Power to the People!

             Welcome ladies and gents, I hope you enjoy where I’m going with this one. I feel that the internet has changed the world, for the better! More than any other time in history, we the people are able to right the wrongs and change people’s lives via the global online community. A great example and probably something you've heard about was the woman in the United States, a bus monitor. Karen Klein was accosted by several youths on a bus, this was all recorded on video by 8th grade kids.

           As sad as that scene was, there came something out of it, a random act of global kindness. This video made its rounds all over the world via social media, eventually ending up on the front page of the internet, also known as Reddit.com . From here a Toronto man, Max Sidorov, caught wind of this and decided he was going to send Karen on a vacation. What came to follow was one of the most positive and selfless acts by humanity. Not only was there a fund started for her, but it ended up exceeding $700’000 so that Karen could not only take some time off, but retire out right! Random people, not knowing this woman, came to set what was wrong - right.

            The power of the people is even more present in the example of how the internet created the Tesla Museum (now soon to be). There was an article that popped up on Reddit, posted by the creator of the wildly popular blog The Oatmeal. Matthew Inman, created a list of all Nikola Tesla's inventions and contributions to humanity. Most are oblivious to what he created, as there is no museum to honour his accomplishments. So, here's where it gets good, the land where Tesla's lab was, known as Wardenclyffe, had been put up for sale and set to be demo'd. Seeing this travesty, Mr.Inman then put together 1 blog post called 'Let's Build A Goddamn Tesla Museum', honestly check it out. The goal was to raise $850'000 to split the cost with the state of New York.

 Put it this way, there were enough anonymous donations to not only buy the land outright, but pay for the costs of the building, see here. The power of online community not only brings people together, but helps to sift out those truly in need. Never have we, as a society, been able to harvest this much social momentum as individuals. The medium of information has shifted, transparency and whuffie (subtle, I know) rule all. The more open we are with helping others, the stronger we become as a society. Peace, love and boom goes the dynamite!


-DP


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Illegal downloading: good or bad?

As a struggling musician, one of your biggest fears is to have all your music taken away from you. Or even worse, not to get the credit you deserve for the hard work you put in. Illegally downloading music has been an ongoing issue for quite some time and many people are still on the fence. But is it all really so bad?

Those for downloading music argue:

• The cost; no fee to download music.

• Easy access; Music that you would otherwise have to go out in stores and purchase is now a click away.

Those against argue:

• Artists don't get the deserved credit/pay

• It's illegal.

Both have valid arguments, but can there be a positive outcome for musicians?

Drake's album "Take Care" for example, was due to be released on November 15. But somewhere between this past Saturday night and Sunday morning the album got leaked onto the Internet.

The album became a trending topic on Twitter, getting nearly everyone to place one-liners from his songs as their statuses.

Drake didn't seem too upset over the leak though. Instead he tweeted Sunday night “Listen, enjoy it, buy it if you like it... and take care until next time." This had people tweeting "buy the Take Care album”.

Although there’s an obvious loss in album sales, through concerts and merchandise, money is still made. Word of mouth creates so much hype around an artist’s music and gets people listening to it.

More people will get to the music if it’s free, building attention around the artist. So in the end, is downloading music really all that bad? You tell me.