The Internet of People

Surfmarketing 's Creative Director and Marketing manager attended the Lecture in Derry/Londonderry by renowned technology journalist and Editor at large of Wired magazine, Ben Hammersley, entitled 'The Internet of People' organised by the British Council.

It's the 23rd March and two of the Surfmarketing team have been looking forward to this day for weeks. Location, The Playhouse Theatre, Derry/Londonderry Northern Ireland. Ben Hammersley's lecture:

How the internet can unite people, destroy our minds, bring a new enlightenment and break the world as we know it.

Ben is credited for inventing the word 'Podcasting' or 'Podcast' and has a list of achievements to his name.

Ben has had what can only be described as an incredible career. He is currently Editor of Wired magazine, a freelance reporter for the BBC, Director of Campus Party USA and is a consultant at the Foreign and Commonwealth office.

Looking at his career then, he has a fair idea of what's going on in today's world. His lecture starts with him explaining the Theory of Exponential Weirdness............."Every 18 months computers get twice as good for the money, or the other way to look at it, you will pay half as much for the same in 18 months." Have a think, this is relevant to more than just computers, but I am sure you can relate to this in your own experience, whether it be a computer, a TV, a mobile phone...

Free iPhone with your Cornflakes

...A question was asked relating to how far will computers advance, will they take over humanity? Will computers build computers with AI? To this, the reply was yes but 'I dont think we will end up at war with Skynet, like in the Terminator films'. The iPhone 4 was mentioned for being a marvel of technology today, but in 8 years is likely to be a free gift with your Cornflakes! Look back to 2003 and think about the technology compared to what we have now and I think you will agree, particularly with computer technology that we have moved on a great deal, in fact we have moved on ten fold. It's both exciting and daunting to think about where we will be in 2019.

Distance defined Us

We then listened to Ben explain his view on how the world has changed in it's concepts. In history, before communication by internet or mobile phone it was distance that defined cultures, these differences where born from the difficulty of information travelling, all that was available was a man on a horse or on a boat travelling for days or even weeks to deliver a single message. Have a think about how you might communicate to someone in Australia now? within seconds you can give them any amount of information as if you are speaking with them face to face, there are no boundaries, no distance limitations. So the change our generation is seeing is one that will last for generations to come, it's the birth of how all cultures will now grow, without distance and without limits.

Talking about a revolution, baby!

The age of technology, where was the significant moment it all started? The first internet server was switched on in 1990 and with it a revolution began. It swept through every industry and destroyed it, making all that had been built over many years out dated and therefore redundant. With this destruction came the emergence of an alternative in every industry being built in the background. We have seen this happen, think about all the people you have known that have either embraced the change or have failed to want to understand the inevitable. This is where we see the differences in our generation, those who see the world in heirarchies and those who see it only in networks. Then there is the generation in between, I would consider myself to fall in to this category, we are the generation who have seen the change but embraced it, accepted that this was going to be the way in which the world functions, socially and commercially you have to have a level of understanding to get things done in these times, fact.

So, listening intently to Ben and still in deep thought about all that he has said, we move on to MEME, viral video's that had spread the world for different reasons, whether bad or good have something about them that appeals to people in some way. Probably along with you I can see some of these as interesting, but some people achieve millions of views all over the world from rubbish, but catchy rubbish. I must agree that some of the people that have been discovered from viral video deserve the fame and this shows how the internet can work so well, have a look at these video's and you can understand how, without the internet, these would have gone nowhere and been seen by nobody.

The first example is one in my opinion which falls in to the 'Rubbish' category. It has swept across the internet and now has around 50 million views on Youtube alone within one month! As well as being played on BBC Radio 1. Watch it and listen to the lyrics. Genius!

Rebecca Black | Friday

Bet you did'nt watch it all?
It is terrible but somehow catchy, you will find yourself whistleing to it in a couple of days and then say to yourself, 'what is that tune I have in my head', then you will realise and understand what I am saying.

What about video's that give a message. One's that you could picture having an expression. Have a look at this one. This video has gone around the world and has millions of views, the star of the clip now has 10's of thousands of followers on Facebook, he has a trust fund set up for him and most likely has his future already planned. Whilst you watch, think about how often this happens and how often you personally have heard about this behaviour when you were at school, what happened to those kids? who got behind them? I pre warn you, it's not nice to watch and is violent so if you're squeamish then skip to the next one.

Casey Heynes

Quite horrific to watch and you cannot condone either boy's actions but this type of video reaches out not to only the ones who like to watch it for the satisfaction value, but to kids all over the world who have been bullied, not to mention the bullies who may just think twice about picking on the big kid next time!

What is also remarkable about video's on the internet is that no one has to ask permission to broadcast them, you can use anything from any film, sing a song by Michael Jackson, or create a music video with both, there is no governing body to control what you want to put on the internet. It has never been so easy to get a message out to millions of people so quickly.

Just one more video for you that tickled me during Ben's lecture, it's a good example of a simple video with great effect using an epic theme that everyone would enjoy. So, enjoy!

Kids like to Party

Out with the old...

So, I hope you enjoyed those video's, except maybe the first one which is still reeling round in my head! Anyway, back to the moral of the lecture. The new culture's that have developed in recent times have access to millions, be it through youngsters making video to try and make it big, or at the other end of the scale, terrorist organisations who in the past would have had a leader, someone calling the shots. Ben quite frankly described Alquaeda as a Facebook page with Guns, technology has allowed communication to networks of people instead of in the past where it was in heirarchies, the few would make decisions and the rest would follow. Not to sound negative as the positives out way the negatives buy a country mile and as Ben explained, to make it all work we must explain, not complain, our generation must educate the older and the younger, those that haven't grasped it along with those that have only grasped the new age but see nothing of the old age, we have to bring them together so that fathers can understand their sons, achieve a balance of both so we can all understand each other and embrace what is happening to our culture.

Ben finishes and sets a challenge. Take in your mind the fundamental shift in thinking and make it right for you. It's now I have come away from the lecture and really thought about how we are in a changing world, it's as important a change as there has ever been in history, a change in how we go about our day to day lives, a change in the way we socialise and meet new people, a change in the way we work and also a goodbye to the way things used to be.