My Stream

The BBC has just done something revolutionary… they’ve released all the source footage for an as yet unscreened documentary about the way technology is changing our lives, and are inviting the public to compete and edit/mashup the footage into something unique. Above is an inspiring example of what’s possible, by Barry Pilling. Here’s another by Cassetteboy.

The idea of allowing your work to be edited and improved by others was first encouraged by the Creative Commons. If you don’t already, make sure any photos you share on Flickr are released under Creative Commons, so others can do great things with them (without profiting or taking credit).

Another film in this vein that’s well worth a look is RIP: A Remix Manifesto, the story of Girl Talk’s rise to fame as a musician who plays no instrument but uses samples of others’ music. It too is freely editable and mash-up-able. There’s also a growing craze for “fake trailers”, the most famous being Shining. It’s so much easier these days now that people have a publishing house, editing studio and photo lab on their desktops.

Exciting times!

Following on from my last post, here’s a music video from that Sliders episode I mentioned (Annoyingly Posterous doesn’t let me add the video to a prior post).

I give you.. The Library Rap!

Mrs Alex just forwarded me this great cartoon illustrating how off-kilter our media’s focus is. Why do they think we care so much about celebrities’ private lives? Why can’t the media focus more on the important things in the world like international affairs, social change and the like. Tiger Woods’ private life should be his own.

His statement had an interesting quote on this:
“Personal sins should not require press releases and problems within a family shouldn’t have to mean public confessions.”
I wholeheartedly agree.

I remember once watching an episode of Sliders (a sci-fi show which explores “what-if” situations by having the protagonists visit parallel universes). In the episode Eggheads they visit a parallel Earth where scientists, classical pianists and philosophers are the celebrities of the day. Where intelligence is cool and wisdom is revered.

(Update: Check out this video clip in my follow on post)

Sometimes I wish our world could be more like that. Is it really so crazy that medical breakthroughs should be more important than last-minute penalty shootouts or that technological innovations should be more interesting than celebrities’ personal lives?

</wild-speculation>

I think the strongest message of last night’s Challenge Your World event was this excellent short video by Sebastian Baptista from Uruguay. A simple idea, powerfully conveyed. Technology is not the answer to every problem.