This isn’t a post about politics, it’s about how creativity spreads.

When I was a kid, if I created something that I thought was cool I might show it to my friends and family — an audience of, say, a dozen (I didn’t have many friends). Even professionally-creative adults way back then, who were capable of making something that actually was cool, would have to go through a lot of effort to get that cool thing out to more than just their inner circle. Distribution was hard.

In case you haven’t seen this video, it’s another good example that times have changed.

will.i.am of The Black Eyed Peas isn’t into politics, but he watched Barack Obama speak in New Hampshire on January 8th.

In a moment of inspiration he turned that speech into a song, then made a video with his friends. Even as recently as 2004, that probably would have been the end of it. But it’s 2008, so he put the video online and within a few days millions of people had watched it, potentially influencing the outcome of a Presidential election. The story in his (trimmed) words:

but that speech…
it inspired me…
I came up with the idea to turn his speech into a song…
so I called my friends…
and they called their friends…
in a matter of 2 days…
We made the song and video…

Usually this process would take months…
a bunch of record company people figuring out strategies and release dates…
but this time i took it in my own hands…
and we did it together in 48 hours…
and instead of putting it in the hands of profit we put it in the hands of inspiration…
then we put it on the net for the world to feel…

And the video:

When distribution is free and easy, creativity (with a flash of inspiration) goes a lot farther than is used to. So go do something creative, put it out there, and see what happens.

The guys at Business Destiny put up a copy of the radio show I appeared on last weekend along with Geoff Livingston and Hart Rossman.  The focus was on Web 2.0 and it’s impact on business, in part to talk up the New New Internet conference.  Considering I’d been up until 2:30 am the night before hosting Startup Weekend and then was on air at 8 am without having had any coffee (don’t ask), I’m just happy I didn’t doze off mid-show. 

Luckily the Tears for Fears transition music kept me going.  Nice choice, John!

Last week Fred asked for something, Dave built something, Fred thanked Dave, and that’s great.  This week Mike bashed Yappd, techcrunchies suggested Tweetr and Radar, and that’s all fine.  But I still have to take the picture.  Here’s what I really want:

1. A really … uh … “cool” holster for my Treo 700 that holds it about in the center of my chest with the camera facing out.  Or maybe a way to strap it to my forehead.
2. A photo taken every [1|5|30|60] minute(s), which is then automatically uploaded to … the next version of Twitter which displays images instead of links to them (in web view, anyway) and sends MMS in addition to SMS (maybe the other services do this already, but come on … I already have 13 followers on Twitter).
3. A blog post auto-generated that shows all of the days photos in rows, or perhaps a rapid-fire animation of the entire sequence.

Okay, maybe that’s a bit much.

But there has to be a video thing happening here.  When I go to answer that ever probing question”what are you doing?” 9 times out of 10 my instinct is to say “why, let me show you!” and then point my camera phone and shoot a 10 second video clip.  Photos help, but let’s just skip to video already.

Occasionally I like to watch the local news (on my DVR so I can skip the awful local car dealer ads, of course).  Tonight I caught a 5 minute segment on Larry Haubner, a 105 year-old army vet who has outlived his savings and could be kicked out of his assisted living home.  His friends at the home setup savelarry.org to help raise money to keep him there.  

It was a typical feel-good local news story, but what made it interesting was … Larry.  When Larry was born in 1902, Teddy Roosevelt was president.  When he was my age, FDR still hadn’t been elected.  Larry is old.  Real old.  I could write “old” a hundred times and you wouldn’t understand how old he is.  But if you saw the video I saw, you would.

Then, when you saw Larry cracking jokes with the nurses and explaining one way he stays fit — by doing reps of his walker lifted over his head — you’d be inspired.  I often can’t muster the energy to go for a jog, and when Larry was 102 he was still riding a bike.  “My sister would love to see that” I thought.  Certainly I could go to the local news web site (NBC4.com), find the clip, and send it to a few friends, couldn’t I?

It would appear not.  All you can do is read about it which, frankly, is boring.  It’s also a disservice to Larry.

Why, in the age of YouTube, local news stations don’t put every segment neatly into an online clip wrapped in a user experience designed for sharing is beyond me.  Include a little ad, even.  If it’s under 7 seconds, I just might watch it (unless it’s a screaming car salesman).