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VIDEO
AND THE VALUE OF INDEPENDENCE
by
Roxanne Batson, WSNTV 75
On July1st of this year, I went to a war
memorial. Pearl Harbor.
It seemed fitting to visit in the month Americans celebrate
independence. The military
men and women died at Pearl Harbor because they joined a group of people
dedicated to securing our freedom….just as our forefathers did several
hundred years ago when we declared our Independence from British rule.
To me, independence means you are
free to live, work, play and even create video as you chose, exactly as
you choose. That is true
freedom.
Freedom is not only a God given
right – it is critical to the health of a nation and the planet.
Without that freedom to speak, listen, document and distribute
information we are unable to challenge ideas and create solutions to
problems. That is why it is
exciting that videographers can now distribute their work direct to the
public. They’ll open the eyes of the world.
But are we really free to do what
we want?
The popularity of ‘Fahrenheit
9/11’ demonstrates the public interest in alternate ideas and
information. It’s the
first documentary I know of that is a blockbuster hit.
Yet, the backlash from producing
that documentary is tremendous. If
those who oppose the message had their way, this film would be submerged
in the depths of some warehouse, never to be seen by the masses.
Michael Moore’s film will
survive because he’s found a way to use media and the Internet to send
his message to loads of people. It’s
pretty hard to squelch distribution of his work when he’s publicly
declared it’s ok to download it free on the net.
(You can download the movie from
Suprnova.org, which takes about
5 1/2 hours on a broadband connection, or much more quickly through
peer-to-peer file sharing services like BearShare (PC) or LimeWire (Mac)
in under an hour. There is
an article about this at http://www.bluelemur.com/index.php?p=52)
Whether you agree with him or not,
the point is that freedom of creation and distribution is the only way
the public will ever see another point of view.
The economic deterioration of countries that control
communication is proof that freedom is vital to the health of nations
and individuals.
Videographers must be independent
to keep information and ideas flowing freely.
That’s why WSNTV 75 and Internet
Video Magazine is so involved in bringing about the distribution of
independent creative works through the internet.
It allows us to distribute ideas and information without
traditional media barriers.
Barriers are caused by the power
politics that goes along with being in big business. Until the Internet, distribution through big business was our
only choice.
As long as it doesn’t challenge
anybody important, the big networks often encourage the distribution of
creative work. However,
if the work is politically challenging to other companies, government
entities or powerful individuals, big business may be threatened and
will not support its distribution.
Independent distribution can solve
that problem and even affect the economics, health and welfare of a
nation. Here’s a few
examples of what I mean.
Because of the work of independent
videographers, we got far more real information about the war in
Iraq…..good, bad and ugly. This
was information we required to make informed decisions and apply public
pressure when needed.
Before the Internet, information
was controllable. By
controlling the information dispersed to the public, Saddam was able to
control the people. Controlled
information can be a dangerous thing.
What about the SARS outbreak?
Because the Chinese government was able to control the
information in order to “save face”, the virus spread rapidly.
Only through independent reporting that caused public pressure
was the situation acknowledged and the outbreak slowed to a trickle.
Another example is the slow
deployment of high-speed fiber in the US. The public in the US has been
kept unaware that there are alternatives to their slow, unreliable
Internet connection. Because
of that, in just a year and a half, US deployment of high-speed fiber
has fallen from #3 to #11 compared to rest of the world.
Why is that information important?
People in 10 other countries are now more capable of developing,
distributing and conducting business than those in the US.
Now you know why Asia is growing so fast compared to the US.
Europe will be next.
In these areas of the world, high
speed Internet uploading and downloading has allowed new businesses to
be spawned at a rapid rate. National
broadband policies had to be enacted to make it happen.
We don’t have that yet in the US.
Once again, big business politics
halted the flow of information. Until
last month, the incumbent telecom companies were not allowed to deploy
fiber without having to open their lines to competition.
This law was put in effect to break up the monopolies.
So, the monopolies didn’t deploy, but used their advertising
dollars instead to make the public think that old technology they
already had in place was the newest, greatest technology.
Nobody publicly challenged that idea.
High speed DSL indeed!
Ha! At 1.5 Mbps of
DSL/Cable Modem versus 10 to 100 to 1000 Mbps speed of Fiber To the
Home, it makes all the difference in the world as to whether you can
distribute your video. Who’s
going to wait 2-24 hours to see it?
One of my partners, located in South Korea, downloaded a 2 ½
hour movie in 8 seconds. It
took some of us in the US as long as 18 hours.
How many people will pay for that?
WSNTV 75 and the FTTH Council (www.ftthcouncil.org
) has worked to get the information out about Fiber To The Home so we
can change the future. At WSNTV 75, we just finished a video to raise
public awareness about Fiber To the Home,
We will distribute it through cable tv and the internet. (write
us if you’d like notification when it is available for viewing info@wsntv75.com
.
We believe that once people know
what is possible, there will be public demand.
Where there is demand, supply always follows. Once again, this
points up the crucial connection between freedom of information and
economic health.
In summary I’ll quote a fortune
cookie I opened last night. This
is what it said (no kidding)
“Liberty will not descend to a people: a people must raise
themselves to liberty.”
Freedom to create and distribute
is yours. The question
is….will you rise and make a difference?
Roxanne Batson
WSNTV 75, Inc.
info@wsntv75.com
www.wsntv75.com
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