This past Sunday afternoon, Silas Hagerty and I had the pleasure of presenting KarmaTube at the Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival in New York City as part of a panel exploring the power of--and possibilities for--"user-generated content" on the web. The event was moderated by Mike Wesch, anthropology professor at Kansas State University and creator of the quite compelling The Machine is Us/ing Us--which has earned 3.5 million-plus hits on YouTube to date and for a time was the most popular video in the blogosphere.  Fellow panelists included YouTube film manager Sara Pollack, WITNESS's Sameer Padania, and DOTsub's Michael Smolens (whose company is creating pathways for film distributed on the internet to be translated and subtitled into any language, Wikipedia-style).


Left to right: Mike Wesch, Sara Pollack, Michael Smolens, Jenny Douglas, Silas Hagerty, Sameer Padania (photos courtesy of Kathy Brew)

So many moments that made me smile!  Here are a few:

• The session was due to begin at 4:30 p.m. at the Museum of Natural History's 320-seat Kaufmann Theater.  At 4:23 p.m., I couldn't help but wonder if attendees and panelists would number one and the same: five or six people were scattered about, thumbing through magazines, chatting with one another, gazing into space. So we'll be an intimate gathering, I thought to myself.

At 4:26, someone opened two large metal doors. 

By 4:28, the place was jammed.

• As presentations progressed, a tangible electricity pervaded the room. Each of the panelists seemed to experience some kind of minor technical snafu (a gently recalcitrant power point presentation, video that refused to instantly play), but the audience stayed with us.  When Michael Smolens's screen temporarily went dark, a young man in the back cried out, "We love you, Michael!"

• I shared KarmaTube's belief in the power of small, in being all-volunteer, in growing organically and incrementally, in what happens when people come together to serve in a spirit of trust for both one another and the process we're engaging -- and how, from that space, monthly visits to the site have increased from 7500 in January to over 39,000 in October, and our subscriber base has risen from a couple of hundred in March to over 10,000 as of last week.

• Silas showed his film Lusaka Sunrise, talked about Smoothfeather Productions becoming the new production arm of KarmaTube, shared his passion for making films as simple gifts with no strings attached. When, during the Q&A that followed, a flurry of hands shot up and someone restlessly called out: "But how do you pay your rent?" the hall was silenced with awe and curiosity by Silas's answer.   "To tell you the truth, I don't really have a home right now," Silas offered with a smile and a shrug.  "The universe is my home."
  

• After the session, Kathy Brew--the Mead Festival's co-director--said she wanted to explore the idea of taking the panel on the road.  A professor from The New School asked me to come present KarmaTube to his class.  And several filmmakers were eager to brainstorm gift-economy measures vis a vis their own work.