Witness.org—persistent video narratives of human suffering

Bruno Giussani reports from the second day of the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship, being held in Oxford, UK:

Singer Peter Gabriel (of Genesis fame) tells about the almost-15-years-long experience of Witness.org, the non-profit he set up to encourage use of visual media (mainly video) and communication technology (Internet) to document human rights abuses (see here for his speech at TED2006). He tells about his epiphany meeting people that had been tortured and abused, "and what I found extraordinary is that people can suffer in extraordinary ways and then have their experience denied and forgotten. But it seems that when there is video and photo it is much harder to deny the story and for people's experience to be forgotten". Witness.org was started to give out cameras to local activists and NGOs helping them to tell their stories and raising awareness around the world -- "cell phone manufacturers did a pretty good job at that". Of course, he says, it isn't enough to get a camera out to a remote location, people need training and support. Fifteen years on, Witness.org still reaches small numbers of people. Now Witness.org is about to launch, in a few months, a Human Rights hub, "a sort of YouTube + Wikipedia for human rights", to allow anyone from anyplace in the world the chance of telling their story, have it uploaded and seen, and perhaps not forgotten nor discarded.

Gillian Caldwell, the director of Witness, gives some details on the site, as a destination for all kind of human rights-related media (audio, video, pictures) where everybody can upload, see, get educated, and act on it. This last point is crucial in the Witness.org approach, which she calls "video advocacy": use video as tool, as evidence, to raise awareness, to target key decision makers, to inflect policies, etc. There will be features on the site for organization, for activism (things like: print out 15 copies of this picture and get them delivered to members of Congress), for syndicating the content out to other sites, etc. Witness will also be organizing a "video advocacy institute" next July in Canada, bringing people together for training, with case studies, examples from all over the world, etc.

Hats off to Witness: giving people a chance to tell their own stories is a key ingredient of an Identity Society; just as important is enabling the reframing of those stories within overarching narratives that let us to feel our human commonalities—in this case, revulsion, anger and sadness at the suffering we blindly inflict upon one another, and a desire to do better. Hats off to Witness on both counts.

Second Life and narrative friction

Alan Graham critiques Second Life's lack of overarching narrative structure:

A lot of people ask me what I think about Second Life.

I'm not going to pull any punches. It's boring.

Really…really…boring.

...

While there are no "rules" and the world is largely capable of anything the users wish it to be or do…it is that lack of structure that makes me not care. It simply isn't enough to buy a piece of virtual land and put something on it. Without story, without mythology, without a living and progressing narrative…without goals and dreams…what's the point?

Buying a giant virtual penis for your avatar is not the same as a narrative that removes us from who we are and explores who we might be… through mystery, a quest, or a challenge.

Narrative is a tool with which we construct our identity through time, in relation to the world around us. People have traditionally constructed those narratives within a world that imposes very material limitations upon them; yet it is in the often arduous process of transcending those limitations that we find wisdom, authenticity and fulfillment.

So for me, it is as much the lack of narrative friction as the lack of a ready-made "über narrative" per se that makes Second Life seem so empty, despite all of its surface complexity and invention.

[UPDATE:] I just saw a comment by "MarkTwainWhite" on Alan's post that chimes nicely with my narrative friction idea, but also serves to caution me against taking too simplistic an attitude to the potentials and limitations of Second Life or virtual worlds in general. This guy is clearly strongly engaged with his Second Life narrative because he is trying to build a profitable business that he cares about within Second Life.

Second Life is the blank page on which people write their own stories. The alphabet of Second Life is the program that Linden Lab provides (singular lab by the way Alan). The language is the fabric of reality that residents created prior to your arrival in world. It's up to you to write the story or to simply interface with the language provided and "play" as you did as a child.

In my case I turned my attention to creating and running a successful sub-continent of sims where those SLers who love sailing and golf can come and play out their dreams and exercise their skills to play golf and race sail boats.

They say a good story has character arc. Believe me, my character has been developing an arch of successes and failures for two years now that keep him coming back for more. They say a good game should provide a goal that is attainable but only with great effort. Will my Holly Kai Golf Courses succeed to become one of the truly profitable businesses in Second Life that doesn't involve land sales or sex? I don't know. But I can tell you that I sure as hell am not bored as I watch this fascinating story unfold before my eyes on a daily basis.

I guess wherever people find emotional engagement, they find narrative depth and mirrors and resonances of their identity. It's all in the perception.

Narrative, tv and web

Euan Semple writes: "The feedback from my decisions is much less immediate [with tv] than on the web."

It's also interesting to look at this in terms of narrative. The web allows us to mix and co-create narratives through myriad acts of creativity and attention; tv, on the other hand, presents us with a selection of ready-made, "one-size-fits-demographic" narratives.

Not only can we tell our own stories on the web, but we can interweave other's stories with our own. It's a great way to explore identity.

Now, if you'll excuse me Euan, I just received my Amazon rental DVD of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" Series 3, (episodes 7-10). Time to switch on and veg out!