video script

For right now I think I'm going to stick to a more traditional documentary style video. The only other idea Ive been pondering recently is a parody on The Twilight Zone. Hard for me to describe the idea just watch the intro and think of it in the context of the internet.

music: I really have no idea, something ambient starts slow, continuously builds in layers until the end, when it just drops you down to a somber reflecting mood.

Intro. going off of my teaser video, get more voice overs, try to reduce the amount of text
-humans are social creatures
-social because we are able to communicate
-formed community
(during this flash images or video of people showing various traditional ideas of community)

when we make new forms of communication our communities and ideas of community change.
-trying to find something along the lines of time lapse of a community using yearly pictures of a community (from a distant to overhead pics) while this time lapse is going on layer with people using different communication techniques from oral, writing, telegraph, radio, telephone, television, and up to the internet.
-community changes from physical places to virtual representations

transition into McLuhan

Use a McLuhan clip/s to emphasize "the medium is the message" there's a lot of good clips on youtube that I can use, don't know which will work until I actually splice them in.

transition into the importance of studying the medium, have to take into account a historical perspective of the medium.

Go over questions:
why did we create the internet?
what was its original purpose?
how have we adapted to the new medium?
how have we tried to change the medium?

This part of the film will go into the creation of the internet
Voice over these ideas:
- brief history of ARPANet to now, how community is a core value of the internet
-people behind arpanet started the internet culture's core values
-sharing, community, interaction, ideas not people
-the entire point was to form research communities to advance knowledge
-time sharing and packet switching
-conforming protocol so that all can connect no matter what computer
-email established early on (try to find early email pics)
-email started mailing communities
-then message boards such as usenets for research collaboration (communities)
-still large computers and no real usage by general population
-creation of personal computer
-creation of world wide web
-personal computer and world wide web (www) made the general population able to connect
-community flourishes now because of more access to technology and the medium
(through each part of the voice over show images of the creators, old hardware, also visual representations of the internet, screen shots of early communities)

types of community, emphasize difference's in identity creation/exploration and how they are limited because of the medium.
-text base (usenet, irc, bbs, muds, blogs, etc.)
- can be whoever you want but handles important
- social capital gained through your 'name' identity created through posting,
- limited to text because most people dont know much about coding
- text and written word pinnacle in many communites outside of cyberspace (thinking of using religious communites to illustrate the point, which flourish even with lack of 'physical' evidence)

(use talking heads who researched early virtual communities, maybe howard rheingold? use screen shots of different text based communities like the WELL)

web 2.0 starts new communities because allows the average user to create beyond text.
-this is when visual communities pop up
-youtube community as an example
-show clips of youtubers talking about community.
-emphasis on authentic representation of self, show clips of people talking about authenticity

for those who want to escape or explore reality there are places/communities for this

creative community
-secondlife as an example
- able to be anything and represent your self through avatars show screen shots and video
-endless possibility, still limited but allows people to manipulate environment in ways they can only imagine

people put an emphasis on identity in these various community types
what happens when you take identity out of the creation, what happens?

introduce Anonymous community focused on creation of 4chan and how its a unique community built around anonymity
-screen shots of 4chan,
-trip codes allow anonymity on the forum (show what they are and how they work)
-what type of community is 4chan?

future of virtual community?
- where we might go with virtual communities depends on the medium and the changing of the medium will change all virtual communities. Will 4chan exist if the government took 'control' and made everyone log on and able to be traced?