The media we use to represent ourselves has a tendency to consume us.
Or so it would, should we allow it.
Seth Godin says that The prevalance of online video, constant skype connections and the multiple threads of data we get online, combined with the enormous overhead that flying now brings might just change the [value of showing up, of being there in person, of establishing a face to face relationship with the person on the other side] for a long time to come.
Just because we’ve got all these wires and nodes and cables to keep us remotely connected offering up pixelated approximations of the real thing doesn’t mean that that basic desire to meet and to be seen and congregate shall whither. Or that the impossibility of airtravel will keep us from seeing one another in the flesh as often as we like.
Fuck that. Leila‘s right: the time has come to tap innovations, creativity and apply these to air travel and security.
…Even if that means avoiding commercial air travel altogether.
Indeed, the pilgrimages we make in the future may be fewer and further between, but that will be because we’ve built up the local ties and connections to feed our desire to connect to other — with our BarCamps, our Coworking spaces, our Citizen Spaces, across our self-run Munified networks… we will build the alternative infrastructure to support the kind of old fashioned social networking and serendipitous person-to-person reality that we’ve always craved.
The airline industry is one of the last vestiges or a foregone error that’s fought innovation at every turn to its folly. The worse it becomes for passengers, the more it exacerbates the need for something better, something more communal, something more open and distributed. Ironically, it’s easy for me to say on a blog, but I don’t think that the answer is bowing down to the threat of terror — which continually proves itself too slippery to contain… instead we need to reduce the threat and reinvest in our roots and in where we are. BarCampEarth is a celebration of our global community — proudly proving that these loosely-connected tightly-woven local communities represent more than the sum of their parts… and that our ultimate strength is found in the connections we share, no matter whoever, whenever, or wherever we are.
Factory Joe 
I think it is inspiring to see the local geek communities around the world strengthening their local identities through events like BarCamp, but the role of ambassador–someone to travel around the world and cross-pollinate the local communities as part of a global community–is still very important. So I hope that you will continue to do so!
Thanks Brian. 😉
I’m not the only ambassador — especially since we travel in packs. But I take your point — the thing I’d point out, though, is that we need not fly in order to continue Johnny-Appleseeding these communities… no problems with boats, cars, bikes and other personal flying machines (I’ve never been in a helicopter!).