Some of My Favourite Web Sites Are Art
http://www.alberta.com/unfamiliarart/

Project #4:

7-11
collaborative mailing list
http://king.dom.de/7-11

Email is among the most important of all Internet developments for its
ability to connect people around the world quickly. Email is generally
the first Internet technology that people use, and is as such a basic,
and increasingly common, mode of communication. Unsurprisingly, Internet
art has a strong relationship with email–people who make Web art
projects often participate in online forums to commune artistically,
socially, and intellectually. 7-11, a spontaneous email project that
started in September 1997, is such a community.

Email-based communities or discussions, also referred to as "mailing
lists," work by having a central robot ("bot") to which all members of
an email list address their posts (e. g. 7-11@mail.ljudmila.org).
Whenever the bot receives an email, it is distributed to all those
subscribed to that list. The bot also generates a header in an email's
"subject line." For 7-11 the header [7-11] allows subscribers to
distinguish 7-11 email from other correspondence.

7-11 subscribers share an interest in Internet Art. A free-form social
and creative space, 7-11 is not a list for formal discussion or
argument. Standard email announcements (about art openings,
performances, shows, conferences, journals) are posted, but what is
really special about 7-11 is its freedom and energy: people play
charades, write with pseudonyms and appropriate identities. Games,
jokes, contests, sexual innuendo, fragmentary conversation–these are
the most interesting threads. Indeed one moderator of the email list was
a made-up figure named Keiko Suzuki, a collaborative persona who ran the
list, claiming to be an Internet.art old-timer and confusing those who
thought they were in the "net.art" know. The naming of the list after an
American franchise is deliberate. It is part of a certain
anti-commercial gusto Internet artists often share.

It is a confusing list at times, with changing personalities, breaking
rules, and multiple conversations. Unlike most email lists, 7-11 is pure
anarchy. For example, by visiting the 7-11 web site anyone can send a
message to the list, or modify the signature file that appears at the
bottom of all 7-11 emails.