Mass communication is a phrase that’s been re-defined over the centuries, as tools to transfer what people think, what they want and how they feel have developed with human progress. Cave paintings, language, stone indentations, the written word, the printing press, the gramophone, the telephone, cinema, radio, television, computers – and now the Internet.

But the Internet, and the software that runs on it, is a fundamentally different form of communication. Within a few years we’ve stopped being passive consumers of limited sources of information, entertainment and expertise. Instead, we have become the authors of our own information and knowledge, sharing what we care about with others rather than merely being swayed by the latest marketing of a product or lifestyle.

Most powerfully, we’ve begun to trust each other again.

Us Now is a documentary about just that. How the fundamental idea of social dynamics, the sense of communal glue which appeared to be in its final death throws in the late 20th century, has suddenly been reborn thanks to the Internet. And with it, a shocking sense of what’s possible when we stop being political sheep, and start being grass-root shepards.

Director Ivo Gormley and producer High Hartford, both with backgrounds in anthropology, have brought together some of today’s sharpest thinkers and practitioners in the field of online social networking. The portrait they create is a world of empowerment and of collaboration founded on human kindness and transparency. Old systems of control - be it medical, financial or political - are held up to examination, all the time asking “Are we heading somewhere else? Because we now have the tools to take a different path.”

If you’re reading these words, then you’re part of what Us Now is all about. joiningthedocs.tv, in its own small way, is part of a revolution in film distribution, one where the traditional control enjoyed by a few huge studios and TV channels is gradually being challenged by many smaller but like-minded individuals who think the world deserves an alternative. This film site and others like it wouldn’t exist without recently developed tools, some of which are “open source”, work driven by passion rather than pay cheques.

Us Now has so many insights from so many people, we urge you to look into some of them yourself, and maybe start to get involved if you aren’t already.

Enjoy the film.

Us Now Contributors

Giles Andrews
Zopa is a bank where people lend and borrow money to and from each other. It is a bank where everyone is the bank manager.

Lorayn Brown
Netmums is an online community for mums and dads to meet and share advice about childcare.

Lee Bryant
Lee Bryant is co-founder of Headshift - an online social networking consultancy.

Alan Cox
Linux is an open-source operating system.

Liam Daish
Head Coach, Ebbsfleet United - a football club owned and managed online by its fans.

David Courtier-Dutton
Slice the Pie lets music fans manage bands and produce albums.

Dean Harrison
Participatory Budgeting allows the public to manage the spending of council money.

William Heath
Ideal Government are pioneers of e-enabled government.

Paul Miller
School of Everything connects people with something to teach with people who want to learn.

MT Rainey
Horsesmouth allows people who are looking for advice to get in touch with people who have gone through a similar experience.

Alain Sato
Couchsurfing is an online community where members offer a free sofa or bed for the night to each other. There are 785,000 members worldwide.

Clay Shirky
New York University. Shirky is an observer of the power of collaboration the internet offers.

Tom Steinberg
My Society democracy and transparency. Websites TheyWorkForYou, WriteToThem and No.10 e-petitions.

Don Tapscott
Author ‘Wikinomics’ Tapscott is an established authority on economics and collaboration, he is working on a research project on “Government 2.0”.