Thursday, February 10, 2005

The World Stage

I've been thinking a lot about community. The many shapes it takes in the modern world. Used to be that a community consisted of people who lived around you in your village or who believed in the same thing you did. It was not only a social structure, but the feeling of warmth and security that came along with it (religion makes good use of this.) But with the coming of the corporations and the rise of the Industrial Society, the idea of a shared grouping of souls has been replaced by a dog-eat-dog world. Nowadays, the closest most people come to a sense of community is ad companies showing them something warm and sweet in a bid to sell them something.

But there are exceptions. The Internet has provided a wonderful place for expression, compassion and inclusion -- all parts of the community experience. Email, chat rooms, websites, blogs, online photo galleries -- I could go on forever about how many different ways people have today to share and feel a connection to something -- but there is something on the horizon that I think will eclipse it all.

We're visual beings. Once movies were invented, reading rates declined drastically. Since the advent of television, literacy rates have hit bottom. Whether or not you feel this is a bad thing, the truth is that we are more engaged and involved with visual material than we are with the written word.

They say that every waiter who lives in L.A. has a script he's shopping around, and that every car detailer has a secret desire to direct. The sad truth is that the odds of these people every being able to get a shot at breaking into "The Business" is about as good The Pope leading a Bar Mitzvah of the Dalai Lama -- until now.

The Internet will become a viable distribution platform so that everyone will have an equal chance to express themselves visually. Sony has released the FX1 HD camera. Combine this with a $500 mini-mac and the included editing software and you've got a small studio.

"The Business" will be run by the people.

I already video conference with others usingiCHAT, but the world will open to others. Some of the different people I know who might benefit:

My friend Eric Haller mentioned that he would do a show about fixing up his sailboat, The Boate...a sort of "This Old Boat" show.

Another friend, Erich Schiffmann has self-produced numerous DVDs of his yoga practice and travels around the world to teach. Wouldn't it be great if the classroom could come to him or I could join all of his classes without ever leaving home?

Another guy I met, Chef Eric(what is it with all the Eric's?) teaches cooking for individuals and groups in a small classroom on the Westside.

A friend teaches something called"The S Factor" , which is "Stripping & Pole Dancing Workout for the Everyday Woman." It's a serious workout...really.

We have these wonderful technologies in front of us that can help bring us together in a new sense of community. If anyone has any other ideas, I would love to hear them (or see them).

1 Comments:

Blogger eric said...

that's a pretty sick looking camera!

12:40 AM  

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