Vision

The technology exists for every man, woman, and child on the planet to create their own channel, almost to be their own channel.  Seven Billion people don’t exist yet, but we are well on our way.

My goal is to teach all Seven Billion people on planet Earth the safest, easiest, and fastest way to become  visual communicators.

Not bad for big plans eh?

In fact, producing visual media is not just a nice “extra” skill. As the 21 century unfolds it will become a core literacy for persuasion, education, and citizenship.

In the past, reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills are what we and our parents, and their parents, considered literacy.

Today’s kids have been called “screenagers” for a good reason. They get more information from screens than they do books. Most educators are missing a massive opportunity by not teaching them how to express their own visual communication voice or skills.

Increasingly, as we ignore this kind of education it would be like asking kids to learn how to read, but offering no writing programs.

We teach them to be aware of, cautious of, and skeptical of the mass media, but we do not give them the skills or make them aware of the impact they can have by PRODUCING their OWN messages, telling their OWN stories, influencing, persuading and COMMUNICATING with the tools that now have at their fingertips.s Indeed becoming literate in truest sense of the word.

So that’s why I want to teach all Seven Billion People how to use these tools.

For starters, so far we have overseen the creation of over 450 short animated films by young people. This required 5000 kids and educators over three years.

Our motto is, “Turn off your TV and Create Your Own Channel”.

We’ve learned some hard lessons and we aim to save you time and headache as you create your own media channel. So we’ll pass these ideas along on this blog.

Think about it. As instantly as we’ve consumed media in the past, we can create it now, with no barriers. Storage Space is essentially free, (for more on “free”, see this) and this blog attempts to bring it all together.

The idea of a channel comes from 20th Century television and radio culture. With the USA, first there were only the big three; ABC, CBS, and NBC, plus VHF and PBS. Then with cable television, twenty channels, then fifty, then one hundred. Then the dish! With satellite, over five hundred channels. Then the refrain, “500 channels and nothing to watch” popped into popular culture.

And many complain that with 500 channels, there is nothing good to watch!

If you feel that way, watch less TV and make your own channel. Almost anyone can. You don’t have to be a webmaster or a coder thanks to WordPress and platforms like Twitter, Youtube, Myspace, Facebook, etc.. We all can have our own channel. We can have our own radio shows (podcasts), newspaper columns (blogs) wire services (twitter) and film distribution outlets. (Youtube, etc.) Young people are developing audiences, as well as their own media outlets.

We see the media world as accessible and do-able for almost anybody. Learn how to make your channels more relevant, and be more persuasive with your tribal kin-people.

Having our own channels also makes all of us marketers, animators, copywriters, producers, distributors, editors, public speakers, and visual thinkers. Hopefully this blog will serve to further your skills in these areas in which you might be interested. I’m walking right along side you. This is going to be a great journey. I’ll be sharing my expertise in creating meaningful content, and looking at case studies of others who “get it”.

If you get “it”, that means your are sick and tired of others dictating the content of mass media, and you are going to kick things in gear and make your own channel, your own animations, your own films, and let your own voice be heard.