The document discusses open sharing and participation in media, culture, and technology. It encourages casting off oppressors and disseminating information to encourage participation. It also discusses tactical tools and going forth. The second part discusses case studies of physical, online, and human networks, including a blogger center, a climate change news site, and a youth empowerment organization.
Hi I’m KK. Thanks for inviting me to particpate in such an amazing event. I’m honored and humbled to be standing before you. I’m part artist, part geek, part teacher, part activist, part journalist. Makes for a strange combination and it’s because of all these intersections of my passions that i think the future is a very exciting kind people assembled in this room.
I’m gonna try to tell you a lil bit about the world I live in and the future I see. This is a talk that I wish had one hour to give but since I don’t I’m just gonna talk really really really fast. This spirit of “openness” that I’m gonna talk about represents an ideology that fundamentally changes the we do “business” and shifts the ways in which we communicate and interact with one another. So i am not gonna get hung up on the technology part of this because technology can be intimidating and the jargon buzzwords can overwhelm and confuse rather i’ll relate the technology to ways about communicating more richly and making relationships deeper and more diverse.
People all over the world are right this second sharing knowledge, ideas, stories, intimate details, connections, and emotions - to audiences known and unknown. This is not just miscellania but real intimate discourse. By participating in some little corner of the Net, you are contributing to the organic growth of something much larger - a collective consciousness of activism, art and emotion -- and by doing this we are contributing to the overall health of the public domain and our culture.
The way media is made is changing. The media is seeing these changes more rapidly and are definitely struggling to figure out the changing landscape.... they mistakenly put their assets into preserving the status quo. There is a growing tension between who is a journalist and who is not? is blogging journalism? should journalist blog? These questions are unresolved and becoming less and less relevant as people seek out the best content, the freshest opinion, no matter what the label is.
"if you don't put it on the internet, it didn't happen" KK+ Document everything, distribute, get it out to the people on all the channels available to you -- photography, videos, audio and music, writing and blogs. As much as what is happening here tonight is valuable to the people in this room, how much more valuable it becomes when shared online and freely with people across shanghai, china, and the world. As young creatives, you are already creating content, you now have easy and automagic ways to get it out to the world and to build a movement and an audience.
By sharing the wisdom of crowds the collective benefit is far greater! There has been a realization that in many situations such as this one today.... the collective knowledge of the audience far outweighs that of the presenter and new events are being organized without hierarchies and showing all of us are capable teaching, sharing, organizing, and mentoring. This raises the level of participation and empowers anyone to make a real difference and contribute their skills and ideas. Encourage your customers, fans and friends to share, comment, tag, add photos to groups. Get your audience to participate along side you in the creation of culture.
Open source technology is free software, built by all of us, owned by none of us. Used to power all sorts of things from political campaigns, publishing platforms, activist actions. The open source software movement is intrinsically tied to social change in it’s DNA. The open source movement is defined by: - communities to the core, more like tribes or extended families and trusted colleagues - building things for common good while eschewing traditional power models - doing work for very cheap or free in order to bring social good the result= levels the playing so small and independent players can compete with the traditional giants and get message out easily and cost effectively.
Information dissemination has gone from a top-down model that relies heavily on a few gatekeepers to an open and disturbed models where we all have the power to put our messages into the world. It used to be hard but now you essentially have access to the resources that previously would have required owning a television station, a radio tower, a printing press. Every day that passes this stuff becomes easier and less expensive to access. Because of these changes in culture, media and technology we’re at a unique time in history where we are seeing upheaval of traditional power hierarchies. The shackles of Microsoft and apple are cast off! Brazil and other countries rejecting microsoft’s “drug dealer” business model and companies, governments, universities are all embracing open everything because its cheaper, more sustainable and works best!
Biggest danger is as young creatives isn’t piracy but obscurity .. irrelevance. Get your work in to the wild. Mix your stuff with other people’s stuff. Collaborate. Cross-pollinte. Make something bigger than yourself. In fact, i’ve found in my experience that the more you give away the more you get back and build your reputation and social capital... like putting coins in your karmic piggy bank. Creative commons is at the heart of this movement and is all about enabling sharing while retaining creative control over our artist works. I’ve got a lot to say about this topic and would love to talk with you guys more about remix culture at any point. ##
Don't reinvent and create your kingdom, get out of the silo and spread the love around! The temptation from the early days of the green movement was to put everything into its own silo with top down control and re-creating a new “thing” for all your content and campaigns. Now we’ve come to thing that the tracks you leave all accross the internet are more important than having your own website. Instead, consider layering your causes and campaigns with like-minded others who are working already (Netsquared and other community blogs) and social networks where your audience is already hanging out such as YouTube, Facebook & other social networks.
Many of your patrons, customers, and friends are capable and eager to do more than write just buy your art or time. You can empower them to remix your stuff into meaningful collabroative content - and they will and do a great job. Find ways to incentive super active agents in your ecosystem with inclusive giveaways, contests, and parties. Learn to access highly passionate tastemakers, to get out the word our, reach new audiences, and find new venues for your work. The best part is these activities are fun, free, and fulfilling.
Now we can participate and interact through tools like blogs, comments, online video, photosharing and other collaboration technologies. We can publish inexpensively through no-cost and tree-free using the internet and other tools of the digital world. We can coordinate throngs and hordes through technologies like SMS and RSS. We can powerfully organize and access the world of information through things like content management and search. These tools have worked for the green movement and I believe they can work for you too.
When it comes to online reputation... I am whatever you say I am. The way people figure out who you are is through typing your name into Google. The top 10 results that come up define you in the eyes of the people researching you... like it or not. Every should know what picture is painted by the top Google search results for their name and should learn how to modify and control the information that appears. Our online digital identity is the summation of all the things that we share about ourselves and that others say about us. Effective outreach requires knowing how google works (or how to make it work for you). Learn how to track the conversations about you and your brand. This isn’t optional.
Move towards distributed life where you can have all your assets and applications available to you from any computer in the world via the internet using tools like gmail, wikis, google docs, Amazon s2 and EC3, basecamp, etc. Moving towards a place where we are all keeping info online instead of on one home computer... we become untethered and free to roam between devices, identities, geographies, and audiences. distributed lives means we gain reach and efficiency in working and collaborating from far-flung locations wherever your partners, patrons, or projects may take you.
How does technology play into all of this? Sometimes technology gets painted with a sticky, tarry brush as a polluter, capitalism driven ... and confusing. The good news is, ... these technology tools are easier/better then 10 years ago even better than one year ago. Load up a Basket of Publishing Tools: Drupal Wordpress, Wikis, Flickr, YouTube, Twitter Fill your Cart with free/cheap Business Tools: Basecamp, Freshbooks, Harvest, Google Docs Adjust your brain for openness and sharing by default and ...
Go forth my friends in creativity and kindness. I encourage you to pack your toolbox, roll up your sleeves, and learn about this stuff. Don't get hung up on the acronyms, jargon and preconceived notions about technology or copyright or sharing. Consider what it is what you have to share and the value you bring to the table and discover how to spread your message and contribute to positive change by helping to create a new and open culture.