Nice to see even 49 videos submitted! At Project Happiness we’ve shot a lot of our own videos as well, which you can see in our Moments of Happiness video project. Our initial thought was that lots of people would produce video segments, but we’ve found over time that this is a tough sell. Peace Support Network is offering a $1,000 cash prize for the winning video, and maybe that makes the difference. What do you think? What would motivate you enough to make your own video about peace, or happiness, or whatever…?

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The FCC regulates the airwaves in the US and next year they’re taking back the portions of the RF spectrum that have been devoted to analog television (broadly-separated frequency bands for VHF in the 1950s with a UHF band of frequencies added to that later on), and the broadcast digital television that’s been “under construction” since 1998 will be what’s left. The new technology can carry more channels and information, and much of that in high-definition, but old television receivers will be unable to decode it.

I’d guess that many people simply won’t convert. Cable and satellite TV users won’t be affected and their old TV sets will work, but millions of old analog sets around the US – those who depends on rooftop antennas and rabbit ears – will receive nothing but “snow.”

And where will Mom and Pop Public go?

Well I’m on satellite, using a TiVo box (a DVR), and I long ago time-shifted almost all of my viewing. I no longer know exactly when my favorite shows are broadcast because the TiVo records them and I watch them when I have a spare evening. Like most time-shifted viewers, I mostly shift “scripted shows” (Lost and Battlestar Galactica, for example) as opposed to news and shows with real-time content.

Well, here’s where I think the viewing will migrate, based on Doc Searls’ and my own experience.

• Some will switch to cable or satellite; and will increasingly move to time-shifted viewing [notes: networks want to take time-shifted viewing into account when setting advertising rates; Nielsen ratings did not take time-shifted viewing into account until 2006 – now it seems everything is tracked.] Cable and satellite are not affected by the 2009 FCC-mandated migration.
• A large number will get their video from online sources, though it will be painful because broadband is slow in the US and has been getting more congested (at least here in San Francisco – I can barely play video without stuttering even when on my 1.5mbit cable connection);
• Over time the “online” users will download more and more shows to devices like iPods which, of course, is totally time-shifted;
• The “rental” model of viewing downloaded video will have to change because the current rental time-period is too short – longer-term rental will have to be made available (perhaps lasting for years);

I’ve always suspected that TiVo was tracking my viewing of time-shifted shows, including looking at whether I skipped the commercials, which I always do. Clearly they do, and I’ll investigate that more. Perhaps you already know more about that and would share your knowledge?

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Most particularly, the data show that Wikipedia rose from zero to “Daily Traffic Rank” of about “10” in about four years, and YouTube rose to “10” in about a year and a half. (Making them among the top sites on the web.)

You’d have to attribute this to the fact that these sites are created by, or at least “formed” in some way by, their users. That belies the suspicion that people are couch potatoes and won’t lift a finger to create their own media entertainment, other than to channel-surf. Yeah, yeah, there’s a lot of channel-surfing going on at YouTube, but there’s also lots of participation, even if 90% of it is deadheaded talking-head responses. And Wikipedia is certainly a creation of its readers (even though there’s a core group that does a huge percentage of the heavy lifting).

So, I want to know if this phenomenon only gives “voice” to those with broad Internet connections, or whether it can be used by those with only occasional access to the net. Can conversation take place offline and then be put online in the form of blog postings, or wikipedia entries or online video?

The proof so far – and I’d say it’s working – is that it may actually work. Our friends – teen-age Tibetan refugees living in India – have now made a dozen video segments and posted them online – and my gosh all we had to do was provide them with a digital video camera and some online time. They do their video work offline, produce a great little movie, and upload it for all of us to see. In Nigeria, our friends have far less Internet connectivity, and yet they have made movies to share with us, and have made more which are being burned to CD to be physically shipped to us!

I’m making a trip, next month, with a group of bloggers, to the Middle East. My formal role is to “blog the bloggers” – there will be a dozen or so prominent bloggers going on that trip – and I will mostly be attending to the process they use and how their perceptions and interactions develop over time. But – we are going to visit with a number of people who are using technology for social good – and I will track and write about all of that so you can share in the information. You will have a chance to feed me (and the group) some questions you’d like to ask – and I will soon give you the info on how you can ask your own questions.

I think this phenomenon of using digital media to spark two-way conversations is really going to take off. Everywhere! This is more than just a YouTube thing. It’s true two-way storytelling and conversation. And 2008 is the year when it will really bloom.

The post On “The Power of the Personal – Voice?” appeared first on Sky's Blog.

I had met Joel Barraquiel Tan, the Director of Community Engagement for YBCA, about two years ago, so he already knew about my technologies and games – one of which is played at Yerba Buena Gardens, right outside his front door. In one quick conversation, however, we took a huge jump forward…

The jump was that we decided to co-author an experience that could be “played ” out anywhere (not just at YBCA), which would solicit and include input from anyone, and would accumulate and display its “output” in a community co-created online mosaic that could also be displayed at YBCA as a piece of art. Joel took the lead on the conceptual development, which he based on ideas he was developing for the Big Ideas program at YBCA, and I put on my programming hat and built some new online capabilities so that we could make our artistic ideas real.

In the first video clip (below), Joel and I discuss the community engagement program at YBCA.

The game is called Making Peace, and it’s integrated with the Community Engagement program at YBCA. It has evolved quite a bit over the couple of months it has been in place. I asked Joel to give us his view on how the Making Peace experience was created.

What’s the Big Idea Day, February 9th, 2008, was an opportunity for the community to come to the Room for Big Ideas and participate in several related projects. Creating small rice-paper flags, having their photo taken by Derick Ion, an artist in the Making Peace/Big Ideas program, and having their photos added to the Making Peace mosaic.

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Here’s a two-for-one post. Not only have I run across a great project and cause, but it’s a media project!

The Global Oneness Project has chosen the approach of professionally recording video interviews with individuals who are contributing to our awakening. I recorded an interview with Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee, who directs the project. [12min:37sec QuickTime]

From GlobalOneness.org… “The idea of oneness is not new. For thousands of years it’s been a basic part of human consciousness, taking countless forms in the world’s spiritual, religious, artistic, and cultural traditions. Indigenous lifeways, myths showing the interconnectedness of all things, intricate philosophical systems, literature, and art are just a few of the ways we’ve sought to understand and express oneness. For the most part, however, these different expressions have been isolated from one another by geography, language, and time, or restricted to an intellectual or spiritual elite.

“In contrast, today we experience global interdependence with a unique level of clarity and urgency. In natural sciences like biology, physics, and mathematics; in technology, economics, and ecology; and in spiritual, cultural, and social movements across the planet new perspectives on oneness are emerging with breathtaking beauty and transformational power.”

Here are links to a few videos that address spirituality, community, and service:

• Words From the (17th) Karmapa
• Waking Up (Tenzin Palmo)
• The Heart of Religion (Alberto Luna)
• Seva Cafe: Love All, Serve All (Anjali Desai)
• Living Service (Jayesh Patel)
• Barrio de Paz (Nelsa Libertad Curbelo)
• The Land Owns Us (Bob Randall)
• An Invitation (Don Alverto Taxo)

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