Erwin Blom
Erwin Blom: Dutch media maker, tech fanatic & music lover. Co-owner of Fast Moving Targets (media & innovation), co-founder of The Innovation Station, ‘different kind of tune vocalist’ of punkfunktechnotrash combo Eton Crop.
“Internet = Do It Yourself. Thanx to the internet we all can publish, we all can distribute, we all tell our stories. The impact of the digitization of media, music and movies has been enormous. Press Pause Play is a beautifully made documentary illustrating that new reality. Moby: “If you give a human a computer and broadband access, they are gonna make something interesting.”
“Internet = Do It Together. Internet has cut out the middleman in almost every industry. Internet is the ultimate Do It Yourself medium. But it is a lot more. It is the medium that has made collaboration and working together across borders easy. And evolved from information to communication. Us Nowtells the story of the power of connecting people, the power of communities. It is a documentary from the days we were still talking about Web 2.0.”
“Internet = remix culture. Creativity is using and reusing ideas. About being inspired by others, abouth building on the ideas of others. Remixing has been happening in other forms of art for ages, but plays a central role in the internet. RIP: A Remix Manifesto tells that story: “This movie is about a war over ideas. The battleground is the internet. The public domain must be protected.”
“Internet = startup culture. The word startup is a word that is part of the internet. Internet is about a lot of things, but entrepreneurship is one of them. Internet is the story of young ambitious men and women wanting to conquer the world. In the early days everything seemed to go well. Money was flying around. Untill the bubble bursted in 2000.Startup.com is a brilliant documentary telling that story.”
“Internet = (the end of?) copyrights . Once something is digital it can be copied. And when it can be copied, it will be copied. Books, music, movies, on the internet everything is freely available. And when it’s easy to copy, it’s easy to re use, to sample and make something else with it. What is allowed? What isn’t? Copyrights have been an ongoing issue the past 25 years. Good Copy Bad Copy adresses that subject. “A balance needs to be struck between protecting the right of those who own intellectual property and the rights of future generations to create.”
“Internet = (end of?) privacy. On the internet everything we do leaves trails. On the internet companies and organisations know a lot about us. In the early days that hardly seemed an issue, but in the post-Snowden days and power of Facebook and Google, that’s a different story. We Live in Publicis a 2009 documentary by Ondi Timoner which profiles Internet pioneer Josh Harris. It has as its theme the loss of privacy in the internet age.”
“Internet = secrecy. Internet is as well transparancy as secrecy. Thanks to for example WikiLeaks where whistleblowers publish secret information, news leaks, and classified media from anonymous sources, we know a little about what governments and organisations know about us. WikiRebels The Documentary tells the story of the organisation that Assange started and that fights for freedom of information.”
