Online video is driving rapid cycles of improvement in dozens of fields, argues Chris Anderson in this TED talk. This crowd-accelerated innovation, as he calls it, requires only a crowd of people, visibility and desire. Innovation comes out of groups, he says. We spark off each other, compete and improve. In order to leverage crowd-accelerated innovation, it has to be digitally shareable. Online video is especially well-suited as people have evolved over millions of years to communicate face-to-face. There is another channel of communication present when speaking face-to-face that is lost in text. Online video captures this. What the printing press did for writing, online video can do for face-to-face communication.
Liberty activists are already using crowd-accelerated innovation to advance the uptake of libertarian solutions. And you can join them. Libertarian activists have an urgent desire to share their personal libertarian stories. They have a crowd of other libertarians and libertarian-interested listening to them. They attain visibility by posting online, sharing on Facebook, blogs and other social media and simply by dint of the quality of their work. They show themselves acting, talking, interacting. By sharing their video recordings, they motivate others to do the same. This is an example of John Robb‘s self-replication, principle number eight of open source (r)evolution/insurgency. Crowd-accelerated innovation is working wonders for collaboratives like Free Keene and Free Grafton in New Hampshire.
You can leverage crowd-accelerated innovation, too. Find an issue you’re passionate about. Or research an issue and get excited about it. Get a good camera. A really nice Flip cam is only $203 at Amazon. I filmed one of my most popular fully informed jury activism videos with a Flip cam. Film yourself talking about liberty. Interview a friend about it. Get active and record it. Record agents of the state. Now plug yourself into the crowd. Join Facebook and connect with the large libertarian community there. Start a blog. Get yourself some visibility by sharing the link around. Send me your YouTube link and I’ll promote it to my network. The stage is set for you and your libertarian message to be accelerated by the crowd. If at first you don’t succeed in creating something viral, just keep on trying. That’s the secret to greatness.
There is much injustice in the world. If we are to bring about a better world, we must act fast. We must utilize all the ethical tools at our disposal. Crowd-accelerated innovation is a proven phenomenon. Use it to build your network, your reputation and a more libertarian world. Get started today!
4 replies on “How Libertarians Can Use Online Video to Accelerate the Uptake of Libertarian Solutions”
Great article, chamo Jorge. :-) People need to become more active in spreading the word. Even just commenting on articles at nonlibertarian websites helps. Imagine if thousands of more of us started doing just that! Spread the word, but avoid preaching to the choir.
Thanks but it’s not just about spreading the word. It’s about using the mature human communications technology that is face-to-face communications with online video to accelerate the uptake of libertarian ideas. Commenting in text, while not entirely useless, is orders of magnitude less effective at influencing people. That’s not to say that it’s useless, simply that online video is radically more useful.
While you’re right about video fewer people can or will use it. (Not everyone is as good looking as you or me. LOL) Anyone that has the brains to get online can read & write so commenting & blogging are options for them.
If poor people in Kenya can get their hands on a Flip cam, anyone can. It’s just a question of desire. You seem to be missing the point that if we want to be effective activists, we must use online video. It’s too effective to ignore.