If you haven't watched Current TV yet you need to. It's a good place to see a diversified mix of pods that will inspire, educate, and entertain you. Good work Mr. Gore and Mr. Hyatt.
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http://blog.fastcompany.com/archives/2007/08/08/innovation_wednesday_al_gore_transforms_television_with_a_little_help_from_his_friends.html?partner=rssInnovation Wednesday: Al Gore Transforms Television With A Little Help From His Friends
Now that the Al Gore story is in print, I can no longer pretend that the hours I spend watching Current TV, the network he started with partner Joel Hyatt, is for reporting purposes. I’ve morphed into a bona fide fan, and I’m always delighted by the strength of the storytelling and the consistency of the programming voice. Within a half an hour of watching, I’ve typically laughed, been moved to tears and learned something interesting; any moments of boredom or disinterest pass quickly because, well, the pods are short. It really isn’t like anything else that you see on television, and it’s getting better all the time.
They’re also getting creative about the ways that ordinary people can get their own images and ideas on the air.
One of my recent favorite initiatives is a collective music video shot entirely by fans at a concert. The band is My Morning Jacket, who recently performed at Lollapalooza. The call for entries:
Make history with Current TV and My Morning Jacket by helping to create a new kind of concert video. How? By using the video from YOUR cell phone or digital camera to film a classic My Morning Jacket song at Lollapalooza. This will be a special performance as MMJ will be joined by The Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra. After we get everybody’s clips we will put it all together into one concert video called All Eyes On My Morning Jacket.
snip
Up until now, Current seems to have kept Gore’s involvement in the background. In what appears to be their first overtly “Goreish” initiative, they’ve launched a video contest with the Alliance for Climate Protection. The challenge: Create a 15, 30 or 60 second message supporting responsible climate change practices, and possibly win one of a slew of cool prizes. Friend of Gore, Cameron Diaz, did a promo from Current HQ.
They've got several examples already on the site, including one from my not so secret addiction, Ask A Ninja.
~~~~~~~
And here is that Al Gore story and an excerpt from it:
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/117/features-gore.htmlBack in New York, I ask Gore to explain what he meant when he said he wanted Current TV to be transformational. He answers with a 10-minute history lesson on the computer. "It's a geeky analogy, but you're from Fast Company, so you'll like it," he says good-naturedly. Sketching a diagram on a file folder, he reveals just how geeky he is himself. He certainly needs more than 30 seconds to get his point across.
That helps explain why, despite the interest from so many Democrats in his political aspirations, he seems genuinely distanced from the idea of running for President--at least for now. "What politics has become," Gore explains at one point during our discussion, "is something that requires a kind of tolerance for artifice and manipulative communications strategies that I just find I have in very short supply. I just don't have the patience for things that seem to be greatly rewarded in today's political system."
Politically, his outsider status makes him a potential kingmaker. If this is sour grapes over 2000, it doesn't sound like it--at least not from the vantage point of 2007. "A politics of ideas, driven by passion, seems to encounter a headwind," he tells me. "I do think that the Internet is bringing revolutionary transformation. I have not ruled out the possibility of getting into politics sometime in the future," he says, "but I don't expect to. Because I don't expect things to change. If they did change, then I would feel differently."
snip
Sitting where he is, his outsider status makes him a potential kingmaker among the Democratic candidates. He has said he expects to endorse someone eventually. Whoever gets the nod can expect Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection to run its own campaign on the issues.
Gore sees no reason to apologize for not wanting to jump into the electoral fray. As a businessman, he can speak with a candor few successful politicians can maintain. He has made an enormous amount of money and achieved positions of influence from technology to financial services to media. He and Tipper are even setting themselves up as angel investors for a few early-stage tech companies they believe in. In doing one end run after another around the status quo, he has created a new life: a perfect amalgam of environmental activism and a new type of capitalism in which there is more than one bottom line to consider, more than one master to serve.
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He can now serve his conscience as evidenced by Live Earth, CURRENT TV, The Alliance for Climate Protection, Generation Investment Management, and The Climate Project. All of these ventures are serving a great purpose in moving this world forward. Who can fault him for that?
All sites for Mr. Gore's endeavors can be reached through his site:
http://www.algore.com
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