Tom Guarriello reflects on how global connectivity through the internet, email, and MTV helped topple the Berlin Wall, and asks what it means now that cell phones let ordinary people everywhere record and upload to YouTube. He's questioning how this visibility changes who can influence those in power.
Hey Paul, it's Tom. Just watched your One World One Tube video yesterday, whenever it was when it came out. Didn't have a chance to make a response. I've been watching the responses that people have been making to it, and it's really interesting. You know, look, we know that nobody would have predicted the things that happened in Europe in the late '80s, just a few years before the Berlin Wall came down. Nobody would have predicted that. And, you know, there are still people who will tell you that one of the biggest reasons that that happened was because of Internet connectivity, that email, MTV, the connectivity of the world with itself played a major role, I think, in that happening. Now, the reason I'm making this video on my cell phone is because while people in Afghanistan and other third world countries might not have MacBooks with little iSight cameras on them very shortly, but everybody's gonna have, if not already have, will very soon have cell phones because we know that it's the fastest growing technology out there. YouTube is now making it possible for us to upload these videos directly to the site from our cell phones. So is that a possibility that people are going to have cell phones and making videos and watching videos on those cell phones? Oh yeah, I think that's a possibility. Does that mean that we're going to be in sight and in mind? Maybe. The question is, what do we do when we're in sight and in mind? How do we connect with one another? How do we communicate to the people who hold the power in our respective governments what it means for us to be connected with one another. So real good provocative video. Provocative by, as you can see, by virtue of the diversity of responses that it's getting. So here's my two cents. Take it easy. Bye.
