In Marshall McLuhan's prophetic book, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (1964), McLuhan speaks about the notion of a Global Village.
What may have seen like an oxymoron at the time has played out in full in the modern day. I can just as easily connect with my mother who lives 30 miles away as I can with someone who lives 3000 miles away (although I always make sure to call my mom :) ).
To some, the concept of the Global Village may be overwhelming and may make some feel small and not able to effect change.
Other's may look closer at this Oxymoron and say, "Although it is Global, it is still a village and, although I may not be able to connect with every villager, I don't need to. At the end of the day I will be able to connect with the villagers who want to be connected with".
So where am I going with all this....
I am working on a Project called Daily Comedy.com
In a Saturday morning marketing meeting (hmmmmm) the topic, "how are we going to get the word out without a massive budget" came up. In the back of my head I was very confident that we had a great product here and, although a big budget would have been nice, a tipping point would come soon.
The force of this tipping point would lie in the fact that we are well connected in this global village and it is just a matter of time before the needle moved. Surely enough I got an email a few days later alerting me to the fact that the needle had been moved a little bit by someone in Wyoming.
This someone (whom I will leave anonymous) recognizes the power of one. After winning a contest on Daily Comedy.com he wrote an email applauding the teams efforts in allowing comedians to "test drive" material before taking it to the stage and vowed to send out a press release to the local news in his "local village". He asked us to keep an eye on our site stats counter as, we would be receiving a significant increase in traffic.
My feeling is that as the next few days unfold, this story, compounded with the "local village" traffic will balloon and touch upon pieces of the "global village".
Herein lies one of the beautiful aspects of the time in which we live. A time where great content rises to the top through social bonds, unbounded by traditional media's firm grasp (yes, this is aimed at Cablevision).
Long Live Social Media!
Tags: social media, daily comedy.com, charlie warner, wyoming, tipping point, cablevision, mcluhan, global village
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