We Live In Public

I love movies as forums for learning. So, as I was browsing the Adbusters website, I came across a trailer for the movie We Live In Public. I watched the trailer here, and read a bit about the movie's creator, Josh Harris. He has been described as one of the most influential Internet pioneers that 'you've never heard of.' Following hyperlinks, I ended up on a bit of a scavenger hunt, which is perhaps how Josh has remained elusive, at least in the mainstream world that I inhabit.
After begrudgingly starting on Wikipedia, I found a New York magazine article on Harris. Here is a quote from the article that helped me to understand what he actually does:
As the founder of Pseudo Programs, the oldest and largest producer of television shows for the Internet, Harris is a major player in the race to define the post-television future of broadcast entertainment -- an area of intense interest on Wall Street and in Hollywood now that cable and phone companies are scrambling to install high-speed Internet connections into millions of homes.
While reading the rest, I start to feel out of my element, realizing that the Internet seems controlled by an elite, genius and slightly bizarre bunch of (mainly) guys. It seems his company, pseudo.com, offers Internet television programming with an interactive viewer component. As I follow the trail further, it turns out the company was a hoax, what Josh describes as "an elaborate piece of performance art," much to the chagrin of many high-powered investors who were encouraged by several articles written for the New York Times by Jayson Blair. It seems Josh is quite an Internet bandit, with many influential sidekicks!
Back to the movie before I get more lost in cyberspace. While the trailer is a bit wild, the footage I saw did speak to some of the fears I have about extreme Internet use. One of these is my worry about the effects of obsessive use on human interactions and other behaviours. I mentioned in a previous post my formerly-benign dinner guests who pulled out i-Phones during dessert to check for work email on a Saturday night. Another fear the trailer touches upon is the effects of real (or imagined) surveillance on human experience. Yes, Google Streetview is cool, but if I can see the pansies on my front porch, what do the authorities see? (Hi guys!)