Direct Reality

Voici le papier qui sera présenté à Blog Talk en Mai prochain à Vienne. Description du concept, petit retour aux sources - avec un exemple fort sur l'impact social des principes invariants de l'Internet. Ce qui reste à faire est colossal :-)

WEBLOGS: FROM COEXISTENCE TO CONVIVIALITY, A LEAP INTO DIRECT REALITY

Spring 1995, Sarajevo: a peculiar accident in journalism occurred. Backed by 26 international newspapers and the Unesco, a team of 3 journalists and a telecom engineer, equiped with laptops and portable satellite phones (45 Kgs back then!), was sent to the then besieged city to build a satellite IP link and start a forum involving representants of the city and "the rest of the world".

The operation was called Sarajevo Alive - Sarajevo Online. It was meant as a gesture of solidarity with the local daily Oslobodjenje. The team’s official assignement was to interview a few selected personalities; political debates were to be avoided.

Something unexpected happened: the team in Sarajevo, more often than not blocked in public places while waiting for artillery alerts to end, took the decision to let any inhabitant express themselves on whatever topic they wanted – what is more, all postings were published unedited and uncensored on the operation's website.

The resulting content was a breakthrough in war journalism: a besieged city's online diary, the pulse of of collective madness induced by war, updated daily, to which people all over the world responded spontaneously, answering the numerous messages in a bottle ( contacting relatives abroad, engaging in dialogues, sending unsollicited gifts of all kinds..). The website was updated twice daily via email. The feed was also available via a mailing list.
Emotional response was overwhelming. Internet as a medium was beyond doubt the “hottest” of all.

The episode demonstrates something that many journalists still have to discover: enabled by emerging digital communications, the audience fits quite naturally as an integral part of the information process, influencing the course of events as they happen.
Journalism is evolving away from its mandatory lecture mode to include conversations and actions. Call it the experience of “direct reality.”

Why “direct”?

• Because exposure to news is disintermediated, allowing participants to litteraly direct reality from a personal, first-hand perspective, as opposed to the passive mass media experience where reality is being directed for you.
• And because this leads to no less than a new political proposition. New cultures, new social interactions are pushing people through the Internet door, from coexistence to conviviality.
  

In other words, there is more to news than zapping, there is more to politics than blind alleys (and there is more to arts than museums...). Of course we all knew all this all the time.
But where was it for so long? And where are we going?

The fact is that the Internet is an “evolution catalyst” and blogs are a perfect illustration. In that respect, Wikis (watch out for them) are even more symptomatic : the absolute degree of trust that their model implies – anyone is free to change anything - sounds like sheer utopia.
Yet it works. The need is there.

Successful experiences like Blogger, Live Journal & the likes, as well as new independent organisations like Indymedia,Idealist.org..., show that both the offer and the demand for such direct experiences are reaching people beyond the usual sphere of “social activists” - at least expanding it to a new degree.

It all boils down to something simple: people are willing to participate if they are given the means to collaborate and communicate. Which sounds obvious but was hardly ever the case until the Internet came along.

“Let everyone talk, publish everything (don’t edit), favour dialogues”: the spontaneous principles that let Sarajevo Online make the news have since become mainstream with blogs. Incredibly fast.
Making webloging technology available to anyone was indeed a genial intuition. Thanks, Blogger.com.
It feels good to know that there’s more to progress than the emerging reality of intelligent machines.
We’re still in the evolutionary game. Live and direct.

Gilbert Cattoire

Version illustrée :

Merci Gilbert pour cette contribution intéressante. Je suggère que ce type de contenus, comme d'autres d'ailleurs, pourraient être écussonés en Category News? (catégorie à créer ?). Avec un accès direct depuis la page d'accueil. Car avec la quantité de Dernières Modifs générées sur Crao Wiki, on perd souvent des infos comme celles-ci, directement liées à de l'info d'actualité. Je pense aussi, par exemple à la page : Blog Talk, vers laquelle aucune autre page ne pointe, en dehors de Direct Reality. --Luc Legay

Aussi créé une category Lieu de rencontre ? -- Christophe Ducamp

---

Wiki Badge:Refactorisez Moi?

Category Weblog Category English Language Category Lieu De Rencontre Category Projet Utopiste Category Logiciel Social