http://www.mediarights.org/engine_feed en felix@artsengine.net Copyright 2010 2010-03-11T15:59:31+00:00 http://www.mediarights.org/engine_feed/tales_from_the_script/ http://www.mediarights.org/engine_feed/tales_from_the_script/#When:15:59:31Z We’re all familiar with the work that screenwriters do, and yet it’s commonly accepted—even by the writers themselves—although they come at the very beginning in the long chain of filmmaking, they don’t figure too prominently in the actual chain of command. According to William Goldman, legendary author of such classics as Marathon Man and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, this is because “everything’s so f*cking expensive and getting more so.” In Tales From the Script, a new documentary by Peter Hanson, screenwriters are given the floor and they have a lot to say. It’s great to see what these guys look like (and I do mean guys—there are only about 5 women featured in the film) and hear them talk about their early experiences and getting their big Hollywood breaks, as well as reflect on their craft and their journeys. The filmmaking itself is less than spectacular as even the most engaging storyteller and fascinating anecdote eventually can’t make up for the fact that this is primarily a lot of talking head footage intercut with clips from Hollywood films about itself. But it was wonderful to see one of my film heroes, Allison Anders (Gas, Food, Lodging), highlighted. Other notable writers that appear in the doc include Naomi Foner (Running on Empty) Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver) and John August (Corpse Bride). In fact, this is the most enjoyable aspect of the film, that it has gone out of its way to allot screen time to the people that rarely get the accolades. Tales From the Script opens in New York on Friday. 2010-03-11T15:59:31+00:00 http://www.mediarights.org/engine_feed/are_we_becoming_our_own_puppetmasters/ http://www.mediarights.org/engine_feed/are_we_becoming_our_own_puppetmasters/#When:17:13:39Z What do our online personas do to our physical-world identities? As we invest more time into developing our digital selves, is something taken away from who we are? Or something added? If you’re reading this, you spend some portion of your life online, and probably maintain an online identity or two across the various social networks. How does the creation and maintenance of those identities change your physical experience of self? I’m curious if our participation in social networks, and specifically in creating our online identities, is creating an opportunity for us to lose our agency. We seem to relish the ability to carve out of online personalities and post an unlimited amount of information about ourselves, thinking that it is in some way a declaration of our existence and importance. I wonder if it has the opposite effect. Companies are profiting off of selling the data that we so willingly produce for free, reducing us down to not much more than commodities. And we are quick to defend our personas as legitimate extensions of ourselves, engaged in meaningful interactions that take up an increasingly greater portion of our time, energy and attention. Are we drinking our own Kool-Aid? Digital Tribes & Cybervillages What’s driving us to develop online identities? Maybe we’ve gotten more and more disconnected from ourselves and each other; lost in the noise and experiencing a crisis of identity. We try to reclaim ourselves, assert ourselves, and declare ourselves by shaping online personas. We supplement them with information about our interests, hobbies, preferences, and favorites. We reinforce the life of the persona with photographs, quizzes, games and status updates. We send and accept friend requests to expand the size of our digital tribes and entrench ourselves into the global cybervillage. There is a value to this. We have a mix of real friends, people pulled up from the past, and new connections. Many fall into the category of ‘weak ties,’ becoming part of your ambient awareness, monitored somewhere at the periphery of your consciousness. We form digital social bonds through our behaviors and interactions, and there’s a feeling of being part of something substantial. It seems to fulfill some basic human needs of inclusion and validation. The act of interacting is one thing though; the fabrication and maintenance of these identities is another. Categories and Identity-Fixing Are you greater than the sum of your parts? Or can you be summed up by your Facebook profile? Many hours are spent in developing the online presence – from the basic information (birthday, hometown, religious views, etc) to the various preferences (activities, favorites movies, TV shows, music, books, group affiliations, etc) to the status updates. Some would say that their Facebook profile is a fairly accurate representation of their real personalities. My question is……”Really?” Has our technology become that advanced, or are we dumbing down and selling ourselves a little short? Are we really ready to say that what can be expressed online represents the extent to what we can express? And are we ready to lock ourselves into a set identity, where the physical and virtual versions begin to mirror each other closer and closer? For me, the depth of humanity runs much, much deeper than what can be expressed online. And part of being human is having fluidity, plasticity, and an ability for pure potentiality. That means that tomorrow I can choose to be different from today, to make an unexpected decision, or to change my mind completely. I am not one thing. I am not one identity. I am a system in flux. And so I’m frightened when someone is so quick to say that who they are online is who they are. Reduced to bits. My Doppleganger (or Which One is the Puppetmaster?) What are you willing to sacrifice in the physical world in order to maintain your virtual self? How often during your typical day do you see/hear/experience something and think to yourself, “I need to put this on Facebook” or “I’m going to tweet this.” I place value on interacting and sharing, but at what point do we become so intertwined with the upkeep of the persona that we forget how to be fully engaged in the experiences of our physical lives? How strong is the itch to update? Are you in control of your online self? Or is it in control of you? Could you walk away? Be An Agent, Not a Slave I don’t know that the early visionaries of the Internet thought much about the development of virtual selves. Most of the literature I’ve read addresses the potential of developing systems to transfer and share information, not to create identities. There was an idea that a hyper-connected world would allow us to organize, filter, and gather the pieces that would allow us to make breakthroughs and solve real problems. The work of Vannevar Bush and Norbert Weiner and Douglas Engelbart suggested the possibilities for extending human intelligence, and via technology to somehow become more fully human. Perhaps we’ve been sidetracked. We thought the Internet would provide a path to liberation, but maybe instead we’re allowing ourselves to become slaves again, just in a new medium. Perhaps it would serve us better to step back and observe what we’re doing, and ask ourselves why. Creating an online self is fine – it’s fun, it’s collaborative, it’s entertaining, it’s potentially enhancing. But identifying too deeply with the online self might be a trap. In our info-saturated world, one of our most precious resources is our attention. Attention as in where our eyeballs go, but also attention in what we think about. The ability to express yourself online does not equate Freedom if you become impotent in your ability to take action in the physical world. Think about what you’re doing and why. Think about the time spent thinking about Twitter and Facebook, and the resulting portion of time that it takes away from expressing your human agency in your life. Use it as a tool. Use it as a means. But don’t lose sight of the big picture. At the end of the day, your true power lies in your ability to act – and that happens in the world, not in Farmville. Web & Tech 2010-03-09T17:13:39+00:00 http://www.mediarights.org/engine_feed/prodigals_sons_returns_or_rather_stays_on/ http://www.mediarights.org/engine_feed/prodigals_sons_returns_or_rather_stays_on/#When:15:51:52Z Last night, DocuClub co-hosted what was supposed to be closing night of Prodigal Sons’ New York theatrical run. I arrived at the Cinema Village promptly to introduce the 7:20 p.m. show to an audience eager to experience Kimberly Reed’s incisive personal documentary. The film holds a special place for me as DocuClub’s programmer, as it was the first rough cut DocuClub showed as a newly-acquired project of Arts Engine, back in April 2008. So it was with pride that I was happy to also conduct the post-screening filmmaker Q&A. The audience was enthusiastic and complementary. Mostly touched by Reed’s candid approach to difficult and often-hushed subjects, audience members focused primarily on how the media had covered the film as Reed’s coming out as transgender to her small Montana hometown—granted, an important aspect of the story—rather than as the depiction of the complex ways in which families love and support their members. If you haven’t seen this amazing work, don’t despair. Cinema Village has extended its run for another week. Tell your friends. Better yet, bring your loved ones. 2010-03-05T15:51:52+00:00 http://www.mediarights.org/engine_feed/sending_out_an_s.o.s/ http://www.mediarights.org/engine_feed/sending_out_an_s.o.s/#When:16:23:38Z I left my native Ecuador in 1989, to pursue my college education in Southern California. What little I knew back then about my country’s indigenous communities had been filtered through the prism of hundreds of years of colonialism and one of its most insidious aftermaths, a national inferiority complex. In Joe Berlinger’s documentary Crude, indigenous people from the Ecuadorean Amazon are the protagonists of the largest class action suit against corporate power: 30,000 rain forest inhabitants banding together against U.S. oil company Chevron in a lawsuit that has yet to be decided. Among the charges against Chevron are three decades of toxic contamination of the region and, most devastatingly, its water. Expert testimony from Chevron’s investigators claimed with certainty that there was no evidence of contamination. That 15 out of 20 newborns would develop skin rashes, the corporation attributed not to oil spillage seeping into the region’s rivers, but rather to poor sanitation. Characters in the film kept framing this case as “David versus Goliath.” To me, it was more resonant to witness the continuous resistance of indigenous people against their decimation. Thus, the film loses steam once Trudie Styler and Sting make cameos in support of the plaintiffs. The focus temporarily shifts to the celebrities instead of the victim/heroes whose quality of life has been severely compromised. Even among the current wave of eco-themed documentaries, Crude’s depiction of this epic tale is impressive. The case will be setting precedent for potential other such cases worldwide and will be decided any minute now. 2010-03-03T16:23:38+00:00 http://www.mediarights.org/engine_feed/Humanitarian_Crisis/ http://www.mediarights.org/engine_feed/Humanitarian_Crisis/#When:00:36:32Z By Miriam Welderufael According to the Enough Project, over 5 million people have died and 45,000 people continue to die each month in the Democratic Republic of Congo due to the Mineral Trade Conflict. This conflict is going on largely because Congo is rich in natural resources that we need in the electronics we use everyday. If those deaths aren’t enough to get your attention, then direct your attention to the weapon of choice: Rape. Women are continually sexually abused and tortured due to the Mineral Trade Conflict—a conflict that we are fueling. Former victims of Congo’s civil war. Photo by United Nations Development Programme This is an ongoing tragedy that could have ended years ago and we should all know about it. More than a dozen filmmakers, journalists and celebrities have been spreading the word for over a decade, and yet, very little has changed. Women are still gang raped. Men are still mutilated. Children are still forced to fight the war. They are all being tortured and left to die on a regular basis and we have had the power to stop this, but we haven’t. Donations will not save the people now. It’s too late for that. At this time, money is not what they need and they are not even asking for justice because these things would be considered luxuries. They are asking for a solution to the violence and corruption and until they get that, they need protection. Fortunately, there is something that can help. The Conflict Mineral Trade Act (CMTA) was created in 2009 to assist in breaking the link between the trade minerals and the human rights violations in the Congo. This Act would create a transparency so that, as consumers, we could make educated decisions about the products we buy and ensure that we are not helping fund the violence in the Congo. More than your sympathy, the people in Congo need you to support and promote the CMTA.  Raise Hope For Congo, a non-profit, is doing just that and is asking for everyone to join them on February 15-19 for Advocacy Days to Support the Conflict Minerals Trade Act of 2009. This means hosting a screening of the 60 Minutes episode on Congo’s Conflict Minerals, having a meeting with or writing a letter to your Representative to Congress and also encouraging others to do the same. The people in the Congo have been suffering for too long. We owe it to them to help by supporting the CMTA and becoming an advocate to end the trade of Conflict Minerals until the bill is passed and the violence has ended. Related Resources Africans by Nneka (Wake Up World) International Rescue Committee Come Clean for Congo: Life Should Be Free Mapendo International 2010-02-12T00:36:32+00:00 http://www.mediarights.org/engine_feed/kristof_on_congo/ http://www.mediarights.org/engine_feed/kristof_on_congo/#When:21:14:06Z Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times has recently been devoting his column to the horrors of war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The protagonists of our own documentary-in-progress, Rose & Nangabire, come from Congo and have been affected by over a decade of war there in innumerable ways. During the course of our creation of the film, we have become invested in seeing peace come to this beleaguered country. I recently posted a comment to Kristof’s blog post, “The World Capital of Killing,” and I wanted to share what I wrote with you: Thank you so much for calling attention to the horrors of the Congo. The only way the world will respond is if the situation is not allowed to fade from view. I appreciate your blog post from February 3rd noting that you feature Americans working to ameliorate the situation in order that your column resonate with your American readership. On that note, I would like to call attention to a Congolese-American woman, Rose Mapendo, who is tirelessly working to bring attention to the devastation in her country, as well as to try to find solutions. Rose is the subject of a film that my colleagues and I have been working on for the past three years, Rose & Nangabire (working title). Rose is Banyamulenge, a Congolese Tutsi. Over a decade ago, her husband was murdered and she was imprisoned with nine of her children in a death camp. In large part due to her resourcefulness, she managed to keep all of her children alive, and was resettled in Phoenix in 2000. She obtained American citizenship 2006. Since arriving here, she has inspired the founding of and become the spokesperson for Mapendo International, which protects and cares for at-risk and forgotten refugees in Africa. Rose engages in grass-roots work with internally displaced persons and refugees who remain in camps throughout Africa, helping women to start businesses through microloans, provided through money she raises through her church in Phoenix and through selling crafts created by Congolese refugees; empowering women to organize and find their political voices; and meeting one-on-one with refugees to offer them solace in their loss and terror by sharing her own story. She also speaks on the world stage (from the White House to the UNHCR to 2008 peace accords in Congo), addressing the need for peace and reconciliation. Rose firmly believes that forgiveness is the only way to move forward. To hear her speak is transformative. To internalize her message is perhaps the road to salvation for her country. While outsiders such as Lisa are remarkable, for someone to have survived what Rose did and still emerge advocating forgiveness is a model for the world to follow. Please read his important coverage, and click “Recommend” on my comment, #114 (the direct link to my comment is here).   2010-02-11T21:14:06+00:00 http://www.mediarights.org/engine_feed/Satisfied_Theyre_Not/ http://www.mediarights.org/engine_feed/Satisfied_Theyre_Not/#When:22:36:34Z By Miriam Welderufael Imagine this. You are a journalist, eager to inform the world of a great tragedy and how they can assist. Do you just report as a witness giving a heartbreaking testimony or do you get involved? This is the question that journalists and other media makers in Haiti have had to ask themselves since the earthquake struck earlier this year. Because the magnitude of the tragedies they are seeing have grown, it has become increasingly more difficult to simply stand on the sidelines, observe and report. During a clip on looters, CNN’s Anderson Cooper saw a young boy who had been hit in the head with a stone amidst the looting chaos, so Cooper took the initiative to help save the young boy, who was covered in blood, by carrying him away from the commotion. This clip contains graphic content.  Viewer discretion is advised. There are a few clips of journalists, like Cooper, who intervene when they are able to, but the clips that really stand out are those of the select doctors turned journalists who are in Port-Au-Prince reporting while giving medical attention to those they can reach. In a CNN interview, Dr. Nancy Snyderman said, “If I tell the stories through the eyes of a physician and I tell those stories to millions of people, do I help more people in the long run? I guess at the end of the day I have to believe the answer is yes or I shouldn’t be doing this.” The clips of these doctors conducting surgeries and wrapping up wounds while speaking to the world have truly shown how seriously devastated the country of Haiti is. Everyone’s skills are needed and opting to utilize just one or two of your skill sets, really shouldn’t be an option at all. View on YouTube You probably have already either tweeted, texted, e-mailed or charged your donation, but more is needed. There are opportunities for you to be like the journalists who are helping in every way they can; donate more money, donate supplies, fundraise, promote or even adopt.  We all have different capabilities, but we all are able to provide something to someone who has lost everything. It’s no longer enough to do the minimum. Related Resources Clip: Dr. Besser saves Haitian Baby Help Haiti Now Haiti Community Support Clip: Double Duty Doctor: Journalist Help Haiti 2010-01-29T22:36:34+00:00 http://www.mediarights.org/engine_feed/worth_writing_home_about/ http://www.mediarights.org/engine_feed/worth_writing_home_about/#When:15:37:35Z I recently returned from a brief trip to the Sundance Film Festival where I saw two important docs in competition. Laura Poitras’ THE OATH offers astonishing access to professional jihadists in Yemen. Shot by Kirsten Johnson, edited by Jonathan Oppenheim and with Laura (MY COUNTRY, MY COUNTRY) at the helm, all of us in the audience knew we were about to experience a work of art. To me it felt like a thriller, perched on the edge of my seat in suspense for the next revelation from Guantánamo or a taxicab in Sana’a. You almost have to rub your eyes, you can’t believe what you’re seeing. THE OATH is going places—and in style to boot. Two days later we saw Amir Bar-Lev’s devastating retelling of Pat Tillman’s journey through fame, glory and betrayal in THE TILLMAN STORY. I’m only sorry that Amir didn’t get to keep the title he preferred: I’M PAT F*CKING TILLMAN. Dani Tillman, Pat’s mom, spoke eloquently at the Q & A. My favorite moment at the festival was her response to an audience member’s question about whether she was glad to have participated in the film. She said, (and I’m paraphrasing): “We need to have documentaries to help us connect the dots and see the big picture. The media gives us information in flashes, but documentaries give us time to really reflect on the complexity and depth of a story so that we can draw our own conclusions.” That kind of summed up my feelings of inspiration about the power of docs in today’s world after seeing these two very different approaches to exposing the real stories behind the news. Both these films will be in theaters later this year—don’t miss them. 2010-01-29T15:37:35+00:00 http://www.mediarights.org/engine_feed/the_poor_mans_sundance/ http://www.mediarights.org/engine_feed/the_poor_mans_sundance/#When:21:58:36Z For the past few years, I have found a way to enjoy the benefits of The Sundance Film Festival without leaving the comforts of my Brooklyn home. If you, like me, are not fortunate enough to be amongst the parka wearers in Park City, you can still enjoy many of the benefits of being there. Here are my five tips: 1. Follow people who are there on Twitter or Facebook. By hearing their adventures, you can get a good sense of what films are getting buzz and what events seemed meaningful. Pick people who have a similar sensibility to yours. Otherwise, their adventures will start to annoy you. My favorites on Twitter have been @1basil1, @ebertchicago, @fromthehip and @wendynuale (Note: Some of these people are no longer there but you can read their archives.). 2. Read news sites and blogs that are reporting on the festival. Some good suggestions are Indiewire, Hammer to Nail, Thompson on Hollywood, LA Weekly and the good old fashioned New York Times. I am not a big fan of reading reviews per say but their discussions on trends are top notch. 3. Watch panels online. I subscribe to The Sundance Channel and The Sundance Film Festival on YouTube. I have really enjoyed watching condensed versions of meaningful conversations. My favorite so far was The Producer’s Round Table with producing legends Ted Hope, Christine Vachon, Jonathon Schwartz, Thomas Woodrow and Liz Watts. It made me feel like I was eavesdropping on a great conversation. These stream all year round so you watch them anytime. 4. Watch movies. This year you can actually see a few of the films screening at the festival outside of Park City. YouTube is offering rentals through January 31st of films that screened in 2009 as well as films in the 2010 festival. You Tube is also streaming shorts from the festivals as well. Or you can participate in Sundance Film Fest USA and attend a screening in an actual movie theater near you (This option is available if your city is one of the chosen few. The event is January 28th so you better get on it!). For the films that are not available through either of these means, you can— 5. Keep a list of films that you want to see. That way, when they come to your local film festival, theater or online outlet, you can be sure to catch them. It makes navigating the cinema world a bit easier. No, these tips don’t replace the experience of running into Ryan Gosling at a party… but they do soften the blow.  2010-01-28T21:58:36+00:00 http://www.mediarights.org/engine_feed/developing_a_2010_social_media_strategy/ http://www.mediarights.org/engine_feed/developing_a_2010_social_media_strategy/#When:21:54:23Z Thanks to all of you that have been exploring the social web with me over the past few months via this blog and on Twitter. We’ve done a lot of thinking about what Twitter is, how to use it effectively, whether there’s a decent way to measure social media ROI, and debating the merits of this medium as a credible source for information at all. It’s time to take theory to practice. My 2010 experiment is to do a 6 month case study to really see what measurable results can be gotten from utilizing online channels. I’m taking a three-prong approach: a blog, Ning & Twitter. I haven’t had time to really explore Facebook or Linkedin or other networks, so instead of spreading my effort too thin, I’m sticking with the 3. Rationale: A blog serves as an anchor point for you to share your knowledge or expertise and establish your personal or professional brand Ning is a platform for building your own niche social network. (Someone has already done the work of building a Ning site for our city, so I’m just going to continue being active there.) Twitter is… well, I’ve reflected on what Twitter is here and here. Twitter is whatever you want it to be. From a business perspective, it’s a communications platform for developing relationships with colleagues and potential clients, and for distributing the content from your blog. Problem being addressed: A few years ago, I was getting ready to buy my first house, and decided to get a real estate license so I’d know what they know. What I found was an industry operating in an outdated model with virtually no means for public accountability, making it a breeding ground for greedy, dishonest shysters. (subprime mortgage crisis, anyone?) Fast forward a few years, and the real estate industry is still ripe for an overhaul. Opportunity Identified: My first attempt at real estate mostly ended in frustration and helplessness. Now, I’m more comfortable with blogging, connecting with people, and doing basic design work with Adobe tools (Photoshop, Illustrator, etc). I’ve also been intensely studying and researching social technology, and am convinced it offers an unprecedented opportunity to facilitate change. Here’s the plan, a la John Fergurson’s ‘Marketing Strategy vs. Tactics‘ post on Brand Insight blog. Goal: Ultimately, to disrupt the industry. Strategy: To build a better model, built on accountability, trust, transparency, and equity. Tactics: Change doesn’t happen overnight. As Clay Shirky put it in his book Here Comes Everybody: ‘Revolution doesn’t happen when society adopts new technology, it happens when society adopts new behaviors.’ I think the tools are in place for building new models, but we need to collectively agree to do so. Step 1: Build the brand. This is going to start with a blog. I spent a few hours thinking about domain names. At first I tried for something really obvious and location specific (www.beaconrealestate.com, www.beaconhomes.com) but those were all taken. Then I decided those are boring and unoriginal anyway, and was better off with a name a bit more scalable. I kept in mind that a logo would help establish the brand and make it memorable, so tried to think of names that also lent themselves well to logo development. I thought about names for animal homes, because animals are cute and fun to draw, so would work for a logo. After going through about 30 potential names that were all taken, I came up with www.roostchooser.com. I bought the domain and registered the Twitter handle @roostchooser. Then I sketched a few different ideas, and came up with this: OK, I’m no professional graphic designer, but I asked my 4 year old niece what she saw and she said “An owl and a house.” Done. Owls are both cute and wise, so I liked the inference –> if you utilize the blog, you are too! Step 2: Provide valuable and timely information. I’m spending the next few days writing a few “pillar posts” – articles that are instructional, informative, and timeless. These are essential for positioning the blog as a resource, and laying a foundation for building trust and displaying transparency. I want the blog to be a combination of these types of posts: pillar posts local & industry news – market trends, average selling prices in the area, major commercial developments in the area that might affect home prices, etc home tips – practical money-saving tips for homeowners (switching to compact fluorescent bulbs, insulating the attic floor), where to find bargains on home renovation materials, available state tax credits, & any information that will make a home more efficient or beautiful Step 3: Be Human. This pointer is ridiculed by some as “social media fluff,” but apparently it’s not an obvious component in a business model. Under the human umbrella you’ll find phrases like “engaging your audience,” “building relationships,” and “listening instead of broadcasting.” I’m a real person, and I’m doing this because of an idea: the current system is unfair. I’d like to help people by providing information that is usually hidden behind the curtain. In exchange, I’d hope people would choose to work with our team, and eventually to choose to participate in a new system altogether. The ‘human side’ will manifest from the tone of the posts, the discussions that form within the comments section of blog posts, the exchanges on Twitter, and one-on-one contact via email. Step 4: Expose liars, cheats, and frauds. There are genuinely wonderful people in the industry who actually try to help others. Unfortunately, there are just as many scoundrels who ruin it for everyone else, and have gotten away with it for years because there hasn’t been a way to hold them accountable. This isn’t realtor specific – it’s an industry disease – real estate agents, attorneys, appraisers, mortgage brokers, inspectors, and anyone else who might be able to take a bite out of the commission pie are afflicted. If a forum was available for people to vent their frustrations and share their stories, perhaps industry business ethics would be a bit different. Conclusion: And that’s it. The idea is to highlight the problem and spark a conversation of how to change it. If a critical mass of people agree to sidestep the system, we can begin to construct something new. There are already companies emerging who offer alternate models, like Redfin. The “ideal” situation might be a fully automated system between buyer and seller where each walks away feeling good, and neither has their pocketbook gouged. In the meantime, knowledgeable agents guiding people through the process are necessary, and deserve to be paid for their services. At the same time, if industry standards and transparency were raised, many unethical players would be bumped out of the game, leaving honest people with integrity to reinvent the system so everyone wins. Our Western culture is in transition, are we’re just on the front end of realizing that business doesn’t have to be a zero-sum game. Perhaps my idea of transforming an industry is a lofty goal, but accomplishing it is more feasible than ever. We now have the social technology tools to communicate and connect outside of the established system; the next step is facilitating a new social agreement in how we choose to do business. There are still limitations, foremost being digital media literacy – the ability to effectively navigate online spaces, filter information, and tap into the power of social networks. Those without internet access are at a disadvantage. Those fully immersed are still in the process of figuring it out. So, the social web is still the Wild West. It’s polluted with marketing and spam, and clear examples of how it could be used to truly benefit humanity are murky at best. But I’m not discouraged. If we aim high and fall short, we’ll still be further along than if we accept the current norm. Let’s make 2010 the year of The Shakeup. 2010-01-20T21:54:23+00:00