Much of my work online, outside of dogs has been in the progressive political realm, which came about due to my sudden realization that everything I was taught throughout my education was incorrect. I have spent countless hours researching corporate power, personhood and governance, and the _expression_ of this, which some friends of mine term 'corporatism' based on Mussolini's explanative definition of fascism. There is a massive disconnect between the reality of our world and the perception that comes from reliance on the corporate media.
Very farmiliar with coporatism... I'm not a media hacker / culture jammer for nothin. However... I don't know what that has to do with Mussolini and fascism... unless it's play on the word fascism.
"There is a massive disconnect between the reality of our world and the perception that comes from reliance on the corporate media."
WORD.
But it's not just media...it's the principals of democracy and the reality... the principals of world economics and the reality... "more equitable for all"... insert the fact that the majority of the world population has no such access to the world economic system.
Yes, I really liked your explanation of access while we were IMimg the other day. I know it is not just the media, but the corporate media is where we get our information as a society. It is the corporate media that says things like "Free trade = Democracy" and our "economy is strong" and that "deregulation is good". These are very BIG lies, the kinds when repeated often enough will lead someone like you (not trying to be a dick here... just using you as an example), someone who is aware but busy, to depend on the mythical wonders of the 'free market'. They don't work that way. Free markets are exclusive tyrannies where the biggest pocketbook writes the rules. And last time I checked, our pocketbooks don't compare to Sony, Viacom, AOL, Universal, Vivendi. These guys are going to do everything in their power to keep us offline. They will not write laws that will actually exclude us, they will manipulate the market, using the tyranny of the pocketbook to keep us out of the game.
This has everything to do with Mussolini's definition of fascism, though. He said it should be rightly called corporatism, and I thought that some people on this list might not know that connection.
There is another quote that I believe in that says something like, "The Axis lost WWII, but Fascism won." Unfortunately I have found that this disconnect is greatest amongst people such as yourself; people engrossed in socially positive community projects. I have found that these people don't have the time, like most Americans, to check the BS that the corporate media puts out.
Are you dignalling me out!? "community project" my ass... let me explain something clearly.... Media theorists have studied how media and communications systems shape society for half a century... they 'theorized". These people said the medium IS the message... Well we're working directly on the medium... we are in fact CREATING the medium... we're modeling this medium on the economic systems apparent in open source computing... and these systems have already and will increasingly radically change economics, politics, and society... it's undenyable... We arived at this state because of that dream... we're changing the DNA of the media. I'm not saying it's all going to change tomorrow... in fact I think it'll take about 10-20 to fully realize and maybe if I'm lucky someone will make sense out of the sience and math of this economic system before I day.
I assure you Mike, I am not dignalling you out. :-) I am signaling you out a bit, though, I find that I have the most problems talking to people such as yourself who have seen many of the same problems with the global economic system, but who refuse to lay the blame where it belongs, on the 'free market' system, and instead somehow believe that the system just needs some tinkering. Grow or die is going to do us all in, and that is what needs to be changed; the very foundation of our economic system (status quo). I wish I knew more about economics so I could go and talk about Keynes, Smith, the forerunners of our modern day 'free market' system, because I know that they are spinning in their graves over this hijacking, abandonment, and/or perversion of their ideas. Dots need to be connected, sources must be cross referenced, and many disparate issues need to be linked in order to see the whole picture. Most people, especially people who have a real job and a 'hobby', like internet video production and distribution, simply do not have the time to challenge the conventional corporate wisdom. So what happens is that they buy into the majority of the corporate propaganda, and it is propaganda, and instead nitpick around the smaller, less foundational issues.
I think you need to talk with and meet more people on this group. I'll give you a little ancedote... I forget wether it was the democracy now guys... or the rise up network... or Crooks and Liars... or any of the 4 dozen poltical and activists groups... but some newbie posted a video of a flag burning by a bunch of protestors and the national anthem.... his first video to the vlogosphere... he thought he was going to flame bait us... but when noone responded he asked us what the fuck was up... we all watched the video... noone had anything to say about it.... WHY because we are all rebel scum... we got into this racket so everyone to have a voice... he thought we'd see a flag burning... we didn't we saw another free and independant voice that just realized... HEH! The lid is off the jar! Don't tell it to us... tell it to the world... we're the choir... find your audience... make soem converts out there... we've got your back... this is what we do.
I have no doubt as to your revolutionary creds, I believe you. What I have a hard time with is what I mentioned above. You are depending upon a system that is designed to eat ideas like ours up and remove them from the hands of the people, then consolidate them into the corporate world. You depend on this mythical 'free market' to protect us, and the market protects nothing but profit.
I am very concerned that people such as yourself, people whom I respect and owe great thanks to, are going to get eaten up by this massive corporate machine that eats up people and good ideas all the time. I fear that you and others on this list are not aware of the battle that has been waging for the last 100+ years between people and artificial persons, and the damage that has been done in the last 35 years or so by the ascendency of neo-liberal economics.
there's never enough awareness... we live with this awareness EVERY day the threat is constant but I think there are factors at work hear that perhaps you don't understand... by no means is the battle one... for it's just getting started... and the risks are great, but freedom is spreading like a virus and we have significant momentum from open source and blogging.
More hope! I want to believe! I am not pretending that I know it all, or that I have all the answers; I surely don't, but at least 3 hours per day for the last 7 years of my life (more like 5 or 6, but I'm being conservative) have been dedicated to looking at the issue of corporatism and how it relates to our society. I look to this medium as the great equalizer in this battle, and I am worried that you all, at the forefront of this beautiful medium, are not even aware that a battle is being waged.
Are you fucking kidding me! Do you want to see my files!? Don't even get me started... these principals are at the heart of open source and open access media. Ask about DRM or Creative commons or Richard Stallman ... I am in fact currently studdying a broad rang of world wold economics and free trade economics... as a parrallel to my primary interest in how the economics of open access media and open source work.
Study away, but read between the lines and apply what you read and learn to people. I love to hear Greenspan talk about 'flexible labor markets' and 'churning of the labor markets' as positives for our economy. If you apply these seemingly benign phrases to people; get to the practical reality, and it is people fearing for their jobs and being ground up in our market based society. With no universal health care or social safety nets we are sentencing people to death in the worst case; this is good economics. In the 3rd world, people with nothing to lose are waging REAL war; people die, disappear and are imprisoned for challenging corporatism. Countries are bullied, broken up and bought in the name of free trade. But my friends in the developed world, North America and Europe don't care, or are unaware; their eyes glaze over when I talk to them. I feel it is my job to alert my friends, people who have EVERYTHING to lose, of these issues. Without those of us with power in the developed world, those in the 3rd world will fail. If they fail, the race to the bottom will be over and we will all be losers.
I thought we were going to talk about business though.
This is what business does every day. I mean, I know they are just dirty brown people of the third world, not the important white people of the first world like us, but these things are done in the name of business every day. My point is that business will kill for profit. What makes you think they won't squash videobloggers? Freedom to vlog threatens to expose this dirty corporate world, not in text, not in still images, but if full motion video, and they cannot take that chance. As cool, and as profitable as Rocketboom can be, as elegant and simple as media distribution can be in an open system cannot compare to the threat of people exposing these kinds of trade secrets on camera. I am going to contact you via IM very soon, as I wish to talk to you about technical issues, and would be happy to share my experiences on the open web (I really like this phrase.).
Sorry I missed your IM the other night. I'm keeping weird hours lately. Thanks again for engaging in conversation with me. So many people turn away from these discussions as they feel that they are procedural, the meta, or just not that important to them.
We shall chat again! I look forward to speaking with you and sharing some of the more positive pieces of my understanding.
Talk to you soon, Ron
Howdy Ron,
I've been reading some of your emails lately.. and so I thought I'd take a look back at the dialogue and see where you were coming from. Much as I guessed I was not disappointed.
You have a VERY interesting background with your k9 endevors. It looks like you actually know a lot more about the advantages of participating in "the conversation" on the open web than me. I think perhaps you could teach me a thing or two and perhaps there's a chance I might be able to answer a question or two of yours too.
For example... I noticed you use blip... but I haven't seen your name come up on blip's yahoo group. It occurred to me you might not even realize they have one.
Do a quick search on yahoo groups for "blip users" and sign up I think you may find it very useful. The blip guys are very responsive... I see you've already chatted with Mike Hudack and Jared of blip on the Yahoo group. Well they're everywhere. I'm a member there too... I've done a little work with them, but not nearly enough. Mostly i contribute to mefeedia.com in an official capacity... and in the past I've contributed a lot unofficially to the design and vision of FireANT. In fact well I've contributed quite a lot of my absurdist ideas to just about every project in the space. But anyway... I'm off topic...
First some background...
My interest is obviously in the medium itself... I'm a designer and an IA, an information architect, and I love to eat, sleep, dream, architect and build systems to enable just the sort of things we're doing with videoblogging. Which is to say, we're designing and building new open access media systems.
Whereas all previous media study was just theory based on predefined mechanisms such as books, TV, radio, etc.... we are actually able to dream up and build new systems that actually affect a desired social outcome... though it's very experimental of course.
To put it very bluntly... the separation between sociology issues and media theory has collapsed into a massive lab experiment... a playground for my mad theories and skills and I couldn't be happier.
You've probably notice my constant blathering about both technical and sociological issues. Even a little politics thrown in for good measure. I love, perhaps a little to much, to combine the finite technical issues with the sociological outcomes and issues... it's the architect in me. It's not enough that the structure looks good... or holds up... it's got to have the desired social effect. :)
I only jumped into the public blogging game like 3 years ago, though it seems like yesterday, and I fell in with this band of vloggers back when it was just getting started in November of 2004.
My endeavors have yet to allow me to teach/ lecture and travel and write professionally though that is very much my dream. It seems you have been very successful in your non-traditional endeavors of dogs and travels, shows, and teaching. This interests me tremendously as my non-traditional endevors have continually kept me from finding the social acceptance and success I desire... as of yet. My market is still evolving... perhaps as your industry was 6 or 7 years ago... and I'm guessing that's just the start of the parallels.
Background a side what I mean is this...
We're coming from seemingly different backgrounds and experiences but now that our paths are crossed I can see that we may have many parallel experiences... I may be a little more knowledgeable of vlogging and new communications theory... but you have more practical experience in putting these theories I have to practical use in an industry that's far more established. I'm interested in hearing how your site k9athlete.com helped you in your interests of traveling, teaching and dog training.
And on a side note I love your potentially unique use of video blogging. Every video blogger does things differently but yours is fun, refreshing and potentially very insightful. I've consulted with many others in this space... perhaps I could offer you some of my ideas that you could put to practical use.
Specifically in IA we call such things as vlogs, blogs and audio podcasts engines for building visibility, credibility and making yourself accessible to your market and your peers... It's an exciting "science" now... but it's a new science and we have much to learn. You're experience with these things and yet you're outsider status to this new world of vlogging is what interests me... you are not yet jaded by all the fancy technical hocus pocus as I am. I've forgotten what it's like to approach vlogging with fresh eyes. And you likely have a clarity of what you want to accomplish I can help you execute.
Well, I've written to much for a first hello, and i believe I'm getting wordy because I've been up to late working once again.
So, please feel free to respond by email or IM me if you like. All my contact information is below.
Peace,
-Mike
Michael Meiser
cell 312.523.1066
skype mmeiser aol-IM mmeiser01 msn-IM mmeiser8 yahoo-IM mmeiser8
On Dec 15, 2005, at 12:13 PM, Ron Watson wrote: Hey all, Another noob here. Judging by the names on the list you all are the people responsible for the vlog becoming a reality. Thanks for doing all the leg work on this.
I checked out vlogging early 05, and it just didn't seem to be there yet. You all have done an amazing job making this work.
My vlog will be dog focused, as I play Frisbee with my dogs professionally, and am moving into regular old pet training, with a slight twist: not obedience, but interaction.
Anyway, I am currently vlogging @ http://k9disc.blip.tv . The old k9athlete site http://k9athlete.com has been up for over 7 years and has given me unbelievable opportunities to travel and teach. It has been used as a resource on at least 5 continents (from email correspondence). It is time to take it to the next level.
I plan on bringing some of our dog knowledge to the masses with my vlogs, and if I am diligent with dragging my camera along to events and goings on, I should be able to provide quite a bit of comic relief as well.
Can someone point me to a good breakdown of imovie export settings? I am having some problems and could use some solid information. I'd be happy to take that info offline, but it might be a good idea to post it again for all of us noobs...
Thanks again for all the work you do.
Cheers, Ron Watson
On Dec 15, 2005, at 10:49 AM, Steve Garfield wrote: You won't need streaming.
I initially sought a host for "Blogging" and selected 1and1.com which doe not host domains needing streaming video. How does "Hosting a Vlog and a Blog work" considering I've registered STARKBLOG.COM AND STARKVLOG.COM domains with 1and1.com.
--Steve --
Like Paul Revere, leading the citizen's media revolution.
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