I don't watch television much. I may watch Charlie a few times a week, and perhaps the occasional history/discovery/foodnetwork show, but that's about it.

Don't get me wrong - I love the potential and the amazing technology that can bring visuals into my living room. It's just that (1) having young children does not allow for much free time to watch anything I want; (2) a lot of television is mediocre, badly written, disturbing, and laced with 30% commercials; (3) most shows seem to dull my mind, especially if they're not thought provoking or viewer-engaging  in any way - it's deadly for my own creative process.

Then, about four months ago, I discovered something new. If you've been reading this journal, you will have noticed the sudden appearance of web-based video, starting with my article Putting Face on Things. I had just discovered online video (a.k.a. IPTV), and it has enriched my life in amazing ways. Before I share some gems I found since then, let me step back a moment to put things in a broader perspective.

In the stunning book Envisioning Information (thanks mom!), author and Yale professor emeritus Edward Tufte (pronounced TUFF-tee) - whom the New York Times describes as "The da Vinci of Data" - tackles the challenge in transforming data into a visual representation. In the introduction he writes:

The world is complex, dynamic, multidimensional; the paper is static, flat. How are we to represent the rich visual world of experience and measurement on mere flatland?

...

To envision information - and what bright and splendid visions can result - is to work at the intersection of image, word, number, art.

There are some subject categories where visualization is almost required to understand something quickly and clearly. For me, these would include the sciences, like history and anthropology (original footage, interviews), physics and mathematics, medicine (Grey's anatomy, anyone?), and anything to do with statistics or large number sets.

Visualizing things with rich media ("video" for lack of a better synonym), the added component is one of time. This component allows for transfer of experience, as if being there, in the case of some excellent movies. Remember the opening of the 5-Oscar winning historical fiction movie Saving Private Ryan about World War II? The 30-minute opening battle sequence brought us to the beaches of Normandy on D-day. It enabled a deep psychological impact that few words could have done. And recall the Indiana Jones movies, which interestingly have spurred popular interest in archeology? I know, I know, both were directed by Steven Spielberg. The man has a talent, what can I say ;-)

Not only fictional blockbuster movies have a hammering impact; documentaries can be quite staggering - I covered some elsewhere: here and  here.

Online video, as opposed to majorly produced, heavily funded productions taking months to complete, generally has a different signature (thus far at least), and is currently of two kinds: 

1. User-generated video content, sometimes referred to as videoblogs, generally of short duration, between one to ten minutes, amusing at times, and with an underground feel to them, while usually not of greatest quality. For this, you can go to youtube, google video, blipTV, veoh, revver, iet.tv and Al Gore's currentTV. To mention just a few ;-).
   
   
2. Mainstream media content - repurposing their professionally produced content online. You can currently find this at youtube (with the BBC and some smaller content providers); Narrowstep, and the amazing "it's-just-like-tv" joost (in closed-beta testing, with Warner Music, Viacom and Endemol).

Besides a fast computer and a broadband connection to the internet, there's nothing to prevent you from finding amazing content, a lot of it for free.

When visualizing information gets combined with online media, the result can be spectacular, even mind-altering. An example of this is a 20-minute recorded talk by Dr. Hans Rosling (his blog) where he uses time-based visualization of global health data to debunk several myths about world development, severely adding to my knowledge of the state of the world. He realizes the impact of really showing what data means, and founded the non-profit venture gapminder.org in 2005 for the development and provision of free software that visualizes human development, in collaboration with universities, UN organisations, public agencies and non-governmental organisations. Here's the talk:

Testament to the wealth of more general video resources available, I ran across 42 hours of thinking-out-loud lectures (1975) by engineer, architect, inventor, philosopher, professor and futurist Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983, Wikipedia or Britannica, members-only access), one of my personal heroes as he is one of the most original thinkers of the second half of the 20th century. A real treat, and you can find it here (Real player required). A transcript is also available.

Others examples of that kind of documentary content can be found at iet.tv and, my recent favorite, smashing telly, a hand edited collection of the best free, instantly available TV organized by categories like architecture, music, drama, history, science and so on.

The wealth of knowledge now freely available to us through these online rich media is already staggering, and growing day by day. So what does this all mean, might be the relevant next question? The emerging abundance of visualized information about the true state of ourselves will probably lead to (1) the consciousness that we're all part of one humanity; (2) a collective framework for action; (3) awareness that the problems we face are great, but not impossible to overcome; and (4) the likely acknowledgment that we may need yet an additional ingredient besides great visualized datasets or wonderfully inspiring talks to make us commit long-term to the sacrifices necessary to actually resolve our challenges.

My forthcoming novel 300 Rivers will be exploring that additional ingredient in great detail ;-)

Geek Bonus:

As is the case with internet technologies - it's been a few months and someone has added a new slant - I just discovered bubbleply.com. This fun site allows you to add thought bubbles to any online video, whether from youtube, google, whatever. Now this is not a new concept - the television show Pop-Up Video was a popular VH1 television show that showed thought bubbles while playing music videos. The bubbles were usually hilarious, contained trivia and wit on the musicians, vidoe clip makers or support cast, "commenting" on the video as it played. As a testament to its popularity, Pop-Up Video still airs today (2007!) on VH1 Classic.

Bubbleply asks for the video address of the video you want to add your bubbles to, you then add your own bubbles as it plays, and bubbleply generates the new link to the now 2-layered video! Here's a sample. Enjoy!