The birth of digital interconnectivity brought with it an intrinsic challenge: Would our participation in the global conversation be active, or passive?
And the answer came almost at once, because the digital revolution determined, definitively, that content is king. Content is our universal currency, all across the virtual landscape, and we can buy in only with content creation of our own. With very few exceptions, that’s exactly what we do.
Which of course brings its own woes—a deflation of content value, you might say. There’s a flood of content here, in every format and genre, for every audience and (if we’re being honest) for no audience at all. There’s so much content available, much of it free and so easily and readily accessed, that the searcher is often paralyzed by the garish wealth of choices. And then, digging in, the searcher finds the quality of much of what’s on offer to be…lacking, in a word.
But you know, it’s not all like that. Which makes the search for content—quality content, a treasure hunt. I assure you: the treasures are there.
So hat’s off to the new creators, the ones harnessing twenty-first century tools to give us video, audio, text, and images unlike anything ever experienced before. Some of them are transplants from old media, and bring with them old-media muscle. But some are self-supported newcomers—and they’re giving the legacy creators quite the run for their money.
With that in mind, I take this opportunity to recognize Mark Smith (full disclosure: he’s an old friend, and he’s been featured here at the Deconstruction before). Mark is a full-fledged (if self-appointed) content creator, whose ebooks and videos are well worth checking out. Particularly compelling is his new YouTube series, Digital Bottle. Chapter One of DB (heheh), in three parts, is complete, and I’ve embedded it below. I’ve done this not just because Mark’s a friend, or because if he’s recognized and enriched for his creativity I might catch some of the crumbs. I’ve done it because Digital Bottle encapsulates the DIY magnificence of new media. With practically no budget, little backstory and no fanfare, Mark weaves here an eerie and compelling story that rivals anything (and outperforms quite a lot) that the studios crank out.
Of course, that’s just my opinion, and it might be a tad biased. Watch for yourself, then hit Mark up, and tell him what you think….
