Us Now is an independently produced documentary released in 2009. Us Now examines and explores the open software revolution (Linux, Wikipedia, etc.). One site examined is couchsurfing.org where those looking to travel on a limited budget willingly sleep and let others sleep on their couch. Though it sounds dangerous many users report on good experiences and no overly violent incidents have been reported as of yet.

The documentary then focuses on the philosophy behind open source software and networking. It explains that people have always had an inner desire to collaborate in some way or another. In the past this kind of mass collaboration would be highly expensive, so was limited to hierarchical corporations. The internet has lowered the cost of such collaboration drastically. The film predicts that as this type of networking grows more popular it will threaten the norms of institutions and corporations as we know them. In short it predicts more Linux less Microsoft.

"Not just in Britain but around the world politics and government is quite a hierarchical business and I guess the point about the internet is it is a very democratic business - a very flat structure."

The film then goes on to look at the implications of the flat structured philosophy being applied to modern government. Taking time to examine the so called participatory democracies of the western world and how by modern standards they are not so participatory. It shows a group in Britain that is provided funds through government and donation. The members of this group several hundred or more then listen to community groups who propose ways to spend the money. They then interview and do a focus on a a group of people who were granted 2000£ for the construction of a playground.

Though the film was enjoyable with a very interesting topic it had quite a bit of room for improvement and in my opinion could have found several more exciting networks.

The author of this article is the owner and writer of the DaRoom blog and video press.

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