The PostSecret Effect CREDITS

(Reposting from a month ago. This should answer most questions from the comments.)

Credits

Music: "In The Way" by Two Seconds Away

Thanks to:

Tim and Patrick of Two Seconds Away for the fantastic score. Check out their stuff at newmusicmonday.com! This week's song "Who's Gonna Love Her" is especially worth a listen.

Dave Nadelberg at Project Mortified for his interest in our research.

MasterCard for their awesome commercial that I borrowed clips from.

Dr. Wesch for bits of inspiration, and pushing the '09 Diggies to learn and create.

Shane Howard for help with Final Cut Pro.

Katie Krol (aka BK) for showing me WeFeelFine (the "website with all the dots") and Omegle, letting me use her tripod, making a cameo at 1:59, and being so delightful to live with.

All featured persons for their permission to use their beautifully insightful voices: Will Seymour, eloquentxfaii (Autumn Faith), shakes1327, perranbee, and others.

Frank Warren and his Tweeps for throwing this project to "viral" status.

-Katie

!?!?

Wow... What a crazy day! I saw around 9am that my video had been posted to PostSecret.com, and knew then that I was about to get quite a boost on YouTube.

But somehow I was still shocked and speechless when it went from 2,000 views this morning to over 45,000 tonight. That is AWESOME!

People have also been leaving some really encouraging, kind comments and even emailing me more personal compliments. I nearly cried when I got an email from the girl who actually created the final postcard ("We're all so connected..."). It was one of the most genuinely kind things I've ever received.

And in the very nature of the internet, there have even been small sparks, not so much flames, of negativity. Like the one that says "american pretentious bullshit". What does that even mean? That only the higher-ups of U.S. academia can relate to that content?

LuLz on you, flame-thrower. You should see how many non-English YouTube subscriptions I got today. Gracias and danke, by the way.

Mainly, what I've heard from viewers today is something along the lines of "hope." That was my point all along, was to create something that would give people a glimpse of how all of this internet stuff can be good for us if we let it. And word on the webs is that the video has conveyed just that.

So if you were so thoughtful as to be one of the people who made me smile today by commenting, tweeting, linking, or messaging, thanks for reaffirming about 5 months of my life. And make sure you watch the rest of the Anonymity Project videos.

They will Knock Your Head Off with their big Ideas!

So much love,
Katie

Going Viral?

Exciting news: more than a month after publishing The PostSecret Effect documentary, Frank Warren found it somehow. In fact, you might be right here because of that link. (Welcome! Thanks for watching!)

About 24 hours ago, he linked to it on the PostSecret twitter with another video asking, "Which community member made video should I link to on Sunday?"

I've been following the replies on the Twitter search feed, and it's *really* exciting.

Be sure to check PostSecret on Sunday when 30 new "windows to the human soul" will be up for viewing. You just might see my project there along with them!

-Katie

Tonight, Yes Tonight

Even though my video was finished on Sunday, I feel like a post is in order here.

Tonight, "the d.ethnogs of '09will shamelessly and elaborately celebrate themselves" at the First Annual Diggie Awards potluck night of awesomeness, hosted by the Wesch family. I cannot wait. Our class has really accomplished something, and seeing it all together will be great. It helps that they're all just great people to be around.

Also, Tim and Patrick of Two Seconds Away have posted my video to their band's site, newmusicmonday.com! These guys are big fans of Dr. Wesch and were so great to work with in producing my video.

This is what I have asked them to post along with the video:

Dr. Wesch's Digital Ethnography class is the kind of thing you can't get away from. The ideas we threw around in discussing the concept Anonymity this semester seemed to apply to everything: my other classes, my relationships, random car commercials... life had become research. Researching pop culture does well to blur the line between work and play. In the arena of "play", Tim and Patrick had been faithfully posting their songs every Monday, and I couldn't get "In The Way" out of my head. In my part of the project, I kept noticing how much people needed to be known and understood. That seems pretty basic, but it still fascinated me that the knowing and understanding was sought from unknown people. In the song, that last line, "You see me" repeated as it was came to me as a triumphant declaration that being known was possible. I wanted that resolution in my project, and so built my script around the song.

Then we read a speech by David Foster Wallace in my Philosophy class. He says, "My natural default setting is the certainty that situations like [grocery shopping after a long day's work] are really all about me. About MY hungriness and MY fatigue and MY desire to just get home, and it’s going to seem for all the world like everybody else is just in my way."

The rest of the song clicked. It is about breaking the myth that we are so disconnected from one another. And I can't shake the feeling that the way Tim and Patrick's song fit so perfectly with a semester's worth of my research is a little bit beyond us.

Check back for the results of the Diggie Awards!

-Katie

Crunch Time!

With our *final* videos due in just 4 short days, I'm hoping that this is close enough to perfect.

Please let me know what you think!

Watch it now.

Credits

Music: "In The Way" by Two Seconds Away

Thanks to:

Tim and Patrick of Two Seconds Away for the fantastic score. Check out their stuff at newmusicmonday.com! This week's song "Who's Gonna Love Her" is especially worth a listen.

Dave Nadelberg at Project Mortified for his interest in our research.

MasterCard for their awesome commercial that I borrowed clips from.

Dr. Wesch for bits of inspiration, and pushing the '09 Diggies to learn and create.

Shane Howard for help with Final Cut Pro.

Katie Krol (aka BK) for showing me WeFeelFine and Omegle, letting me use her tripod, making a cameo at 1:59, and being so delightful to live with.

All featured persons for their permission to use their beautifully insightful voices: Will Seymour, eloquentxfaii, shakes1327, perranbee, and others.

-Katie