Have You Met Flat Smiley?

This is a video submission from Burning Man 2009 for the Flat Smiley Project, a collaborative new media project and community building activity for Burning Man using Web 2.0 and social media tools.

Flat Smiley invites participants to befriend him and take him along on their travels in Black Rock City as well as other regional burner events.  He is modeled after the "Flat Stanley Project", a literacy campaign for school children created by Dale Hubert.

Flat Smiley's message is: "No Burner left behind!" Using Flat Smiley is like sending a postcard from the playa for many burners who are not able to attend the event this year due to the nation's prevailing economic downturn.  It's also a really fun project to get kids involved with, too.

To play along simply download the Flat Smiley PDF file and then color and decorate it as a way to personalize him with their your creative flair. Then, very much like the "traveling gnome" prank in the movie Amelie, take Flat Smiley to the playa, parties and events and photograph and/or videotape him at interacting with the community (drink!). 

Please make friends with Flat Smiley via Facebook and Twitter and be sure to subscribe to Flat Smiley's blog updates.

As always, Flat Smiley loves pARTicipation more than he loves bacon!