On the street I saw a small girl cold and shivering in a thin dress, with little hope of a decent meal. I became angry and said to God; “Why did you permit this? Why don’t you do something about it?” For a while God said nothing. That night he replied, quite suddenly:

“I certainly did something about it. I made you.”

For many months, I have been silently following a website that is interestingly called InvisiblePeople.tv. It is an interesting play on how humans shun away from looking at something they wish to eradicate from their minds. All too often, we walk quickly past the people begging on the streets, stealing a glance or two from the side of our eyes.

We’re afraid – that’s the truth. Afraid of being asked for donations, afraid to be caught staring, and worst of all, afraid to care.

This project heavily invests in social media and uses it to make the invisible people, visible. Mark Horvath, the man behind this project was once known as the Lizard Man of Hollywood Boulevard, when he himself was once homeless. Mark had strong media beginnings as a Hollywood distribution executive, but lost it all to drugs and alcohol. In a nutshell, thanks to the LA Dream Center, he was set right again and freed from the bondages he once had.

Today, he goes out to the streets armed with a small camcorder, mic, laptop and iPhone. Mark posts raw unedited footage (sometimes deemed too raw) of the people he interacts with as they share their homeless stories with him.

So, how exactly does Mark use social media? Sites that are frequently updated include: his blog, Twitter, Facebook, Whrrl, MySpace, YouTube, uStream, Vimeo and Flickr. They serve as his own broadcasting channels to reach out to the public and update them on-the-go. Through the true-to-life updates, he has caught the attention of many and this has served to further propagate the message and his mission.

Is there any magic to it? From what I see, there isn’t: it’s about being true to your project and being as transparent as possible. Picking the right social platforms is probably very important too, as you would want to target the relevant audience through it. Frequent updates help too, and we can see videos are uploaded very often on the InvisiblePeople.tv site.

With so many platforms to manage, I was very curious as to how Mark manages them and sent him a couple of tweets. Here’s his down-to-earth reply.

Stats to date: CNN reports more than 1,000 videos are watched per week on the Vimeo channels and the project has more than 10,000 followers on both his Twitter accounts (@hardlynormal and @invisiblepeople). Mark has been featured on Huffington Post, CNN and loads more media as a result of him being extremely social with a fantastic mission.

He’s raised sponsorship and donations from many companies amongst which are Ford, Hanes (they give out socks to the homeless) and Virgin Mobile. Truly, it’s a powerful testimony of how one man has shared the stories of hundreds of homeless people with the world and brought smiles to those who are in need.

More importantly, via social media, an entire movement has been formed, out of people who are more aware that these problems exist. To all those who are interested in making a difference, Mark in a very practical way asks them to start helping in their own neighbourhood. There’s little point in helping out halfway across the country when the problems are prevalent in your own backyard.

May the invisible become visible, via the power of social media.

I was honored to be given the opportunity to record her live, and she even addressed me as “the camera-man“. This clip has not been edited to incorporate footage from another camera we had, due to time constraint. We felt it was timely to upload it as soon as possible for the viewing of all Malaysians.

Do share your thoughts on Yasmin Ahmad and how she has impacted you in some way or another, via the comments section.

In this short 15 minute talk, Yasmin humorously speaks of herself as a film dabbler and how she chooses actors and actresses, and turns nobodies into somebodies. I personally found it hilarious how Yasmin subtly pokes fun at the “Malay papers”, “idiot minister” and even her husband who is an “Apek from Teluk Intan” – so, so funny.

You will be missed by many, Yasmin. I too want to be a film dabbler like you.

Let’s see… I’ve met for the first time, @sivinkit @TriciaYeoh @jasonong @mikefoong @chrishong @nigelais @sausheong @edwintcg @thematrixuum @sochews @mahyuni @SalocinTEN @angch (Sorry, if I forgot your username and didn’t list you down here!). Oh, and I saw @minishorts from a distance at BLC  – sorry, didn’t manage to go and say hi, you looked busy.

One interesting encounter was last Sunday, when I dropped by at the Bangsar Lutheran Church. After the service, Rev. @sivinkit (aka the Twittering pastor) and a few others were standing around talking about Twitter, and I interjected by saying, “Oh, I follow you too”. Then they quizzed me on my username, and I said “@TheBackpackr“. Suddenly there was a chorus of “ohhhh”. I realised I was following most of them and they likewise. We then proceeded with a round of Twitter Username introductions. (As a side note, BLC is an extremely forward thinking church and many of them there are bloggers and Twitterites. If you’re looking for a church that’s like that, do send the cool Rev. @sivinkit a tweet!)

It’s encouraging to see more and more Malaysians jump onto the Twitter bandwagon (perhaps we should call it the Twitter concorde, considering how fast it’s picking up steam). There’s a directory of sorts available at wefollow.com that lists Malaysians who have tagged themselves with the keyword “Malaysia” but it’s not an accurate representation of how many Malaysians there are who tweet.

Alright, I’m off for TEDxKL talks soon, and I’m sure I’ll be meeting another group of Twittering Tweeters (or is it Tweeting Twitterers?) – oh whatever… let’s tweet!

It goes to prove that geeks are cool (most of us anyway…) and we have varied interests. There were sessions on how to Salsa, Espresso appreciation, sharing of holiday experiences, Kufi art and also a little about coding standards. Overall it’s just a gathering to network and meet others. A few interesting observations:

1. Everyone is on Twitter – am I correct? (Seems that way, ‘coz people were Tweeting from each session) – Follow me?
2. Many techies use Apple Macs – it’s rare to see so many Macs in one location!
3. Typical staple geek food is pizza – well, it ended that way yesterday…
4. Live streaming seems to be the in thing now

I found it interesting to “guess” and try to associate Twitter usernames to faces – very often, the little avatars don’t do a good job at all. Anyhow, the funniest incident was sending @thechannelc a Tweet saying, I’m behind you, the guy with the camcorder, to which she turned around several seconds later and shook my hand. Indeed, we’re all a connected bunch.

We also had live updates on the #barcampkl hashtag going on here. Great use of technology there.

I had a video camcorder with me, and recorded bits and pieces from the day, and put them together here. Enjoy! Are you in the video? If you are, add an annotation on YouTube with your Twitter / Facebook username by clicking here.

Music credit: Steve ALLEN (Robert Pieculewicz)

He speaks on the Googles, YouTubes and Facebooks of the world and how they are the rare breed of today. Realistically, he focuses on making $1,000,000 first, and retaining your life – rather than selling out and losing everything. Some billionaires really aren’t that happy at all… true?

Makes me self-actualize and think about where I’ve come over the last 9 years of building Integricity as a digital interactive agency and where I’d like to go from here. Perhaps you should take some time out, sit beneath a coconut tree and restrategize the next part of your business-life.

David goes on to calculate that a million dollars can be derived in a year from 2,000 customers x $40 x 12 months. (He’s a little short on $1 mil in his calculations, but I’ll overlook that). It’s far easier to accomplish this feat, than to build a single Facebook sized web property.

So, you don’t have to be a superhuman to earn a decent wage.

(It take about 30 minutes to go through this, but it’s a good watch)

Well, it doesn’t always work… I was watching a video on YouTube today that was made by this ultra-cool-yet-crazy-lady called Justine Ezarik, or probably better known as iJustine.com. Anyhow, what happened was, YouTube as always was serving ads, and I suddenly noticed that it had taken the literal word Turkey, and was serving ads to go visit the COUNTRY OF TURKEY!

Check this screenshot out…

Anyhow, I guess it’s not so easy for the ad engines to determine what type of turkey Justine was parading about. It’s just a little unfortunate for advertisers who choose keywords that might have different connotations. As such, when you advertise on Google, do beware of how you position your ad.

The problem – the government now selectively limits what site we are allowed to access and directs the Internet service providers (ISPs) to abide accordingly. As of the 27th of August 2008, access to a prominent and controversial blogger’s website – Raja Petra’s Malaysia-Today.net was blocked.

An initial investigation showed that the DNS servers for our national ISP ceased to point to the right location, which was puzzling as it has never happened before.

Soon after, MalaysiaKini reported the following snippet.

What does the MCMC really stand for anyway? I decided to take a peek at their manifesto, which is extracted from their website.

So… which part of “promoting access to communications and multimedia services” do I enjoy? Perhaps I should reword it to “promoting access to SELECTED communications and multimedia services”. And also, “Ensuring consumers enjoy THE GOVERNMENT’S choice and a satisfactory level of services”.

Or even better, read the MSC Malaysia Bill of Guarantees (which my company Integricity has obtained) which the government is promoting. Point number SEVEN specifically says, “Ensure no Internet censorship”. What then does this mean for us? We can endorse one thing and yet do another? Malaysia tentu boleh (Malaysia surely can).

What will be next? Blocking of freedom to Michael Backman’s website because he condemned Malaysia in his article “While Malaysia fiddles, its opportunities are running dry“? Are we afraid that Malaysians will wake up and realise, “crikey, this country is horrible!”? Too late – those who do, already DO!

Rather, should we not focus our time and energy on improving the nation, rather than wasting precious time and energy on fictitious story-telling in the press, as we have witnessed lately (which are a lot better than some fairy tales I heard as a kid)?

“Selamat pagi, Malaysia” and “sila bangun dari lena” (good morning, and please awaken) – let’s realise that blocking Internet access is not going to work.

After all, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out how to circumvent this amateur block by using the following methods as listed on Integricity’s blog.

One video blogger she told me about who has been really successful is Luria Petrucci (or better known by her screen name – Cali Lewis) from GeekBrief.tv – she’s a real inspiration, as she releases 3-5 minute video programmes online 4 times a week. She started 2 days before Christmas in 2005 and in 3 weeks, amassed 3,000 viewers. After 5 months, she started podcasting full-time!

GeekBrief.tv

Interesting information about GeekBrief for production geeks…

• They produce the show using a Mac Pro and Macbook Pro
• Their video camera is a Canon XH-A1
• Yup, they use lights – Kino Flos and Lightpanels
• Man, they use a countryman mic! I want one!
• Wireless sound transmission happens via the Sennheiser EW100 G2
• Aside from that, they’ve got a bunch of other mics, headphones and a mixer
• Finally, beat this – they even use a teleprompter!!!

Wow, impressive set up, Cali! At present, I’ve got a Macbook Pro, a hackintosh, a bunch of mics, a Panasonic DVX video camera, a compact JVC for covert filming, Sony HDV Walkman (no it’s not for music! It plays and records DV tapes), Canon 40D & 30D DSLR and friends with lotsa gear – thank you Lord for good friends!