Another brilliant step by Google

If there's anyone who can take the idea of convergence and turn it around in ways so simple it makes you want to cry, it's Google. Making good use of its HTML 5 technology, the allegory of print media and the collective knowledge of its engineers and social psychologists, writers and futurists, they put together their online magazine THINK.

The content of THINK is hinged on the knowledge of some of Google's think tanks, as well as experts in the field of data mining and visualization, economics, and even marketing. Most of this first issue is dedicated to Google's expertise: how to harvest the data and turn it into profit. I have yet to go through all the articles, but already I can tell you Hans Rogen's article on data and presentation should be a good read.

I was happy to find an article on web video too and the concept of virality. However the tone of the article was skewed largely towards marketing and promotions. This buys me time to write my new paper on video online, and maybe get it published.

HAH! Wishful thinking!

Still, it makes use of brain cells, which is what the editorial is about. The thermal imaging photo of brain cells and what these are used for is an indication of how far we've come in terms of gathering important information and turning it into knowledge. From data coming to us from the moon to devastation due to nuclear bombs, we find that we come full circle -- back to ourselves, our own powerhouses -- our brains -- and we realize just how much we really haven't discovered at all.

Awash with the Sendai tsunami videos

How are we going to use this technology of web video after such a tragedy?

With so many videos of the tsunami and earthquake uploaded on video sharing websites, passed on, replied to and re-appropriated by other web users, it would be timely to ask ourselves, just what are we passing on? Are we keeping the horror alive? For whom? Are we reliving the morbid awe we experience as we view the devastation again and again from the safety of our rooms and offices, schools or malls? What images are we proliferating?

It's the same thing we see on the news, isn't it? The more harrowing, the better. The idea is that, aside from informing the audience that a tragic, horrific, morbid event has just occured, they can invite audiences to tune in to them for more "awesome" footage. How you define awesome -- that's another blog post.

However, right now, I feel that web video, and the technology to capture it should turn to other uses now. People who have the means to report on people on the ground, should. Their stories should be shared, not as a way of spectacularizing their suffering but to document how they are coping, to get word out that they are more than numbers. They are people who need help. It's also a call to their government, humanitarian organizations and even fellow citizens on the kind assistance they may need.

I am no social scientist, but I would also like to think it is a way for them to purge the horror they experienced. For them to be able to talk about it may help them make sense of it. The technology and the opportunity should be there for them so that they can muster the strength to move forward, not for us to record and edit and apply our own scripts to. There are producers and news editors doing that already.

They just need to tell their side of the story, in their own words, in their own time, according to how they experienced it. The job of the videographer and the video camera begins and ends with the record button.