I've been thinking about my concerns about the difficulty of marketing the Community message. But I'm starting to realise that it might be a necessity and very powerful if we can actually pull it off. Though I still much prefer
Digital
Autonmous
Cooperative. Community will spring forth around such a Cooperative.
I do however think we're going to find it difficult to get people to listen to Community/Cooperative message if the words seem to come from us technologists/crypto-geeks. I am of the belief that we need to ally ourselves with charismatic 'celebrities' sympathetic to our cause as a route to wider recognition. Celebrity ambassadors if you will.
I think we should target Russell Brand as our first celebrity ambassador. Watch Russell in action here:
http://youtu.be/_bKQXmvdr8o?list=PLxwJqOkxQ7PEUWv_OTq7DRPAEpFzvLfMOI've been following Russell's transformation over the last few years. A transformation from a self indulgent and slightly irritating spoiled UK/Hollywood celeb to where he seems to be now. That is to say, a passionate, intelligent and enlightened man desperate to get your average Joe to wake up to the fact that the system is shafting them and that we are destroying the planet as a result of this system that to some degree enslaves us all. If we really need to push the Community message he could be the man to do it if we could actually get him on board. Here's a clip of him talking to The Independent, a major UK newspaper, this week:
http://bcove.me/dmvicbvqAfter watching this I thought wow, if only he knew about BitShares and the discussion going on here on the forums right now. If he did know about BitShares, perhaps he could expand on the bit where he mentions we can change things 'using the technology that already exists.' His message is almost a perfect fit. The video came from this article:
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/if-you-think-russell-brands-new-book-is-confused-you-should-read-what-his-critics-have-to-say-about-it-9829224.htmlThe above article sarcastically agrees with some of the sneering and jeering press that has been directed at Russell this week. In fact the Independent article is backing up his message.
Russell recently released a book called Revolution. Some of his thinking is a little wooly, but I think with the structure, brains and community of BitShares backing up what is a similar message we could be extremely good bedfellows. I think his involvement in the BitShares project would act as a force multiplier for what we are trying to do here and what he seems to be trying get people to wake up to also.
Some people here in the UK really dislike him, usually because they believe he's a shameless self promoter or just find him irritating. I don't actually think he is interested in self promotion anymore, I think he really believes in this stuff. Whichever is true, and I'm certain it's the latter, I think he'd be a massive asset to the team here if we could explain BitShares to him and get him on board.
He's intelligent and sharp and he'd get BitShares pretty quickly I think and work out how to explain it in simple terms so people would understand it. Here's another link to his 'Trews' channel on YouTube for those interesting in getting a steer on where he is coming from.
https://www.youtube.com/user/russellbrandDiscuss....