Jan 01 2007
Amsterdam
Earlier on I mentioned it was about time for me to explore the Great Outdoors, after years of sitting behind my desk expanding our network, so recently I launched AmstelVisie, my first all Dutch website since many years.
What’s new about yet another website? Well, it is all about webcasting. Every day of the year I will take my video camera out to meet a fellow inhabitant of Amsterdam to interview him or her. Due to other deadlines I could have started earlier, but the site is live now and I am interviewing people every day of the week. So far, it is a happy affair. The site kicked off 12 minutes before midnight, December 2006 and almost 16 hours later I am counting over 50 unique visitors and the first people who volunteered to be interviewed are already in my Inbox.
In 1994 it took me about a year to attract that same amount of visitors for a Dutch website and somewhere around the year 2000 I completely gave up on the Dutch as a potential audience for new media. Please note: I am talking about an audience, I am certainly not downplaying the fact that some of the greatest web developers, designers and software engineers worldwide are Dutch.
It is tough in situations where I have to be the cameraman and the interviewer at the same time, but I have never enjoyed a job like this one. It really is fun. With just a camera, some knowledge of programming/editing and an inquisitive spirit a mini TV station has seen the light of day.
At times like this I often think of Marius Bauer, a fellow artist I first met in 1970s. He became a compulsive moaner and groaner long before he lost his hair. I can sympathize with his morbid view on life, but I never really understood why he could not share my optimism regarding the Internet — so much so that it almost felt like his negative attitude was religious by nature. Some time ago I noticed that he had launched a site that seems to reflect that same darkness and pessimism about the web more than his own need to promote his works.
Come to think of it, he never thought much of Amsterdam either. I certainly would have loved to interview him, because he has a brilliant and original way of thinking.
I honestly feel sorry for people like him; after all the web is heaven for those who want to create and stay independent. It still is after more than a decade of corporate intervention, SPAM, hack attempts, phishing sites and what have we.