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.