HELLOO GERMANY!

So last weekend or so I was in Berlin to Speak at a workshop, and I did an interview with gruenderszene as well as some other journalists. In any case gruenderszene posted the video interviews as well as a nice writeup. In the interviews I talk about twitter, the difference between entrepreneurs in Europe, United States, and Israel. I also talked briefly about my thoughts about how there should be a fund by technology VCs and investors that be given to artists to try and understand the meaning of what we are building. Of course this is already happening, becuase artists will always do this, but it helps stimulus when they can actually live off of these crazy pieces they do. It's an idea that Paulo Cohello says will come but in years time at Le Web. Well here are the videos. They are posted on gruenderszene.de. The translated post is here.

Review from Rockstars of the web

clog blog : LondonBloggers.net

It was the last presenter who made us all sit up and take notice at the end of this nine-hour blog-fest: Gabe Mac, self-proclaimed Bad Mother Vlogger, took the day’s Rockstar theme to the extreme as he pranced around the stage to a funky remix of a classic Scottish pipes tune. He wore streaks of blusher, serious eye make-up and twanged his Wii Air Guitar madly. He had our full attention. His siren of a sidekick sported bright red stilettos and figure-hugging leggings, dancing about him with a giant video camera, causing the feminists in the audience to tut tut and shake their heads. I think that was the point. Then Gabe Mac toked on a spliff rolled for him on stage by Stiletto Chick, crooning “good stuff, baby”, and any thoughts of audience fatigue left the room. Like him or hate him, we wouldn’t be bored by him.
Gabe Mac told us his vlogging evolution story which suitably began in Amsterdam but is now based in Madrid. We watched some of his own favourite posts and tolerated his thespian arrogance and shameless self-promotion. In summary, I think Gabe Mac was acting his pants off for us, but can’t really be sure, just that off-stage he seemed like a much quieter soul than he was projecting to us in his presentation. You probably need to decide for yourself whether or not he’s worth watching. Check the link at the end of this post to see what this Bad Mother Vlogger is all about.

Here is a small video

Rotterdam Event writeup

Last Month I did some moderation for an event at the International Rotterdam Film Festival here in Holland. There is a write-up in independent magazine about it. Have a look!

Blogging Rotterdam, Part Five: Understanding Europe's Zeal for Media Literacy

The Independent's

Randi Cecchine, a filmmaker and educator from New York City, is impressed to learn that governments in Europe are eager to come up with policies to promote media literacy among their citizens, particularly young people. But as a European friend suggests, the role of the government in establishing guidelines concerning media literacy and education can be complicated—especially if media makers are cut out of the policy-making loop.

Via: Randi Cecchine on www.independent-magazine.org

Here is my quoted excerpt (for family to be proud) the rest you should really read if you are interested in this stuff.

Gabriel McIntyre (I'll call him Gabemac) was the charming conference moderator. I found it interesting that they chose an American to lead the discussion. Gabriel is originally from Atlanta, but has lived in the Netherlands for many years, working as an educator and with emerging technology and advertising.He helped me understand the European media literacy context a little more clearly, reminding me that most media is funded by the government, and that historically media has often been used for propaganda for pretty bad purposes. The notion is that if the government has such a large role in creating the media, it also has a responsibility to enhance the cultural undersanding of media.

I ask Gabe what he thinks comes out of events like this.

“Policymakers make policy. It's up to artists to take the policy and make it right. That’s always how it is, in any democratic society. And if they didn’t make right policies, the artists wouldn’t take it up. Or they would say, you screwed up there—this is better.