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.