Back in 2006 when we first started our social media journey, we were intrigued by the phenomenal pace MySpace was growing at. There was a great deal of buzz about “Web 2.0″ which was the coolest phrase at the time. Everyone was talking about My Space, You Tube, Social Networking, blogs etc.

We didn’t fully understand social media at that time, but knew with the huge growth of these sites, that this was the beginning of something major and we must educate ourselves on the subject. We were already working from home building our network marketing business and we thought this could, in theory be a new and smarter way to help us to promote our business.Around the same time TIME Magazine even voted “YOU” (anyone using MySpace, YouTube, Wikipedia, blogs etc) Person of the Year 2006 for partaking in the new web – the interactive user generated content sites and called it a revolution!

One of our peers introduced us to the book Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything by Don Tapscott & Anthony D. Williams. Wikinomics really opened our eyes to the changes that digital technology is bringing to business and for those who embrace it and seize the moment.

We recently came accross the Us Now documentary featuring Don Tapscott who we greatly respect as a visionary, way ahead of his time (you can follow him on twitter at @dtapscott btw).

The Us Now Film (#UsNow) was aired on Channel 4 in the UK in July this year. We wanted to share the documentary as it is a real eye opener to where business, government and society is going so that you too can be informed, take advantage and make sure you are not left behind. IIt is not too late to start using Social Media for your business.

Just look how Barack Obama embrased Social Media. In February 2008 John McCain raised $11 MIllion for his U.S. Presidential bid. That same month Barack Obama attended no fundraisers. Instead he leveraged online social networks to raise $55 MIllion in those 29 days!

Several years on from discovering social media we launched eVENALICIUM, Our very first post was about educating businesses to use all things digital marketing – or get left behind. We remain focused on helping businesses to profit online and are sure you will gain value from watching this film.  So, sit back, take some time and enjoy. Do share this with your network and help to spread the word, they’ll thank you for it!

Read why the Director, Ivo Gormley made this film;

I used to think that my generation was deprived of any meaningful and legitimate ideology. We were taught about the failures of any kind of socialism and we grew up witnessing the failures of global capitalism and its effects on the developing world.

What I started to see emerging as a teenager in the late 90s, was a kind of ideology or movement that did not negate or conflict with either of these ideologies, one that had emerged out of our desire for products but one that was increasingly starting to exhibit socialist or anarchic tendencies. I was seeing people providing things for free, people sharing for the public good, giving things away that they could have sold. All of which I had been taught were impossible or nonsensical on a large scale.

I wanted to find out how these systems work; why are these people giving for free? How do the organisations that support this work? Why is this happening now? I was also sure that there was something bigger emerging, and that these cultures of giving and the increasing amount of knowledge freely available in the public domain had profound implications for the distribution of power. I wanted to explore these emerging internet cultures with this in mind, how is this freedom of information and the diverse motivations of millions of global participants, going to effect power and how is it going to affect our notion of government?

Ivo Gormley

Some of the featured people and organisations include;

Giles Andrews Zopa http://uk.zopa.com/ZopaWeb/ Zopa is a bank where people lend and borrow money to and from each other. It is a bank where everyone is the bank manager.

Lorayn Brown Netmums http://www.netmums.com/h/f/HOME/home/ is an online community for mums and dads to meet and share advice about childcare.

Alain Sato Couchsurfing http://www.couchsurfing.com/ is an online community where members offer a free sofa or bed for the night to each other. There are over 1,000,000 members worldwide.

David Courtier-Dutton Slice the Pie http://www.slicethepie.com/ lets music fans manage bands and produce albums.

Dean Harrison Participatory Budgeting http://www.participatorybudgeting.org.uk/ allows the public to manage the spending of council money.

William Heath Ideal Government http://www.idealgovernment.com/ discusses the possibilities of e-enabled government.

Tom Steinberg My Society runs http://www.mysociety.org/about/ democracy and transparency websites TheyWorkForYou, WriteToThem and No.10 epetitions