Creativity and the common man
One of the most significant websites of the decade must surely be the video-sharing site YouTube. Created less than five years ago, it was bought by Google a year later and is now a household name. Technologically it is impressive, serving over a billion clips a day around the world, but more impressive is the human creativity it has unleashed, ordinary people creating extraordinary films.
One of my favourite clips of the year was the wedding video, probably the best wedding video you'll ever see, and the whole fantastic five minutes is filmed on one hand held camera, one position, no editing, no cuts, no control over lighting or sound, no chance of of a re-shoot if something went wrong. Truly remarkable.
Another YouTube effect is that especially good video can go global. This video was shot at TED 2006, a conference in America, and features Einstein, the world's smartest parrot.
YouTube has also seen videos created from old Super 8mm films, films that would otherwise have languished at the back of the wardrobe and eventually be lost forever. This next must-see video tells the story of two friends from London who, back in the 1970s, bought a lonely-looking lion cub from Harrods which they named Christian. But the lion, its teeth, and claws, all very quickly outgrew life in central London, no zoos wanted him, and it was with regret that they took him to Africa and released him into the wild. A year later they returned to the mountains of Kenya hoping to see their lion now that it had become a wild beast living with a pride. The raw emotion in this film when they spot the lion for the first time beats anything that the biggest Hollywood blockbuster could create.
Finally, let's end with another wedding video, this one from the Facebook Generation.
Ten years ago we couldn't have imagined a website like YouTube, the impact it would have on society and the way it has unleashed creativity. Will we have anything so revolutionary in the next decade? Maybe we will, and if I could predict what the next multi-million dollar idea is going to be I sure wouldn't be writing about it here.
17th December 2009
This article comes from the SKILLZONE email newsletter, published monthly since January 2008, and covering topics related to technology and the internet. All articles and artwork in the SKILLZONE newsletter are orignal content.