Give the kids in colleges across the country (any country) a goal to outfit every community with a community-based recording studio. Let those communities create multimedia fund-raisers, CDs, DVDs, tv shows, radio shows, and let those who have no access, have the opportunity to participate. Shouldn’t take too long, and the logistics would be done, and the creative phase could begin.

Now, that’s bringing free culture to the masses.
Tom

(And if there’s a lesson from Real Time with Bill Maher, it’s probably that preachiness and ego can kill humor…)

Another way to strike a chord with many citizens is to point out how much the US taxpayer subsidizes innovation for corporations to gobble up. Pharmas, high-tech companies, etc.

If I dont know the benefits of sharing or how to access shared works why would I ever attempt to use it or alternatively protest for it.

Public awareness – cool.

First thing I would do is change the name though – Free Culture” sounds like hippie junk and we all know the sort of creativity those people get up to – and how they get there.

In all seriousness, yes, that’s a good idea, at least some contact. And don’t stop there. Show everyone how the issues could affect them, even if only in theory, to show them why the issues matter.

After the chess club, the football team. Yoga moves can be copyrighted, why not football moves? Imagine not being able to defend against a team as you’d be infringing on some other team’s copyrighted moves.

The chess players could be made to understand that they have a stake in this struggle, i.e. pretty much all their strategies are based on games and patterns that have been tried out in tournaments before. They are building upon and borrowing from players who have gone before them.

Just as the chess community would benefit, so would the Free Culture proponents. You would gain the all-important chess vote and even more significantly would bask in the reflected lustre and coolness of chess culture.

And then . . . on to the Audio-Visual Club!

Theory and whatnot are very important, of course–especially to guide a movement as young as this one. And I expect our ideas on intellectual property, the relationship between media and market, and so forth will mature as time goes on. But the easiest way to engage the masses, I think, is to DO free culture, not just talk about it.

To speak of my particular situation, I am currently working at a family resort in the middle of nowhere, MN. Not exactly a bastion of free culture–I doubt anyone here has ever even heard the term. Anyway, every week we have a staff/guest talent show. And my contribution, for the last few weeks, has been demonstrating GarageBand by performing a 6-part solo acapella version of the song “Where Is My Mind?” I sing each part separately, then layer them on top of one another.

Anyway, after every performance loads of guests have come up to me asking, “How did you do that? My kids saw you at the talent show and were asking me, ‘Mom, can we get that??'” And so I’ve been engaging small-town Minnesotans in talking about audio technology, and the various mixing programs out there for both Macs and PCs. And I’m excited to think that–maybe–some of those kids at the talent shows will go out, learn how to use Audacity or other tools, and start mixing and remixing on their own. I’m hoping these kids will learn to participate with music, to engage their culture.

So the next time the RIAA goes after a remixer (c.f. the series of Black Album remixes), it won’t be just another bit of news. Those kids and teenagers will read it and think, “They’re targeting someone like me.” Free culture issues will gain a greater sense of urgency. That is my hope.

Creativity is the new protest. Education is the new political movement.

1. Stop insulting the consumer. Referring to people as Joe Sixpack and sheeple because they like the products that they now buy, and use as directed, will win you no converts. You will just paint yourselves as elites doing a cram down. Don’t insult people for liking what they like.

2. Put the market to work. If free culture content will necessarily be better, than the market will go there once it is. See Linux. Yeah, it is a fight, but good things take time. If the free culture concept doesn’t pan out to better content, then the market won’t go there.