Why Im excited about video on the internet

I've said it before, but let me say it again.
Up till pretty recently, the only videos you could easily find online were movie traliers and porn.
If you wanted to use the Internet to "connect" to the world....you could really only do it through text.
Since the late 90's people have tried to put video on the web...but only the big guys who could afford fast servers could really do it.
Even then, not till 2003, did more people ditch their dial-up and get Broadband connections that can handle video.

Im interested in people.
Im interested in people in other parts of the world.
I spent a lot of my 20's working and living in places I wanted to learn about.
Now I could go online and read about these places, probably find some pictures, but its not the same.
I like to know about the people..what is it about them that makes them interesting?
And you got to see and hear them to get it.

I like the fact that we live in a "Global World"...not like the way corporations say it...meaning bigger markets to sell to and cheaper labor force to exploit.
No, we live in a world where increasingly we can talk to each other.
Let's start sharing experiences and understanding of our lives.
let's trade notes.
There's going to be some madness that will come...since this can be overwhelming...but it's worth it.
if our two countries are going to fight a war, let's get to know each other first.

So Im searching around and find a posting about these French soldiers who opened fire on a crowd in the Ivory Coast about a week ago.
Amazing.
Some guy with a camcorder, recorded the event, and it got posted.
I can see it sitting at my shakey desk.
You can too right HERE.

The video is graphic.
Meaning?
it's real life. this is what happens when men with guns on tanks are threatened by a crowd who is angry.
They shoot...people get shot...15 seconds of violence..then people stand around trying to figure out what happened and what to do next.

The recording starts...gunshots...the camera goes blurry...
We see all the people...the camera strap is dangling in front of the camera...as it moves back and forth trying to figure out what's up.
Then, we look at the most obvious thing. Who got hurt?
People laid out on th sidewalk of an ordinary city.
Solid shots of each wound.
This is what it looks like when a bullet grazes you.
This guy got hit pretty badly, but he's alive.
This is a human body with no head that people are standing around.
This is what happens when a high-caliber rifle hits a human skull.
People are angry at the French soldiers on their tanks.

So why would i watch this?
Because I want to know without some "reporter" who was not at the event choosing the shots and pushing the "official" interpretation of the event.
I wish there was a whole network of bloggers in countries around the world who recorded the struggles they go through.
Then I could share in it.
I want daily life stuff too...but the world is pretty chaotic right now...true reality programming.
I mean, who do you want the story from?

I like the video because it's unedited..or at least minimally edited.
Unfortunately the video is not attached to a blog.
I wish the person who taped it...wrote a story on his/her experience.
These are unmediated moments from the Ivory Coast, November 2004.
Now we know.

Comments

[Eric Botticelli]

>Because I want to know without some "reporter" who was not at the event choosing the shots and pushing the "official" interpretation of the event.

yeah, exactly. This is why the internet is so important for civilization.

CNN wouldn't broadcast that whole video, edited minimally, for 10 minutes. Yet its what people need to see.

Thanks for posting this. So sad to see, but all the more reason we should see it.

[jay dedman]

Yeah, we're a different beast here.
we have no boundaries and rules.
Let the video flow.

[Courtney]

I missed the boat. This video is no longer available.

Damn the French!

:-D

[Michael]

Where have you been - dont you remember Pseudo networks and Josh Harris? Or Den TV? These were the true pioneers of web based video programming. I totally agree with the concept but it pains me for people not give credit to these companies who truly pioneered the concepts!