From Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital
A great surge of development is defind here as the process by which a technological revolution and paradigm propagate across the economy, leading to structural changes in production, distribution, communication and consumption as well as to profound and qualitative chnages in society.
Importantly
The process evolves from small beginnings, in restricyed sectors and geographic regions, and ends up encompassing the bulk of activities in the core country or countries and diffusing out towards further and further pheripheries
Therefore
Essentially what this means is that bringing to fruition the wealth-generating forces of each new paradigm reuires massive and matching chnages in the patterns of investment, in the organizational models for maximum efficiency, in the mental mapas of all social actors and in the institutions that regulate and enable the economic and social processes.
Heard of the film Loose Change?
well you will have soon. In they forced us to listen , A Guardian cover story. Tim Sparke of MercuryMedia, which handles international distribution for the film
This is unlike anything I have worked on. It has forced millions of people to question whether they can trust big media, and by bypassing the broadcasters through internet distribution it has altered the media power balance profoundly. With a little money and passion, anyone can make an important film.
The stats
Google Video acts as a portal for the movie, where you can also see the running tally of the number of times it has been viewed since last August. As I write, it stands at 4,048,990. By the time you read this, it will have risen considerably higher. On top of that, the movie was shown on television to up to 50 million people in 12 countries on September 11 last year; 100,000 DVDs have been sold and 50,000 more given away free. Then there are many more who have watched the film but are never counted, as a result of the active encouragement the film-makers give their supporters to burn the movie and distribute it to their friends. Avery says 100 million people - "easy" - have seen it. That may be an exaggeration, but it's fair to say that something extraordinary is going on.
This is an poignant example of the breadth of what the technological, and social revolution is all about.
How distribution channels, can radically alter the status quo. Equally communication technologies have historically wrested control from incumbent institutions to give that freedom to the people formely known as the audience. What we make, how we make it, how we distribute it and how we make money from these activities is now in flux.
The final test for Avery and co is yet to come. They are putting together Loose Change: the Final Cut using an upgraded Power Mac G5 (price $5,000). They have filmed original interviews with Washington players, employed lawyers to iron out copyright issues with borrowed footage, commissioned 3D graphics from Germany, and recruited a theology professor to act as fact-checker and consultant. The end result, they hope, will be seen at Cannes and have a cinema release in America and across the world on the sixth anniversary of 9/11.If that happens, they will have squared the circle. The underground film-makers will have come up for air, exposing millions more people to their argument - and themselves to intense scrutiny. Stand back and enjoy the fireworks.
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