Day 4 of Videoblogging Week’s entry is a quick edit from a LunchMeet interview I did with Nic Hill, director of Truth In Numbers, a new documentary about Wikipedia. I had nothing to do with the monkeys, Nic hooked me up with that clip. Enjoy.
Today was a extraordinary day as Josh Wolf was released from federal prison after 7.5 months for contempt of court. He was the longest held American journalist in US history. Now that he’s out, he’s got a couple projects he will be working on. From his press conference today on the steps of San Francisco City Hall.
For day 2 of Videoblogging Week 2007, I fuck around with some scrappy unused footage I took last week. Synchro is hard. Music track stolen from Schlomo’s day 2.
It seemed too perfect.
This is my first contribution to Videoblogging Week 2007. Each day I’ll address a different ‘good fun’ theme. Is it a sin? No, it’s stupidity! Happy St. Stupid’s Day 2007, by the way.
Trying to figure out what the deal is with Viacom suing Google? Serious Corespondent Demetri Martin explains it all on this Daily Show segment (Daily Show is owned by Viacom) hosted here on YouTube (owned by Google of course). The YouTube video was eventually taken down by Viacom, so here it is on Comedy Central.
Whoever created this ad, knew exactly what he/she was doing. It resonates so powerfully with many people because it there is a kernel of truth to it. If Hillary Clinton wasn’t such a Democratic Party old guard robot, this ad would have never gained legs. Welcome to the Internet democratized era of politics. The machine can no longer control the message. It is going to be a very interesting year.
Vancouver has fast become one of my favorite cities. Everyone I’ve met there has been welcoming, open, giving and involved in a variety of cool projects. Tech geeks, media nerds, world changers, yoga instructors, fashionistas, tree huggers, mountain lovers, it’s a pretty sweet mixing pot of awesomeness. Maybe being Canadian has something to do with their openess. I can’t help but think back to Bowling for Columbine when Michael Moore checks in on some Ontario residents to discover they keep their front doors unlocked. I think there’s something there.
Vancouver is Internet savvy with several rad web development shops. Some people who work at these rad shops organized the Northern Voice conference that I was invited to speak at this past weekend. A very cool event, Northern Voice is a blogging conference geared towards anyone with a burgeoning interest in that world. Unlike some San Francisco web 2.0 related events, many people who attend NV are just regular folks who are not technologists and don’t track their lives using upcoming.org or Twitter, though maybe they will now. These are folks who realize the potential of Internet media to amplify their niche interests, whether they are artists, photographers, school teachers or fashionistas. Real life outside of the SF Internet tech bubble, who’d a thunk?
I was invited to present and lead a discussion on how Internet video is changing the world. Despite the massiveness of the topic and me being all flu’d up, I felt like it went well. Much discussion ensued around politics and whether politicians will be more accountable and authentic as a result of many citizen eyeballs documenting their every move. Or will the perfect liars rise in the political ranks as a result? Scoble said politicians will just adapt to being “always on” by being even more media ready and camera trained. Maybe it is naive, but it seems to me that the more public our public servants are, the better it is for society in general. Rob is also hopeful that it will tilt the scales a bit to honest candidates.
On Sunday after the conference, I escaped north to Whistler Blackcomb with MC and Izzie for a day of spectacular snowboarding. Light snow, much fluffy powder, not too cold, it was a near perfect day. Big ups to MC and her entourage for hooking me up with gear since I was completely unprepared. And major props to MC for treating me like a king when I was all flu’d up. BFF!
I’m in Vancouver, BC this weekend to participate in MooseCamp and Northern Voice, a couple of day long conferences dedicated to changing the world through blogging and vlogging. A tall order for sure, yet you don’t succeed if you don’t try. The Vancouver peeps I’ve gotten to know over the past year are some of my favorite brilliant freaking minds and hearts. I feel like there is an underground subway between SF and Vancouver which I’ve finally discovered.
I’m plugging in a couple of ways. I’m co-hosting VideoCamp with Warwick and I think Scoble at MooseCamp on Friday. On Saturday, I’m leading a discussion at Northern Voice titled ‘Using Internet Video to Change the World One Eyeball at a Time’. I’m going to seed the discussion with a bunch of examples of what I call ‘world changing’ video in hopes of spurring others to offer up and create their own. More later, flight to catch.
This week I’m in Las Vegas for the uber-mega-geek gadget show, the Consumer Electronics Show. The biggest geek trade show in the country and where most of the geekosphere will be. Unless your at Macworld, which happens at the same time in San Francisco. A few jet setters will do both.
I’m kicking it at the BlogHaus, a suite in the Bellagio that my employer has organized for bloggers, vloggers and random riffraff who are looking for some free phat wifi. And booze. Did I mention the free booze?
Irina and I will be doing something at the DivX Stage6 booth tomorrow/Monday 1/8 at 3pm. Drop by if you’re in the neighborhood.
