Let’s get this Save the Corporations from Themselves’ blog started!

In thinking about what sort of things I should share with you, the reader, I’ve decided to focus on those things on the web that have resonated the most with what I’ve envisioned Save the Corporations from Themselves has always been about.

After saying that, I realize this first entry may elicit the question: “What does that have to do Save the Corporations from Themselves?” Well, this inaugural post is sort of an introduction to what I’m foreseeing as the basic format of this blog – sharing a few videos I’ve found on the web, connected by a common theme with some commentary and links added.

Why videos?

First, because there’s a plethora of really awesome video on the web (and most of it’s been posted to YouTube, and will embed in one’s blog and playback well most of the time) and some really great stuff that I assume everyone has seen or heard of – folks have neither seen nor heard of before. So instead of jotting down a web address on a piece of paper to direct someone to something “they’ve gotta see” online I can direct them here.

And secondly, because I’m a visual thinker – and sometimes a well-made web video can elucidate concepts (for me, anyway) much clearer than reading a bunch of text. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a voracious reader (web, print newspapers, magazines, books) but sometimes one can run across a web video that is so well-produced, you’re thankful that someone (or a group of people) took the time to make and share it.

Here’s the first example of that sort of video: An animated short created by a Munich-based designer, Melih Bilgil:

It’s also up on Vimeo over here.

His website is www.lonja.de .

I couldn’t find any info on Mehih Bilgil besides what’s on his website – I figured someone would have interviewed him since his video has more than 500K views on Vimeo and another 2M on YouTube. I did find a short piece on the video by Claire Suddath on Time magazine’s website, where she writes:

The video stops at the year 1990, right when things on the Internet started to get interesting. What about chatrooms? Instant messaging? Whatever happened to America Online’s “You’ve got mail!” guy? And most importantly, when did the Internet evolve from something used largely by universities and the military into a portal for porn? Bilgil fails to include an animated diagram of that.”

Bilgil fails? No, he just keeps the scope of his short video limited from 1957 to 1990. And he succeeds at giving us a concise, understandable overview of the developments that paved the way for the modern internet – not bad for an 8-minute video.

So what about the modern internet? The biggest thing today is “social media”.

Here is a online video from last year called “Social Media Revolution” It’s subsequently been updated (in May of this year) but I wanted to share this “original” version with you (although it seems to be a commisioned version of a video entitled “Did You Know?” that also exists in mutiple versions, i.e. 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, etc. – which in turn was based on “Shift Happens” created by Karl Fisch)

It’s got more than a bit of the internet marketing air of fluff about it, and much of the data is now out of date (for example, Facebook has now surpassed 500 Million users, it’s been reported). Still, it does illustrate the explosive growth of Web 2.0 quite well.

It was posted on YouTube by Erik Qualman, the author of Socialnomics: How Social Media Transforms the Way We Live and Do Business, published last year by Wiley. He blogs at his website socialnomics.net.

Thinking about the figure cited in the video: “78% of consumers trust peer recommendations – Only 14% trust advertisements” – I was amused to read this review (listed as the “most helpful” customer review – “ 88 of 96 people found the following review helpful”) of Socialnomics on amazon.com:

‘Socialnomics’ Sounds Explosive, But Is a Dud, January 3, 2010

By David M. Freedman

This book is full of superficial anecdotes and miniscule case studies, platitudes and generalizations, unsupported opinions, idle speculation, specious claims, inconsistent style, imprecise language, typos, and bad punctuation.

Ouch.

Well, the whole series of “Did You Know?” videos do seem to be an attempt to be profound through a “shock & awe” campaign of relentless statistical info. It reminds me of the hit-or-miss everything and the kitchen sink spoof comedy style of Police Squad! or Airplane!

Anyway, thanks for visiting the Save the Corporations from Themselves blog. Feel free to click around our website – and feel free to leave comments about the blog post, or the site in general. And “stay tuned” for more interesting web videos next week!

All the best,

Ian