Tech critic Bill Thompson pointed out recently that what is really great about the internet at the moment isn't just that people can generate their own content in increasingly simple ways - which is still pretty exciting.  One of the most intriguing aspects is that people can incorporate and integrate elements from other websites - videos, news stories, pictures, audio and so on.  He mentioned the new site from Yahoo! called 'Pipes', which basically lets you suck content from one place - like a newspaper site - combine it really easily with other information, and create something new.  'Pipes' is very exciting, although I'm not sure I have figured out exactly why yet.

The most immediate example I can think of of this kind of thing - predicatably - is MySpace, where the practice of copying and pasting video and photo montages (usually involving your favourite nu-rave band or your best mate being sick) is established practice.

David Cameron, who tends to avoid both nu-rave and friends being sick (these days), has his webcameron, the video from which you can embed into your site - although the content often tends to be a spot of brand Cameron promotion from what I have seen.  Still a good idea, though. This is an interesting one - he is talking in Sweden to Carl Bildt, Sweden's Foreign Minister.  And look! At the end, we discover David is a family kind of guy!  Who knew.


We produced a video after the Look Into My Ideas event, too:



And Tate gallery launched its 'TateShots' site the other day, which is a monthly video digest of interviews with artists, vox pops and general arts news and views.  They presumably have a serious archive, and opening it up online as much as possible could offer enormously exciting potential for our engagement with art.

The important thing is that we can share and use the videos, audio,  and pictures - and not just link to them or the websites hosting them.  Not sure how easy or possible it is to suck the content from Tate and this Shots site yet - although the MySpace bulletin suggested we'll be able to soon.  But if and when that happens, it might start to look pretty exciting.

With more people offering their content to share, there is a potential lengthening and deepening of our conversations - for example about culture or politics.  And a further blurring of the boundaries between the two (there's a decent podcast about this here - and the pamphlet Cultural Diplomacy is relevant here as well).  This is potentially about increasing the tools through which we can actively negotiate where we think we fit in the world, and, maybe, to connect to people who can be part of doing something about it. 

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