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Full Transcript & Slides:

Hello and thanks for coming. Tonight, I want to talk to you about a massive shift that is currently happening to the way art is created. This includes music, photography, literature, and for myself, film. This shift is called crowd funding and it has evolved from a variety of factors that I will outline tonight.

But first, I would like to share with you a story about Sean Aiken. In 2007, Sean graduated from college and realized he had no idea what to do with his life. So… he decided to find his passion.

He launched The One-Week Job Project he would work any job, anywhere in North America. After one week he’d move on. If that sounds impossible…well…he actually did it.

Sean successfully worked 52 jobs over the course of the year. Everything from a Florist, a Bungee Jumping Instructor, a cowboy, a Fashion Buyer, and more. I joined Sean halfway through his journey and began filming the project.

Now, I don’t have time to share the entire journey tonight – suffice to say were able to complete the project, and we did it with spending very little money.

Turns out, complete strangers would offer us rides in their car, employers would let us sleep in their homes, even feed us. It was incredible. We were tapping into what I call latent wealth.

Latent wealth is that little bit of riches that each of us has to offer. On our own, it may not look like much. But if everyone offers something, suddenly great things are able to happen… like allowing a guy to work 52 jobs in 52 weeks.

After the project was complete, we decided to make a documentary. I was just a hobby filmmaker at the time, and it would have been very difficult for me to get funding from traditional channels like broadcasters, or government grants. And even if I was an experienced filmmaker, it still would have been difficult. That’s because massive changes are currently going on in the creative industry.

Credit: Stuck in Customs

I’ll quickly explain how the media landscape is structured. A few large corporations control the vast majority of what type of media is created. Companies like FOX, NBC, Disney, and more that decide what films should be popular, what music we should hear, and what stories should be told. Here in Canada we have big companies like Bell Media, Rogers and Shaw.

The gatekeepers sit at the top of these companies, deciding where to invest their money. Artistic creators like musicians and filmmakers basically rely on these big companies to finance their projects – which often means giving up control. Then, after the film or album is complete, it is sold to the masses. This model that worked for 75 or so years. But this model is now changing.

Perhaps you’ve heard the internet is responsible for what they call illegal downloading.This has cut into the profits of these big corporations. First the music industry, then the film industry, and more recently the book industry are caught in a download spiral. As the cost of sharing something is essentially free, it’s difficult to make strangers pay for it.

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Yet at its core, the internet is a way of fostering communication. That’s particularly true with tools like Facebook and Twitter. There’s a reason they call it social networking. That’s because you’re able to create relationships with people you may have never met, or will never meet. Yet with the new connection, it’s now possible for them to help you out.

This is Steven Harper. No, I do not have Steven Harper as my Facebook friend. You may remember the Harper government brought in massive arts cuts, while broadcasters are increasingly not buying docs, and theaters are only interesting in showing films that rhyme with Mirates of the Paribbean. So to finance the One Week Job film, we decided to use the emerging phenomenon known as crowd funding.

Here’s how it works: you create a project on a crowd funding like Kickstarter.com. This site was launched 2 years ago built on the idea that if everyone chipped in a bit, you would have enough to actually create something. While this sounds like simply 田ollecting donations the internet has amplified this model exponentially.

So I went ahead and created our crowd-funding campaign, and spread the word out to our family, friends, and anyone else that was a fan of the One Week Job project. From 2 separate campaigns, we raised over $6000 dollars, which was certainly not enough to complete an entire documentary, but it allowed us to further the project, until eventually, we completed it.

The film is now available off our website, and it actually aired on CBC this past January. Sean and I have also completed a huge spring tour across Canada, speaking at colleges and universities, sharing his story and the lessons learned along the way. We were able to visit over 42 campuses. So all in all, a huge success.

After One Week Job, I joined another director for his new film. The director, Velcrow Ripper, is well known in the Canadian scene for his award winning films like Scared Sacred about visiting the ground zeros of the world, and Fierce Light, when spirit meets action. The third film in his trilogy, currently in production, is called Evolve Love asking “how can the climate crisis become a great love story?”

Here’s a filmmaker that has numerous award winning films under his belt, yet he so far has been unable to get traditional funding. Instead decided to try a Kickstarter campaign. Our goal was to raise $25K, enough money to film at the Cancun Climate summit last November, and further shoots around the world. We gave ourselves only 3 weeks. With Kickstarter, you need to raise the full amount of money, or you get nothing. This prevents projects from going forward that don’t have enough money to actually complete.

After a huge social media push to our families, friends, and fans – we actually made more than the entire amount $27K – which makes it the most successful Canadian crowd-funding campaign ever. It was an amazing 3 weeks that really showed us that people want to have this film in the world. Which brings me back to the model I showed you before the hierarchical model of the traditional media system.

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Crowd-funding is one example of a new horizontal co-creative model that allows an artist to connect directly with their audience. Whereas before you would pay for a product after it is produced, now by investing early, you can actually participate in its creation. The people decide what projects they want to see funded, not large corporations.

To give you further examples of successful projects… Carbon City is a new book that aims to show what a carbon neutral city actually looks like. La Source is a film about a Haitian who lives in the US, who goes back to his village build a secure water system. And third, Disaspora is an open-source alternative to Facebook. That project raised over $200K.

All in all, in just two years, here’s the stats for Kickstarter. Over 20K projects have been proposed, and 43% funded. That is huge. They have had over 53 million pledged, from a total number of 591K project funders.

Consider: this model is still in its infancy. When it becomes the norm for fans to invest before a creative project is started, I think these numbers will rise exponentially.

Credit: Austin Leon

In closing, I believe it’s important to understand that this transformation is just one piece of a much larger shift toward sharing our latent wealth. Crowd-funding is one way power and economics are shifting because of youth and technology.

But there’s many other examples: such as sharing our knowledge, sharing our backyard gardens, sharing rides, and sharing our homes.

As the poet Drew Dellinger says, “the future belongs to the most compelling story.” So I thank you for listening to mine.

A little piece I whipped together to promote MatadorU – the online media school offering classes in travel writing and travel photography. It’s part of a new crop of videos I just completed shooting in DC and New York. More to come!

If you’d like to help us out, and score some great VIP perks, check out http://www.indiegogo.com/One-Week-Job

The first profile features Robin Esrock, gonzo journalist and host of the tv show Word Travels.

It was a fun shoot, basically walking around Vancouver haunts like Commercial Drive, Granville Island, English Bay and of course, Stanley Park. The vibe is meant to be casual, just like you’re meeting the writer for coffee and walk around the neighborhood.

Hope you like it!

I’m fairly willing to try new technologies. But I’m not exactly what marketers call an “early adopter” since I like to see a trend prove its worth before jumping on board.

This was the case with Twitter.

Even though it seems that everyone and their grandma is now using the service, surprisingly few actually know what it does. Basically, Twitter is a micro-blogging tool that let’s you broadcast real-time snippets of text, called “tweets.”

These tweets can be anything: what you’re having for lunch. A link to an interesting article. Your current mood.

If it sounds like plenty of (mostly) irrelevant information, then you’re right. Our world is already clogged with incessant chatter from blogs, Myspace pages, websites, forums, etc.

I was hesitant to jump on the bandwagon because I felt it was just another online presence to maintain, and I scarcely have time to devote on projects that matter.

Eventually, I gave in. And no, not because David Bowie has an account.

I finally realized that Twitter doesn’t suck time. It saves time.

Consider that this blog post allows me to ruminate on why I joined Twitter in an expanded format. It took me approximately 45 minutes to craft and publish.

Alternately, I could have just posted a line on Twitter that would instantly broadcast a similar, though brief, message to my followers.

Approximate time spent: 6 seconds.

Of course, there are many other benefits of Twitter. The immediacy of crowd sourcing. The value of ambient awareness. The lexicon of Twitter-spawned phrases like “Twits” and “Tweeps.”

But if you’re someone who has a need to share online, but lacks the time or focus to develop a lengthy blog, Twitter is your tool.

Hurry up and join already.

Photo jahdakinebrah

A recent article in the Vancouver Sun, in partnership with NowPublic, lists Vancouver’s most visible web personalities.

The list includes blogger staples like Travis Smith, Kris Krug, Miss 604, and at number one: Darren Barefoot.

Topping the list in Vancouver is 34-year-old writer and marketer Darren Barefoot. His blog – in combination with his presence on Flickr and Twitter – draws about 10,000 readers daily.

Barefoot’s online opinions vary from the professional to the personal on topics ranging from the environment and poverty to politics and pop culture.

Hey, that’s similar to the things I write about! Maybe there’s hope for me making the list among the ranks of Vancouver’s finest someday.

I was somewhat surprised to read a tacky post by correction: Dale Mugford, writing for MatthewGood.org, who wonders why their site wasn’t in the top 5. In the grand scheme, what’s more important: occasional recognition? or having readers return everyday?

Would have been classier to write a congrats to the others on the list and move on.

Update: Jeff Simpson over at MetBlogs Vancouver writes a hilarious critique of the list, which he dubs prime linkbait. (Which it was).

Want to turn your personal interests into a booming career? That’s what Ian MacKenzie had in mind when he started his career as a new media producer.

A jack-of-all-trades, Ian recently finished producing the web series OneWeekJob.com, where a friend worked one job a week for a year. He creates citizen journalism pieces for the new portal VancouverIAM.com, and completes freelance web development projects for companies as well.

Read the full interview here.

I started getting a few emails in my inbox from others asking for further tips. So I figured I would open it up to anyone else, in an initiative called Ask Ian! I’ll collect the responses and publish them here.

UPDATE: Here’s a few questions (and answers) so far:

Dayna says: I am a freelance designer that has been asked by my client to meet in person with a committee. It’s a 4 hour/230 miles round trip. Is it appropriate to include the cost of this trip in my bill?

Yes. If the trip was a 20 minute drive, that’s one thing. But because you’re being asked to drive a significant distance, I think it’s more than fair to include the cost of gas in the bill. If the client expects you to make the trip, they should expect to pay for it.

Dhane says: How do I go from a college kid who has all these skills in media production, to a successful business owner who uses these same skills to help businesses reach their goals?

The first step is creating your business website to offer your skills. This helps to portray you as a legitimate professional. Second, you need to start building your portfolio and contacts. Volunteering your skills for a few key gigs will help fulfill both these areas, and likely lead to future paid work.

Derek says: I notice some freelancers incorporate themselves as a small business, and others (like you) just brand their names. What would you recommend for someone starting out?

I’m only familiar with the tax law in British Columbia, so as far as I know, if you keep your own name for your business, you don’t need to officially incorporate. But even so, there are many different pros and cons to how you set up your business structure. It also depends on if you’re going it alone, if you’re hiring other people, and how much income you generate. My advice is find a good resource (like Small Business BC) for your province/state and start reading.

Have a question about freelancing you’d like answered? Leave a comment!

Like most people who enjoy music and are technologically savvy, I have a lot of tracks on my hard drive.

And by that I mean somewhere in the range of 32 gigs. iTunes tells me that I could hit ‘play’ and leave town for 17.3 days, and it would still wouldn’t have played all the available tracks.

That’s a bit ridiculous. Especially considering with a few clicks more, I have access to a seeming unlimited amount of free internet radio stations. I have way more music that I know what to do with.

What a difference from 10 years ago. Remember when your library was constrained by your wallet and the physical limits of the cd rack in your bedroom?

In essence, music has become free (and I don’t mean because your pirated it). It’s abundantly available for very little or no cost. And in most cases, it’s the distributors, not the producers that care. And it’s rapidly becoming the same for TV shows,

Just ask Matt Stone from South Park:

We’re always in favor of people downloading. Always. It’s how a lot of people see the show. And it’s never hurt us. We’ve done nothing but been successful with the show. How could you ever get mad about somebody who wants to see your stuff?

Likewise, a friend of mine would like nothing more than to see his travel show shared around the world to as many new eyeballs as possible. But he sympathizes with the network that pays the bill – pirated tv shows means no ads. No ad money means no show.

So what was the real problem? Web users that demand free stuff or content providers clinging to a quickly aging business model? We wondered how to sides could be reconciled.

Turns out, free is, in fact, the future.

Chris Anderson, editor of Wired magazine and author of The Long Trail (great book), lays it out in an article from earlier this year Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business”

Over the past decade, however, a different sort of free has emerged. The new model is based not on cross-subsidies — the shifting of costs from one product to another — but on the fact that the cost of products themselves is falling fast.

[...] The word is externalities, a concept that holds that money is not the only scarcity in the world. Chief among the others are your time and respect, two factors that we’ve always known about but have only recently been able to measure properly. The “attention economy” and “reputation economy” are too fuzzy to merit an academic department, but there’s something real at the heart of both.

There is, presumably, a limited supply of reputation and attention in the world at any point in time. These are the new scarcities — and the world of free exists mostly to acquire these valuable assets for the sake of a business model to be identified later. Free shifts the economy from a focus on only that which can be quantified in dollars and cents to a more realistic accounting of all the things we truly value today.

That last line has a nice ring to it. And may perhaps be the most society-altering concept of all.

It’s a wonder it didn’t come sooner – but citizen journalism has finally landed in way that’s accessible and even…dare I say…revolutionary?

Here’s the official word from the press release:

VancouverIAM.com is a unique online platform and new destination for people who want to know what’s going on in Vancouver. It provides Vancouverites with the tools and support to become video journalists, Internet TV and film producers, and active commentators on local politics and everyday issues about life in Vancouver.

You be asking yourself, how is that different from someone creating your own website and using Youtube as your distribution platform? Why would you need to get involved with VancouverIAM? Well here’s a few reasons:

For Viewers

Those who have used Youtube (and other general video sharing sites) over the last few years, have probably noticed the decline in quality and the rise of…noise. There’s simply too much crap online that it’s much harder to dig through the heaps and find the gems that are relevant to you. This is especially true for local content.

VancouverIAM brings together the best bloggers, columnists, podcasts, and video producers all in one place. This saves the viewer time, and builds a community around an engaging alternative news portal.

For Content Producers

As a producer, you probably have your own website to promote your podcast, blog, or news segments. There’s a chance it also might be fairly popular on it’s own. But adding your content to VancouverIAM immediately widens your audience to include interested viewers who may never have found your work.

A perfect example is the show This City Rocks, a vodcast I found while browsing the site, and probably wouldn’t have found on my own. Other great content like original shorts from the Vancouver Film School now have a venue outside their institution.

For Me

I’ve created 3 original news segments for the website, including:

• The Truth About Conscious Consumerism
• What s wrong with Vancouver s local music scene?
• Should Vancouverites Boycott the 2008 Bejiing Olympics?

Aside from being fun to make, the segments were also an excuse to engage in meaningful conversation with some interesting people. And I don’t know about you, but that fires me up.

I wouldn’t doubt if VancouverIAM has a bright future ahead of it.

What do you think about the rise of citizen journalism? How does it compliment traditional media and reporting?