes ( ? ? not sure about this ? ? ) represent the zeroes and ones of digital information. The groove is about 0,74 microns wide. For more information refer to the standards document ECMA-268 (80 mm DVD Read-Only Disk).”

This discovery was made on June 1 by Jaap Bloem, co-author of the Me the Media book, currently in Dutch, but to be published in English and French as well ([email protected]). On June 7 the text was submitted to the Wikipedia Phoenix spacecraft lemma.

Two weeks ago the new Dutch trends magazine Second Sight had its official launch. We had the opportunity to interview some very interesting persons about the effects of media on their personal and business lives. The persons we spoke with are: Marja Ruigrok (Ruigrok | NetPanel, Martijn Aslander (Lifehacking.nl), trendwatcher Adjiedj Bakas, Miriam van ‘t Veer (Bright), Minne Belger (Cellspace), Roel Wolbrink (New Tailor) and Otto Kokke (FHV BBDO). Check out their opinions in the following movie.

Having read the Me the Media Book or having seen the Me the Media Movie, you now are cordially being invited to leave messages after this posting. We will evaluate them on a weekly basis and make new blog posts from all the input you gave. Thanks in advance for your kind cooperation !

A reminder to help you along: Part 5, the dramatic Epilogue, concludes with the following memorable words:

The third media revolution has put the spotlight on Me. But how will we deal with all these different Me’s? Will ICTainment bring us all back into line? Are blogs really a weapon against the evil producer? Or will social networks enable us both to engage? Can you imagine the producer and the consumer sitting as equals at one table?

We, the individuals, have taken control. But when everybody is in control, who exactly is in charge?

The Hopi tribe of North American Indians has an old saying, which goes: “He who tells the stories, rules the world.”

So, What Actually Is Your Story . . . ?