Us Now – a film review
“So if you can create an encyclopaedia with a million people who have never met but the quality is just as good as Britannica… what else could you create?”
So goes the central theme behind Ivo Gormley’s new documentary, Us Now, an engaging exploration of where the Internet is heading, and what we, the global community, are achieving as a result. Positing the notion that connection and collaboration is inspiring a more evolved, a more participatory, Information Age, Us Now documents many of the people and technologies driving this change.
Open-source projects like Linux and Wikipedia receive obligatory mentions, but so too do lesser known socially-driven sites; Zopa, a microfinance group that is bankrolled by citizens; Slicethepie, a new kind of record label whereby new bands are found, reviewed, and financed entirely by fans and music lovers; and Ebbsfleet, a football team whose lineup and formation is decided online each week by Ebbsfleet members.
Covered, too, are consequences this paradigm shift is causing traditional businesses and political structures. Ubiquitous connection and user-generated content have helped alter the population’s role from ‘end-user’ to a combination of ‘co-creator-consumer-reviewer’ and this new role has enormous implications for the way in which powerful institutions will have to conduct themselves. Deceit and amoral behaviour is rooted out. Honesty and good practices become paramount – and rewarded.
This ‘collective conscience’ is discussed extensively by experts and eminent businessmen, whose measured confidence in our ability to co-operate for a larger goal should really inspire hope in even the most jaded cynic. As is shown in the film, a site like CouchSurfing.org would never have become successful had it not been for the collaborative efforts of its members. The website that connects backpackers with free accommodation – in fellow participants’ houses – has more than a million users, and is a testimony to the idea of ‘people power’.
Gormley also delves into the idea of self-governance, an idea that on the face of it seems decidedly utopian, but in the context of what the film shows us, reveals itself it to be an attainable goal, if a very distant one.
There is, interestingly, no narration, though the film does not suffer as a result. The widely varying interviews are insightful and educational and stand tall on their own. I recommend it.
(You wont find this documentary in theatres, however you can watch it for free online, or purchase the DVD from their website.)