10,950 people...

Warning! This is probably one of the most addictive video blog on the net at the moment. Started in April 2006 by film-maker Lawrence Barraclough the ThirtyYearProject is an unprecedented challenge: collecting random people's interviews at the rate of one per day for the next thirty years. For the next 1,560 weeks, Lawrence plans to ask one person everyday 3 questions: "What is the biggest regret they have about their lives so far? What is one thing they would change about their lives now? And what is one thing that they are definitely going to do in the future?"

"In the futur everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes" Warhol predicted about people and TV. But the ThirtyYearProject takes the famous quote to the next level via the internet. If completed by 2036, the challenge of collecting 10,950 stranger's answers about their own life (past-present-futur) could constitute a fantastic reservoir for retrospective analysis for the next generation of sociologists or historians of the western civilization. In that regard, the ThirtyYearProject acts like complementary source of information to the Dropping Knowledge project (although the latter has a more universal ambition).

After watching a few episodes of weekly encounters, Lawrence succeedes to transmit to the viewer the desire to meet random people and talk to strangers. That if evidently the ultimate goal of this project. Whether it lasts 30 years or not, it would not fail if it could contribute to reconnecting people together. Who knows. It might become a vector of social change for the next generation's society where kids will be told: "it's okay to talk to strangers"...

Start watching the ThirtyYearProject now!

And if you're travelling and would like to make connections, check out the Couch Surfing community.

Free voices

What is the common denominator between Isabel Alliende, Sean Penn, Nick Cave, Robert Thurman, Douglas Oronto, Wang Dan, Marina Silva...? They all have had an innovative, creative, or humanistic impact on the international public. Thus they are well placed to answer questions on pressing issues from the global public with a perspective that hopefully can challenge conventional thinking, inspire conversation and encourage further inquiry.
For the Table of Free Voices event in Berlin on September 9, 2006, Dropping Knowledge will bring together 112 inspiring individuals to drop their knowledge at 100 of these questions; the answers will be filmed, generating some 600 hours of footage. The "ask yourself" campaign, Table of Free Voices and other DK activities exemplify the practice of asking and answering questions. Together, these activities pave the way for participation in a "Living Library".
In a world of complexity and contradiction, apathy has become a sort of survival technique. How could you face the evening news without it? Another famine, another flood, another terrorist attack - if we truly identified with the pain and suffering of others, it would paralyze us. And so our apathy extends not only to those on the other side of the world but to our families, friends, neighbors, selves. Ask yourself: "When was the last time I questioned the way things are? The last time I refused to accept the unacceptable? The last time I turned my apathy into activity?" Ask yourself.

Drop your question(s) on the Dropping Knowledge website