Click here to view the embedded video.

Seattle-based Pet Holdings, Inc., CEO Ben Huh (purveyor of beloved LOLcats and many other hilarious image macros) contracted with me to produce his Cheezburger Network’s 3rd Anniversary Video, an effort to celebrate the 3-year anniversary of icanhascheezburger.com and the 1 billionth collective view of the entire network’s user-generated video content.

As a new media producer and recent graduate of the UW MCDM program, I had been looking for Web video work and a means of applying the skills I had been developing as a graduate student.  About a month ago, Kathy Gill, one of the MCDM’s most popular professors (and exceptionally well established in the Seattle social media sphere, I might add) connected me with Huh via Twitter.  Huh has been in the process of hiring for various positions within his expanding Network and had been advertising such through his tweets.  However, at the time, the need for a video to celebrate Cheezburger’s birthday and billion video views had not completely arisen.  Only recently had the Cheezburger Network noted that they were approaching 1 billion video views, as the majority of their blogs’ entries have focused mainly on funny still images and memes.  Huh came up with the idea to produce the anniversary video (as well as to expand their video presence) in part based on conversations with me, and, I am certain, simply by looking at his sites’ video numbers.  As a fan of LOLcats, FAILs, and all things meme culture, I seemed like a really good fit for the project, and late one evening just before Christmas, we commenced work.

Now, in case you hadn’t heard, on-line video is becoming sort of important nowadays.

The on-going, inevitable convergence of TV and the Web is blurring traditional terminology (words like “film”, “television,” or even “video game”) as well as redefining how audiences access, share, and consume moving image content. Disruptive technologies like streaming video, smartphone-enabled mobile TV, digital video recorders (DVRs), and place- and format-shifting media devices and software like the SlingBox or Boxee have empowered users with a veritable smörgåsbord of entry points to the on-line video phenomenon.

Web video outlets powered by user-generated content, services like YouTube and Vimeo, have helped even the playing field between Hollywood and John Q. Public, while mass media ventures like Hulu and Joost have also gotten in on the game (mainly as a response to piracy). IPTV (aka, TV delivered via the Internet’s architecture) is on the rise. You can even download and stream movies directly to video game consoles like the Playstation 3 and XBox 360 through the popular video rental service Netflix – all of which is carried over the Internet.

Everyone from your grandmother to notable journalists to the President of the United States has discovered the power and importance of Web video and its impact on social media and modern communication.

And why not? When faced with the choice of conveying stories and messages through 1 minute of video or 3-4 paragraphs of text, which seems more effective? That question answers itself. However, the barrier to entry for so many institutions, businesses, and individuals has often been the price of video production technology and the educational know-how to get it all done. Thankfully, some of these constraints are lessening as pocketmedia devices like the Flip Camcorder or higher-end production quality video DSLRs take root and the price of high-definition video capture decreases. Coupled with the proliferation of high-speed broadband connections, new video compression standards, and growing communities of tech-minded individuals ready to offer post-production insight and expertise, it’s almost inexcusable to NOT have a video presence on-line. Moreover, the so-called “amateur aesthetic” currently casts standards for Web video production quality in to an interesting limbo place, akin to the days of Vaudeville or the nickelodeon, when it comes to content –> in other words, right now, people will pretty much watch anything at least once… assuming you have an effective social media strategy that gets them to watch it (but that’s a different post for another time).

Of course, for Cheezburger’s video I wanted to make something worth watching more than once, while still capturing some of that aesthetic.  Huh had three key messages he wanted to convey through their birthday announcement: to celebrate the anniversary and the community that made it possible, to announce their 1 billionth view, and to invite people to contribute and to investigate the entire Cheezburger Network of 35 sites, including their most recent launch, failbooking.com (which highlights some of the more comical and embarrassing Facebook status updates and responses out there).

My approach to producing the video would invoke my three pillars of Web video production: strategy, content, and scalability.  In terms of strategy, I mean what is the strategy to producing the video from initial concept to delivery and social execution.  By content, I refer to effective storytelling technique.  And, by scalability, I refer to the range of production value available for the proposed expenditure – what can you get for the budget available?

My thoughts on strategy were compound, as this was a video that would need to achieve three things: it would need to address the community that made 1 billion views possible; it would need to, conversely, stand-out by possessing a higher technical production value than the content it was celebrating; and, lastly, while celebrating the content and the community, it would need to intrigue unfamiliar outsiders and invite them to contribute to and explore the range of Cheezburger content.

Why the final point?  Because three years is ANCIENT in the Web world, and sustainability paramount.  In other words, how would we go about congratulating the LOL crowd while still growing such a community?  A combination of live-action “talking head” material (for example, Huh discussing the Network, interview-style) interspersed with montage material from the sites seemed like a good approach, but eventually we crafted a video slideshow music montage, sans actual interview material.

What we wound up with was inter-cutting both Network images and video clips to music, while also appropriating some of the Network’s (really, the entire Internet’s) most popular memes (but, for our purposes, let’s call them our “characters”, such as the Failboat, Happycat, Ceiling Cat, Hovercat, and others). In the video, these characters personify the Cheezburger community, a community that was thereafter addressed by the Network via text (titles) instead of generic audio/interview dialog.  This textual approach would allow us to effectively reach out to the community of Cheezburger fans by tipping the hat to their contributions, and yet introduce a broad enough spectrum of mimetic content to pique the interest of outsiders while still delivering the message to both groups.  The text/image motif is part of the general appeal of image macro culture.

Finally, in terms of delivery execution, the Cheezburger community would see the video at either of two on-line distribution points, as well as in a post to the icanhascheezburger blog. From there, the crowd would take over the distribution like they do already with so much of Cheezburger’s content, via sharing through social media.

Beyond strategy, the content worked itself out rather simply – digest as much of the network’s material as possible (guess who watched 260 Web videos on Christmas Eve?) and then craft Huh’s message in to a story told with text and image macro as a conversation between user and network.  This conversation illustrates the sensibilities and tastes of the crowd while attempting to use impact-ful (literally Impact font) text to speak as a voice of authority and deliver the message through traditional Aristotelian means. Part one establishes what’s going on (3 year anniversary message), part two builds momentum (leading in to the video montage) towards the larger message point (culminating with the ’1 billion’ news and an invitation to contribute future videos), and part three quickly reverses us back towards the established image macro territory, and then finally invites the viewer to check out failbooking.com.

Now, in terms of scalability, Huh proposed a modest budget, one that would eventually be divested towards off-camera expenditures, as all assets on-camera were essentially ready in advance of production.  The technical acumen poured in to this one video through post-production (namely, the work needed to perfect timing, pacing, titling, animation, and technical through-put to achieve maximum visual quality) was where the real work lay.  Huh wisely recognized that opting for the lower pricepoint available from a new media producer like myself, who can scale and handle an entire production of this nature vertically, means that he could save thousands of dollars by not going to an outside agency or post-house to otherwise achieve what he needed.  This kind of Web video production is perhaps the most scalable and reasonable form of content generation for dealing with niche audiences, plus the gloss desired can still be achieved.  As for the Cheezburger community’s response, the video has done overwhelmingly well thus far, amassing roughly 62,000 views between Viddler and YouTube in just five days.

Upon reflection, the success of the project circles me back to my earlier point: there is no excuse for not having a video strategy these days. Everyone should have one.

As fellow MCDMer Brook Ellingwood recently pointed out right here at Flip the Media, every company is now a media company.  If institutions, individuals, and everyone else working to communicate in today’s social media landscape and do real business wishes to engage their intended audiences effectively, they need to embrace new media production.  But this doesn’t just mean having a social media strategy, it also means having a powerful video strategy to go along with it.  Those desiring to effectively share their messages and tell their stories who do not adopt the affordable new media production tools widely available today will ultimately lose out to those that do make the effort to adopt and develop real video strategy.

Ben Huh recognizes this, as do my counterparts in the MCDM.  Are you ready to be a part of the video boom?  If so, it must be time to invest in that new video camera… and to hire a new media producer.

See also “5 Tips for Using Video to Grow Your Business in 2010” by Patrick Moran for Mashable, 12 Dec 2009.

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You’re soon facing mounting expenses and much more work than you could have prepared for. And your hair is fast becoming gray! But, that’s the nature of production. Whether you’re working alone or in a group, producing something substantial can often stretch you beyond your limitations. Regardless, you’ve still got an amazing story or message to share. So, what’s the best way to communicate it effectively with limited resources, time and money? A powerful video slideshow may be the way to go.

I’ve created several video slideshows during my career as a new media producer.  In fact, the two most popular videos on my YouTube channel are video slideshows. One is something I arranged around an inspirational old Nike print ad; the other is “The Internet is Unstoppable,” a vignette I recently put together to showcase the importance of social media. I am still amazed that these simple sequences of images and text are the most popular pieces I’ve generated. There must be something special about the video slideshow format that appeals to viewers.

I believe that anyone can produce an effective and powerful video slideshow, and you don’t need much video production experience to do so. A video slideshow is similar to, say, a PowerPoint presentation, but without the need for personal presence and audio narration. Your story or message will be driven solely by text and images interspersed together, set to music.

The Message

First, you need an effective message. Script out your story as if you were giving an in-person presentation. Think of it as a speech, but also think about the images you would show behind you if you were giving that speech live. You want your speech to grab the listener’s attention, then drive home a point. Finally, the speech should invite the audience to take action. This form of storytelling – a beginning, a middle and an end, often referred to as the “story arc” – is fairly universal: Hook your audience (beginning), explain your vision (middle), culminate your story with a major key point at the climax of your presentation (end), then invite them to act (wrap things up). Be sure to keep it short and simple. Write snippets of text that anyone can easily read on a screen.

The Video Editor

Next, you need access to a non-linear video editor. Most Windows-based PCs have built-in software like Windows MovieMaker while most Macs come with iMovie.  For my latest “Internet is Unstoppable” video slideshow, I used the more advanced Adobe Premiere Pro. I recommend you use software that will give you a “timeline” view in which you can insert elements, such as titles (text elements) and images.

The Music

You need to find music that matches your message. Most songs follow universal storytelling patterns; they contain a beginning, a middle and an end. So you want to look for music that fits your story’s arc. I prefer instrumental pieces because lyrics might detract from my slideshows. There are plenty of free* music resources online, including the popular CC Mixter, which offers Creative Commons-licensed music remixes, as well as Jamendo, a similar Creative Commons-based music service.

The Images

Lastly, you need images*! Your images could be slides that you would have included in a PowerPoint presentation, pictures of the subject matter or images that otherwise complement your written message and help advance your story in meaningful ways. Whatever the image, try to use the best quality picture you can get. If you choose a particular aspect ratio, or resolution, (such as “640 x 480 dimensions, 4:3 aspect ratio”) when setting up your video project in the editing software, try to find or create images that match those settings.  If you can’t, you can always use the editing software’s “scale” setting to resize the image, but it’s better to start with the appropriate size.

Creating Your Video Slideshow

Now that you’ve gathered all of your elements, you are ready to begin! Follow these steps to create a video slideshow, but keep in mind that the actual process may vary based on your editing software.

1. Start a new project.
2. Import the images and music to your project’s “bin” or folder.
3. Create a new “sequence” or timeline.
4. Drag and drop your music onto the main audio track in your timeline. This will be the backbone of your slideshow and you will edit to the beats.
5. If possible, enable the “wavelength” view on your audio track so you can visually interpret where significant beats and crescendos in the music are. You might not need to do this if you are very familiar with the music. Try listening to the music in small chunks to help familiarize yourself.
6. Find the “title” or text generator and create your opening title and/or the first line of your written story or script. Think of this as the first thing you would say if you were presenting in person.
7. Drag and drop your first title onto the main video track of your timeline where you want to see it. The timeline allows you to see where all of your elements will appear in sequence, so this process becomes a matter of timing your text and images to the music. Pro tip: Once you’ve dropped your
   title onto the timeline, click and drag the right edge of the title element to extend its length. Then move the preview slider to the beginning of the element and press “play” in the preview window or monitor provided by the software. This will allow you to watch the title element and test how long it takes to see or read it. Once you’ve judged how long it takes a viewer to absorb or read the item, click and drag the right edge of the element and resize it to the appropriate length. Time the elements so your viewers can read and see everything the way you intend them to!
8. Drag and drop your first image from the bin to the video track of the timeline. You’ll have to decide where you want the image to appear in relation to the text. If you want the text to appear over the image, move the text to the video track above the main track where the image resides (if the software provides for multiple tracks).
9. Repeat steps 6-8. SAVE FREQUENTLY. Create titles, add images (scale when necessary) and time all of your elements into a cohesive slideshow movie. Your video slideshow is coming together! If you want to, note the audio peaks that are visible in the music track’s wavelength and use those key musical cues to fashion your slideshow to the beats. After you make a series of edits, view your work in the software’s preview monitor to see how it flows.
10. Advanced users might want to experiment with animating titles or images using key frames to zoom in or rotate throughout the sequence.
11. When you have finished your video slideshow, save it, then preview it one last time to make sure it’s to your liking. Invite someone else to watch it and get feedback. Be sure to add ending credits using the title or text generator. Give credit to anyone who was involved in the project or supplied images, text or music.
12. When you are satisfied with the final product, export your project as a self-contained video file with the software’s video export or video compressor utility (some software calls this “Share your movie”). Try to export to a file format that most closely matches the original project settings (such as dimensions, aspect ratio, etc.).  Depending on how you will be showing your slideshow (e.g, YouTube, off a laptop at a conference, on a DVD, a broadcast, etc.), you might have to consult with someone about which video and audio codecs to use. The defaults provided by your editing software might be best to start with.
13. Kick back, relax, grab a slice of pizza and wait for your project to finish exporting. Depending on your hardware and software, this can take some time.

All done! It might seem like a lot, but once you get the gist of dropping images and titles to your timeline, it becomes a lot easier and you’ll grow more comfortable with the editing software. Experiment and preview often. You’ll sometimes find that you’ve created a unique visual cut or interesting musical timing all by accident!

Video slideshows are just one of many creative ways to communicate a message, reveal discoveries or insight, and tell a story. However, because moving images and music can have such a powerful effect, the video slideshow might be one of the most effective ways to share a presentation. So, hunker down, buckle in and start playing with your computer’s video editing software!

*Author’s note: I do not condone copyright infringement, but if you contact me directly, I would be happy to discuss the ways in which the Web is changing attitudes about copyright and fair use in the digital age, especially when it comes to not-for-profit online storytelling, education and communication.

Matthew Stringer is the blogger at Nerd Acumen, a current student of the MCDM, and a New Media Producer.

Related Posts

• May 10, 2010 — How to Create a Vlog (1)
• April 30, 2010 — Lessons in Multimedia Storytelling (part 1) (5)
• January 15, 2010 — I Can Has Video? Web video & Cheezburger Network’s billionth video view (6)
• August 31, 2009 — Visual Storytelling For Web: Tips And Techniques (1)
• May 11, 2009 — Google on TV (4)

Image from "This" Magazine

If this past summer’s controversial presidential election in Iran was any indication, Twitter has fast become a major platform for political discussion and grassroots organization on the global stage.  Social media, particularly the micro-blogging service Twitter, flexed its muscles during the opposition protests of the Iranian election results, and, at least for a month or two, it seemed that a global on-line conversation about democracy in Iran might actually help change the political climate of that country.  While it appears that the government of Iran eventually succeeded in squelching the unrest and cracking down on protests, it has become pretty clear that the nation of Iran will never be the same – and Twitter is partially to thank for that.  Considering the case of Facebook use in Iran, once you’ve got a taste of that sort of social freedom, it’s difficult to turn back.

In light of the above, I took a recent interest in what impact Twitter might be having on developing nations in Africa, where political unrest, tribal warfare, and social upheaval is a way of life.  It’s tough to surmise just how many people use Twitter in Africa (as Jason Wojciechowski at Future Media Change recently discovered via Wolfram Alpha), but if Twitter’s 2008 announcement that they would stop their international SMS*** service poses any revelation on the matter, it would be safe to deduce that the number of African Twitterers is not exceptionally high (please correct me if you find data to the contrary!).  Of course, Siena Anstis recently reported on the effect of Twitter during the Kampala rioting in September 2009, so we know it’s becoming a viable platform in parts of the continent.  Still, while Twitter is fully available to Africans via the Web and a few third-party applications (SARCASM ALERT: because you know everyone in Africa has a Blackberry and an iPhone – d’oh!), SMS messaging is certainly a vastly important gateway for Twitter. And this is not to mention texting’s big impact on global mobile communication as well.  The NYT reports that over 2.5 trillion text messages were sent world-wide in 2008, a number that has surely gone up in ’09.

So, what gives?  Well, in 2008 Twitter estimated that it would cost them about $1000 USD per user to continue their international SMS services, something of a money drain for a potentially multi-billion dollar business yet to announce their IPO.  With a nearly constant stream of bad news about violence, warfare, and genocide flowing from many African nations (including today’s warnings about the major potential for violence during Rwanda’s upcoming elections in August 2010), one has to wonder what role Twitter could have played in many of Africa’s ongoing social and political struggles during the past few years.  With status updating stymied by a lack of Twitter SMS, will the world ever feel the immediacy of the African situation when the next major African event unfolds, the way it did this past summer as Iran turned, at least for a moment, in to a focal point for the global social discussion on-line?

Luckily, as it stands, cell-phones are the primary portal to the Web for most Africans, so Twitter will continue to be available via the Web for millions of mobile users in Africa.  But, considering how the Iranian government worked so hard to shut off Internet access during the summer’s unrest, surely SMS plays a vital role in Twitter use when the Web is down.  By not enabling international Twitter SMS updates, Twitter is forceably creating a window of opportunity that other players will probably ultimately exploit.  But, considering the increasing ubiquity of Twitter around the world, let’s hope that’s not the case.

For more on why Twitter is so important for Africa, please see this August 2008 blog post at the White African, who beautifully summarized the impact of Twitter in Africa.  His post was partly what inspired this Flip the Media entry – we’ve got to revisit the Twitter question in Africa!

_____

*** – This does not affect users in Canada, India, or the United States.

Matthew Stringer is the blogger at Nerd Acumen, a current student of the MCDM, and a New Media Producer.

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Say What?

They say YouTube isn’t making any money.  Its bread and butter is user-generated content, although it has managed to draw partnerships with some major Hollywood content providers, such as Fox and Warner Bros.  Nevertheless, the money is supposed to be sparse.  Then you have Hulu, which got started with content from some of the major players, like NBC Universal and Fox, right off the bat.  Hulu is, according to the word on the street, doing very well.  And so what we’re looking at is two models, UGC and content from mass media.  In other words, a site catering to social media vs. a site catering to mass media (or, instead of simply saying “mass media”, we mean the lumbering, late arrival of mass media content providers to the social media space).

UGC vs. Hollywood

YouTube is the de facto place for UGC, and Hulu is becoming the de facto home for Hollywood content (at least until the cable and satellite carriers solve all of their on-demand problems, then you can kiss Hulu goodbye).  And, not surprisingly, the UGC heavy YouTube is in the red, perhaps because it lacks the gloss and production value of Hulu’s content – but really, it’s because social media just isn’t that profitable.  But, as an aside, I think that social media is unprofitable thus far because of poor management, not because its just impossible to capitalize on.  If one popular service goes away, something else will crop up in its stead.

So, how do you make money with YouTube?

UGC vs. Hollywood

No, that’s not me repeating myself.  Bringing together UGC and Hollywood content is what YouTube is trying to do.  But hosting the latest episode of Lost on YouTube is never going to compete with that same episode on Hulu.  It’s just too late.

So, what the heck do I mean by “UGC vs. Hollywood”?  Well, there does exist a viable model where UGC and Hollywood are not treated like oil and water, where all participants in the social media space, little guy and Hollywood, get to face one another down.

Funny Or Die

Will Ferrell, Judd Apatow, Adam McKay, and Chris Henchy have figured it out: funnyordie.com.  It is effectively Hulu and YouTube combined, at least in terms of the comedy genre, probably the most important genre in web culture.  Funny Or Die effectively provides content from users as well as major Hollywood content providers.  Ferrell, et al., have crafted a social space where users vote up or vote down content posted by celebrities as well as average users, competing side by side.  You, Joe Average or Hollywood Hero, or just Aunt Ethel, are either funny or, well, your stuff dies.  It presents a level, realistic playing field of UGC blended with Hollywood content (at least, Hollywood content produced with so-called “amatuer aesthetic”) where everything competes together for viewership.  If there is UGC that is just hands down as good, if not better than, or more deserving than, celebrity content, then new web celebrity is invariably created for that user.  And traffic flocks to the site, things get shared, and life is good.  Yes, funnyordie’s structure is not one of “personal broadcast” the way that YouTube works, but on-line crowds follow good content.  YouTube needs good content, not billions of videos with ten views.

So, what should YouTube do?

Remove all those zillions of videos that don’t deserve to see the light of day.  If social media users want to share videos, they can post them to Facebook, MySpace, and other sites.  Doing so, YouTube can raise its profile and save loads of money on server space, if they enable a voting system akin to Funny Or Die’s.  Give people the expectation that their content should be worth something better than life in the margins.  I’d even gladly hold myself to that standard.  Leave the small videos on social networks like Facebook or Myspace.

Maybe I’m crazy.  What do you think?

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Why do I feel like he’s dug up a dead horse?  Barriers to entry for illegal filesharing are minimal at best these days; but circumventing news subscription services is an absolute piece of cake!  I can’t think of a single time I have come across an article hiding behind a subscription service, usually mentioned in a forum at a news aggregator like Digg or Fark, where someone didn’t simply copy and paste the content to the forum or other venue for everyone else to see.

Stewart astutely posits the idea of news aggregators, like HuffPo or Drudge Report, giving portions of their ad revenue to sites that they link to, akin to a cable TV model.  This seems a much more practical idea than returning to subscription models, but getting aggregators to play ball will be no easy feat.  If major aggregators cave, others will crop up that don’t play, and the model will eventually fail.

Maybe journos should follow their broadcast journalism and cinema studies friends, ditch their keyboards, grab a camera and go find some news to shoot.  As mentioned, video isn’t much for copypasta.  And that’s the sort of thing the MCDM is preaching.

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Joseph Campbell, were he writing this, would probably say that we go to the ‘big show’ for inspiration: to experience the empowering psychological effect of transitional tales – stories about people, heroes really, who must pass from one state of being into another in order to achieve some necessary purpose and become something greater. I believe we all want to experience this change within ourselves in one form or another. These inspirational experiences highlight the societal and personal hunger for renewal, for a resurrection of all things truly important: progress, learning, joy, improvement, happiness. I don’t think people are predisposed to simply decay – we always want more, better, different, and great, whether good or bad (as per the eye of the beholder). Consider this from Joe Lambert’s Digital Storytelling Cookbook:

Why [are resurrection tales] so powerful? On one level, we all have to wake up in the morning and choose to go on — to resurrect ourselves in the face of fate and circumstance, the memory of loss and almost unbearable struggle, and our own sense of weakness and vulnerability. The stories we are drawn to, that resonate in our direct emotional need, in general, are those that give us a reason to make that decision to go forward. They inspire us. The very word inspire, in its archaic sense, means to breath again. Stories encourage us to take one more breath, to swim up to the surface, above our despair, and live.

We dine on long-form stories despite living in a short-attention-span, digital, impersonal world. We do this, I believe, because we want to connect to characters that are becoming something greater. Why? Because we all want to be greater than we are. If it were not so, well, there wouldn’t be much point to anything. Participating in short-form media storytelling, be it tweeting or blogging or Facebook wall posting, or anything else we might do with social media, indeed generates a large, if not abstract, collective human narrative, but it also makes us subconsciously grateful for traditional narratives. How else does a film like The Dark Knight, or a media franchise like Mamma Mia!, or the sagas surrounding the winning team at the NCAA Final Four, and so on… how do they each continue to remain viable financially and culturally, despite the increasingly ubiquitous presence of the Web and it’s instant-satisfaction aesthetic? Simple: inspiration. Inspiration might come in a small dose, even in a gesture, but those stories that take work are the ones we seem to look to the most, and that is why some parts of old media will never go away. We’ll find ways, and content producers and providers MUST find ways, to keep everybody at the dinner table.

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The answers to these important questions have a profound impact on the very near future of our democracy, as well as how we organize, communicate and even do business in the digital age. On the eve of the Obama inauguration, the University of Washington’s Master of Communication in Digital Media program held a dynamic, engaging “UW Insight” conversation that sought to put this digital revolution in perspective.

Part 1 includes the Introduction to this event and a presentation by Prof. Lance Bennett, UW Political Science and Communication, on the digital tools employed during the election.

Parts 2 & 3 after the jump…

Part 2 includes a presentation by Kathy Gill, Senior Lecturer, UW Department of Communication, on social media strategies.

Part 3 concludes the event and includes a presentation by Brett Horvath, Social Media Strategist; Pickens Plan, YourRevolution.org, on youth voter registration and the future.

Please visit the official site for this event, http://www.washington.edu/insight/digitalpresident/

These videos are © 2009 University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.  All rights reserved.

For more on the MCDM program, visit uwdigitalmedia.org.

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So, a couple of weeks ago Lawrence Lessig from Stanford appeared on The Colbert Report to discuss how copyright law is complicating things for everybody in the digital era, especially for kids, who are, unfortunately, being turned into criminals by institutions like the RIAA. Here’s the interview:

Lessig on The Colbert Report

Of course, near the end Colbert pretty much invites the world to take his material, even this interview, and “remix” it however they want. Three cheers for encouraging the Colbert Nation to steal Viacom’s intellectual property! And, of course, it was only a matter of time before the Interwebs would be all over this challenge.

In an ensuing episode, Colbert actually talks about it and shows us one of the remixes of the Lessig/Colbert interview:

Interview Remix

You gotta love it! Lessig is spot on about copyright laws being outdated. They stultify, marginalize, and criminalize consumers who want to engage intellectual material on their own terms – which NEVER implicitly means they don’t want to pay fair value for what they’ve recieved (but the media conglomerates hardly believe that!). Plus, there’s really no such thing as control; we’ve learned in Kathy Gill’s course this quarter (Evolutions and Trends in Digital Media) directly from Lessig’s book “Code” that cyberspace is a medium where regulation doesn’t work very well. Perhaps the very conceit behind traditional copyright itself is no longer viable in the age of social media. Creative Commons and the EFF are working to change things in this regard. Anyway, at the end of the day does all this copytheft mean that The Colbert Report is going to lose viewers and disappear from the airwaves? Hardly. If anything, this kind of commoditization, encouraged by a production that understands the importance of cultivating a relationship with its viewers, will keep more eyeballs on the Colbert franchise. Maybe the old guard could learn a lesson or two from that.

Kudos to Tim Jones and the Deeplinks blog at EFF.org for helping me find some of the material above.

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