Blog: Writing our own Us Now story
Here at Pool we're always keen to hear about new trends and ideas in social media. So when we heard about a screening of Us Now in Sydney, a UK film project about the power of mass collaboration, government and the Internet, we just had to share it with you. We asked one of the main 'unorganisers' of Us Now Sydney, Headshift consultant James Dellow, to blog for Pool about the film, the Sydney screening and how it all came about. James asks us to think about our own Us Now Australia story:
"On the 9th July, nearly a hundred people gathered together for Us Now Sydney - a special event to screen the film and discuss what the story meant to us. In a way, the story of Us Now Sydney is very much the story of the film. In fact, I can’t really tell you about the film without also telling you about how all these people ended up coming together on a cold Sydney winter’s evening to watch it.
Us Now was originally screened in just a few places around the world during late 2008 and early 2009, including London, Berlin, Ottawa, Oslo and Brussels. Then on May 12th of this year the film was made available online so that anyone could watch it. And it was at this point it came to my attention.
So using Twitter I asked a very simple question: “who wants to watch and discuss Us Now in Sydney?”
Less than a dozen people responded to that first call to action and I actually thought we might be lucky to get 30 or so people interested. But by the end of course, we had more than 3 times as many people registering their interest in seeing the film. Drawing on the resources of the loose social network that was forming around Us Now Sydney, we also managed to find a suitable free venue, some volunteers to help record the event in sound and pictures, and even a panel to help facilitate some debate.
And in essence, this really reflects in part what the film is about - the power of the Internet to help people achieve simple social outcomes like this. Us Now then takes that idea and asks us to consider how collaborative patterns like this can be applied to one of the most complex aspects of human society: the process of government.
The film really does tackle this in a very understated way. I remember there were actually a few moments in it that caused the audience to chuckle - not quite what I expected, but then the film is full of cultural stereotypes like the obsessed football fans who treated their 4th division team like it was in the premier league and the group of model train enthusiasts who were desperately seeking a community grant to buy more track for their toys. However, hopefully the point wasn’t lost on everyone that its the presence of these characters that helps to ground Us Now in the everyday, rather than some utopian technologist dream world. Us Now is about ordinary people, not geeks playing with Twitter.
And it was really this point that made me believe it was worthwhile getting a group of people together in Sydney to watch the film. Us Now tells a positive story about the Internet and the changes it is bringing to society. But it tells this story from the perspective of the UK. I want to understand the story of what Us Now means for us in Australia.
Based on what I heard in the conversations after we finished watching the film, I think the first challenge for telling our own ‘Us Now Australia’ story appears to be about overcoming the physical distances that often separate our different Australian communities. Luckily the Internet, including places like Pool, are ideally placed to overcome that exact barrier.
And now, back to you - what’s your Us Now Australia story about and how will you tell it?"
Thanks James. We'd love to read your comments on this post. If you're logged in you'll see a big white comment box below this post. If you're not a member we'd love you to join.
James blogs at Chieftech and can also be found on Twitter.
Image above by ChiefTech licensed CC-BY-NC-SA.
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3 comments
31.07.09 — Waynes Word on Web
Yes, you can watch it on;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlqU1o3NmSw&feature=related
How about a Drupal based political party that runs a virtual candidate under the banner Max Headrom for President?
31.07.09 — Andrew Davies
Hi Wayne,
Thanks for those comments. Have you seen 'US Now'? Some of the communications issues you've raised are covered in the film.
Andrew, Pool Team
31.07.09 — Waynes Word on Web
My suggestions for solving this puzzling state of affairs would probably be as abhorrent to those in power as my suggestions for allowing the people they serve, a say in the day to day running of their affairs (other than voting for tweedle-dee or tweedle-dum once every three or four years). But never the less, here goes:
Seeing we have this amazing communications network that connects every home in the country, why don’t we use IT to administer our right, to hold to account, those we pay to look after our best interests by taking the time to educate ourselves on running a Content Management System designed to achieve what we all should want, a more accountable, profitable, better run country. You may scoff, you may huff and puff, but it is possible to put in place an Internet site that has the capability to register all people of tax paying age as voters on issues that concern them and if we did this and a majority of voters elected to do something without asking the permission of politicians, generals or Telstra employees, then what we would have, would be a legitimate tool to run our country, as the first real democracy in the world.