New Colonies

just a first thought. There are at least a couple kinds of revolutions. The french revolution was an attack in the homeland. The american revolution was a a battle on a new land. In the new planets metaphor, the old planets, the old county, remains and can eventully benefit from trade with the new planet. In the destroy the old order metaphor there is huge bloodshed and maybe things are better but certainly there is no new planting.

Are we moving into a new frontier or trying to vanquish the old order?

Here’s a vital question. We’re a colony – good. Let’s hit the history books again and ask this question:

What causes colonies to fail?

Just drop the ‘R’ and things get a whole lot easier.

Here’s what I mean by that.

Revolutions are a fanciful thing to think about, and gosh, what if we were truely a part of one?

Well, all of us combined don’t have the billions of dollars that it would take to tople any of the giants in the major media market – so why should we try? Why equate to what we’re involved in as a Revolution?

Answer: We don’t have to – just drop the R, start calling this the New Media Evolution.

Let’s EVOLVE – grow a bit, do things smarter and keep it all centered around thousands of micro-communities, when as a whole, probably out number the established communities by at least 10 to 1.

The New Media Evolution, it’s happening right now.

Why is that better? Simple, look back in history – who was the first group of people to actually ‘cook’ their food? Doesn’t matter. Once it happened, society Evolved.

Who ate the first mushroom? Fried the first egg? Burned bread to make toast? Doesn’t matter who was first, the point is that once something becomes viewed as the best way of doing things by a large number of people, then society Evolves.

Things which may seem out of the ordinary when someone first hears about them – those make the stories of the future.

How could an engine, a bunch of steel and four tires ever replace the trusted horse?

So, to attempt an answer at the question raised above, what causes colonies to fail…I’d say they fail because they think that they will continue to exist if they only stay focused on the colony itself. Just like no man is an island, so true is no colony will survive without the assistance of other colonies.

The podcamps are already proving that this New Colony isn’t falling into that mindset.

It will survive and thrive, then society will Evolve.

Michael B

I left Podcamp with an energy and drive. From where I sit (and that admittedly is what I am doing these days in relation to creating non-blog new media content), I don’t relate to the drive to take down the existing media structure. I left PC with a desire to foster a community, to grow something that for me is largely unrelated to the existing structure. I loved the sharing of so many different experiences under which was a similar base of passion.
Do I want people to catch the new media bug? Uh-huh. I am struggling to find folks (within the parenting arena) who have the drive to podcast even though they have a ton of fantastic things to contribute to the conversation.
This is all new- and I am jazzed about what I have learned in the past year. I feed on talking to other people who are enthusiastic about it.
I am excited to see GNMParents grow and develop and be a hub of parenting voices/faces from near and far. It’s about building that community and making it exciting and content rich and new. That I get.

Yes, Evolve.

Like it.

This is what Steve and I are always discussing with everyone we come across – the evolution of media. We are really active here in L.A. in teaching traditional media what the difference is and why this movement is so important.

With JETSET we involve our teen/young adult audience personally in the media we make – in every single show. They are part of what we create… And not only is our objective to entertain, but by engaging our young audience – we are teaching that this is a medium they can be actively involved in on a personal level. That is one of our main goals with JETSET, and what keeps us going. And the great thing is that teens are talking back. It’s gone past YouTube. We’re so happy that we are part of that, and can affect change in such a positive way.

Great conversation.

I agree about this being a great conversation to have at this point. To further what Zadi said about JETSET, a few months ago we took a hard look at what we were doing in terms of audience involvement. At that point we had a relatively successful show, but we knew that we were not taking full advantage of this medium.

So we made a conscious choice to turn the show on its ear. In the space of 6 shows since changing our format, our audience size has quadrupled and the interaction we have built with the young adults watching the show constantly amazes me.

Now every decision we make about JETSET hinges on one thought: can I see this anyplace else other than the Internet? If the answer is yes, we throw it away and find something else to do.

Along the way we got teens involved in 3 projects that have really been a lesson for us in building community. Brandon’s Pitch Project on our Wiki has been an incredible thing to watch. We have teens making favicons for the JETSET site and posting them to the wiki, and we have started a dialogue to find out if the teens who watch our show are hopeful and optimistic for their future. Wiki, wiki, wiki…

We feel like what we’re doing now with JETSET is really keying in on that audience, and that is something we were searching for throughout the first months of the show. Rather than just entertaining, we wanted to engage, to converse.

As Zadi said, when we sit down with mainstream media decision-makers now, we point to JETSET as an example of being unafraid to take a risk. Here was a show that had an audience, was generally well-received, and we make a conscious decision to push things as far as we could. We encourage them and everyone else doing it to do the same. It’s a mantra practically.

We’re banging rocks together right now, as far as I’m concerned. As the tools and the methods of distribution mature and evolve, so should the shows. They should be a living entity.

I’m definitely not one for tearing down anyone. One of the best conversations I ever had with a religious group was, “Why spend all your calories hating gays, when you can spend even more building up the things you support?”

I think my focus, and the focus of the post is this: if you realized you were the founders of a new colony, and that part of the premise of the colony was to allow everyone’s voice to have a chance to matter, how would you conduct yourself? How would you use your voice? What would you do for the colony?

Not that we all have to be working at the same cause. That’s certainly now how America came to be, nor is it the way of things now. (or *.country, for that matter).

But the point is, what are we going to do differently in our own personal colonial time versus what came before?

Most colonies historically failed for one of three reasons:

1. Disease.

2. Supplies.

3. Debt. (yes, debt!)

We have disease in the form of the fragile infrastructure of the Internet. We also have disease fighters like Akismet, SpamAssassin, etc.

We have supplies – sometimes in abundance. Bandwidth is relatively cheap. Storage is very cheap. Equipment to get started can be modest to begin with ($499 Mac Mini, $30 Logitech headset, $60 Logitech WebCam).

What I think endangers our colony most is debt. Now, the historical colonies often took out loans or had patrons to foot the bills of operating the colonies. The new media colony pays for a lot of stuff on a credit card – and eventually the bill will come due (on the 6th of the month, 20 day grace period, late fees 3% of balance…) and so we need to keep hacking away at the money thing until it’s solved enough that the colony is minimally self sufficient.

That’s one of the driving factors of what made America – abundant resources made it an attractive draw, so much so that it eventually outgrew its mother country, England.

I think that’s still yet to be seen. This colony stretches beyond even those we come in contact with and eventually meet face-to-face. This colony is global and unchartered.

Maybe the thing to do is to realize that the colonists are no longer the ones who make up the colony (colonists in the purist sense of the word). The landscape of this media will continue to be colonized perpetually by the curious and the skilled and the innovative.

If I consider myself a colonist – the best I can do is get on a boat and sail far away from the colony… expand my horizons, see what else is out there, and in that sense I would have done something differently.

We are a colony, now “do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”

Where to start…
I agree that this is an evolution, at a pace we don’t see in the natural world, but one where darwinian principals still apply. It will be survival of the fittest, with Chris Penn’s issues as deciding factors- How long will a hobbyist bear their own costs before they “podfade” and die out or burn out? How many people will have sufficient time and capital to see this thing grow and expand? How many people (including “old media” ) will be unable to adapt, at sufficient speed, to stay competitive?

Although it’s a few years old, I highly recommend Douglas Adam’s BBC Radio 4 series, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Future. Around 2000, beofre DA passed away, he did this series looking at how media was evolving and how the internet was impacting things- and you can see how much he has predicted correctly- that once the internet was willing to allow payments of “pocketchange” amounts, ie. $0.99 per song on iTunes, then ecommerce was off to the races. Likewise, the point of new media is largely the community and the interactivity, because this is how humans are wired- we want to connect with others like ourselves.

This means we risk playing too much “inside baseball” and not getting others to join the conversation. Some people can’t join the conversation because of technical issues or knowledge based issues that make the technology prohibitive, but this will rapidly change with more wi-fi access and cheaper broadband connections, as well as more powerful computing machines, capable of easily handling video and audio in the amounts we generate and demand.

We may be Darwin’s finches on our own little island in the ocean, but as long as we can continue to feed ourselves, adapt to an ever changing environment, and send out scouts to other colonies to spread our “species”, things will grow and blossom- being fruitful and multiplying, so to speak.

Each new species can threaten the old ones as they move into the ecosystem, but many also find their niche, however large or small, and thrive well; some will outcompete native species and steal their resources. Others won’t survive the competition as it stands and won’t gain a foothold. Maybe the answer is a mix- a political and social evolution, made possible by connecting like minds and souls over distance and moving together to a new future, where survival and success is not yet certain, but the vigorous nature of the new colonists is such that they will be difficult to ignore or stamp out.
Am I stretching this analogy too far? Maybe ths belongs on Ze’s – That makes me think of…list.
Whit

Debt, ah debt. I haven’t really read enough of the current book I’m reading, but I remember a great deal of the other narratives from the period having chapters set aside where Franklin is over begging the French for cash to fund this all. It was interesting because it tears at the facade of “noble” that comes with history. You know France didn’t give a rat’s ass about America’s cause, except insomuch as it whacked at England a bit more.

But debt is a huge thing to consider. I talk a lot about the 110% club, which are my friends in New Media who’ve found themselves deeper and deeper in debt because they’re still pursuing the dream, but haven’t realized the money. There are really few of us out there who are making a living from our media. So why do we continue to pursue this? Because of the dream?

How do we fund this? I think Mr. Penn has a great idea for some of the residual money we need. Is that above-water yet?

Every since I discovered that I could pay my bill from MasterCard with a check from Visa, I’ve continued to spiral down deeper and deeper.

Is Mr. Penn devising a plan which might save me?

Grrr, make that “ever since”.

And so now, when I’ve finally decided to officially reach out to some people with the cash, I find out that they’re getting 1000+ such requests on a daily basis – it’s not too encouraging to look forward to standing in a long line.

Colonies need money to survive, but there’s no way the French would have given the Americans that money if they didn’t think the colonies had a reasonable chance of survival.

Who among us has a reasonable chance of survival? Which members of this new colony have proven they understand the way things work, and have clear-cut plans for the future?

Not many of us.

And yet we all go forth into the wilderness, begging (or blogging)…

I do agree with the circular tail of the main post-PodCamp Pittsburgh conversation, which said, “Monetization is all well and good (and yes, necessary), but there’s no money to be made from things no one wants.”

We either have to be good or be in demand — preferably both — because being mediocre and repleaceable won’t get you very far.

What’s the original or vital element you, as a colonist, can bring to the table? Are you a blacksmith (tech guru)? Farmer (content creator)? Tailor (web designer)? Cook (content network)? Or are you one of the many mouths that need to be fed while performing the manual labor necessary to build the infrastructure of the colony?

Discern your goal, discover your role and find a way to fit within the proactive framework. Otherwise, your ship might sink.

I like Justin’s analogy.
I’ve been listening to Tom Friedman’s book- The World is Flat- and it talks alot about outsourcing and globalization. The main thing people need to be successful is to be the “value add” – if you are not adding any value, you won’t get any in return.

Likewise, we need to think about what people have done locally (I can’t get a sandwich by email) and what can be done outside of the boundaries of space/locale and time. Programmers in India are working hours opposite of ours; doing work while we sleep is a benefit; even accountants are outsourcing tax prep work, because the “grunt” work can be done elsewhere, cheaper, and then concentrate on providing the intellectual property, such as advice, tax implications, and the like that is more satisfying work than the number crunching, and adds significant value.

IS what we do a necessity? My husband is a doctor- people can’t have their babies on the internet- he is a site specific provider that is not easily outsourced. But doing my podcast can be done by anyone with my level of knowledge and experience, but it will only be valued by people who need this niche information. And that’s okay with me- I don’t need to feed my family on my new media income, so I can be patient for growth, see where it goes. Bill Gates told Friedman he wasn’t too worried about the people providing tools for free on the net- as far as we was concerned, the hippie mentality would eventually die out as people needed to find real jobs, and businesses would want real customer support, not trying to track down some guy who did this program on his vacation.
But I think Gates misreads the community- both because it is a many headed hydra, where there is always someone, seemingly, willing to do stuff at low or no cost (freeware; shareware; google front page, etc.) and also because a business model should emerge – once we can really get a handle on accurate data collection and have a handle on how to build traffic, and what the convertion of traffic to commerce is- the Maven factor, for example, from the Tipping Point.

I’d rather take advice on something to buy from you all rather than the newspaper, TV magazine, or some random website- ultimately it’s about the trust and the dialogue.

I’m glad I came over here to read the comments on this post.

Sometimes when reading blogs in a browser, you don’t take the time to head over to the blog to read the comments.

I think I’m doing the same thing with vlogs. I watch most of them in an aggregator and only head over to the website when I want to leave a comment.

Steve and Zadi – What you said about engaging your audience is inspiring.

I agree about reading blogs in an RSS browser. It sometimes strips the “community” element from the experience. I am very guilty of not commenting much on Vlogs.

I wish someone would make a video comment returning system similar to MobaTalk / MyChingo.

: )

Hehe, well I don’t because MobaTalk is going to have video comments!

If someone else does it before I do, I’m thinking that I’ll end up with a night manager job at a local gas station.

Responding to Michael Bailey’s comment about devising the plan… sort of, yes. Two elementary questions:

1. Who is interested in what you are doing?

2. Do they have money?

As Chris and Steve will remember, when we first started soliciting money for PodCamp, we hit up every company with *Pod* in its name or i* as its name. That worked reasonably well. What made a real difference, though, was clustering. Does anyone remember Google’s 2005 algorithm shift?

Short short: PageRank determines how important a page is. Clustered PageRank determines nearby related pages that are equally relevant. This created the concept of site authority and established certain domain inbound links to be of much higher value, such as .edu and .gov sites.

What does this have to do with money? Who is related to what you’re doing? When we moved onto the more aggressive stages of PodCamp fundraising, we scraped the Boston Business Journal’s Book of Lists, and hit related targets -

- Advertising and PR firms
- Startup firms
- Venture capital firms

Had we needed to keep going, we probably would have started to hit music companies and such as well.

Who’s related to what you do, and do they have money?

[url=http://ipoo.org/5c2v]http://ipoo.org/5c2v[/url]

This one makes sence “One’s first step in wisdom is to kuesstion everything – and one’s last is to come to terms with everything.”

One’s first step in wisdom is to kuesteon everything – and one’s last is to come to terms with everything.

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