Virtual Revolution, The

Synopsis: A four part series presented by technology journalist Aleks Krotoski which examines the way in which the internet is transforming people’s lives. Investigating Google, Amazon, Twitter, Wikipedia and You Tube, Krotoski looks at the way big companies make money from a free space, what is happening to our ideas of privacy and ownership, and how social networking is affecting our psychology. Participants and interviewees include Tim Berners-Lee, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos.
Language: English
Country: Great Britain
Subjects: Social Studies; Information technology
Keywords: Internet; privacy; World Wide Web; young people; social issues; direct action - political; social networking; psychology; social media

Contributor: Al Gore; Aleks Krotoski; Bill Gates; Mark Zuckerberg; Martha Lane Fox; Susan Greenfield; Tim Berners-Lee

Title: The Great Levelling?
Synopsis: Charts the rise of blogs, Wikipedia and YouTube and looks at the conflict between the freedom offfered by new technology and the desire of business to control and profit from the internet.
Title: Enemy of the State?
Synopsis: Looks at how interactive, unmediated sites such as Twitter and YouTube have politicised young people and encouraged and enabled direct action. With contributions from Al Gore, Martha Lane Fox, Stephen Fry and Bill Gates
Title: The Cost of Free
Synopsis: Looks at the lessons learned during the dotcom bubble by retailers such as Amazon as well as how Google developed a business model based on ostensibly free web services which are in reality funded through an advertising system based on users searching history and preferences.
Title: Homo Interneticus?
Synopsis: Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Al Gore and the neuroscientist Susan Greenfield, participate in a discussion of the popularity of social networks such as Facebook and offer different views on to what extent these are changing the nature of people’s relationships. In a test at University College London, presenter Aleks Krotoski investigates how the Web may be distracting and overloading our brains.

Name: Open University Worldwide
Web: http://www.ouw.co.uk External site opens in new window
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Notes: NB. As of May 2016 Open University Worldwide are no longer distributing DVDs. They have posted this message on their website: ‘Unfortunately Open University Worldwide Limited has decided that product sales are no longer viable given the reduced funding to Higher Education institutions and diminishing demand for the products we have traditionally stocked. At present the Open University Students Association (OUSA) will continue to sell the "Good Study Guide", and we are in discussion with other possible distributors to continue to make The Open University’s products available for purchase. As soon as we have any information on other channels of distribution we will update this notice’. Some products are still available via second hand dealers on Amazon.co.uk

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British Universities Film & Video Council