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Context:

I realized lately, again, that my involvement in different organizations follows a pattern of intense involvement for a period of time followed by withdrawing from the scene. Almost like the graph of a heart-beat.

After the parliamentary elections in September 2005, where I mostly did videoblogging experiments, I quickly distanced myself from work in my political party, Unge Venstre, in Norway, where i had been active since 2002.

In 2002, I distanced myself from university student politics after my second year as president of MOSAIC after dealing with student politics since 1999 on faculty, university and european level.

In 1999, I suddenly stopped working within student cultural organizations, after volunteering at Det Akademiske Kvarter since spring 1998.

In each case, I got sickened by the inbreeding, the lack of continued knowledge management within the organization (or, rather, collective memory), and the power games. Most of all, I got sickened by my own - - losing the questions. I kept losing sight of why I was doing this, where my passion came from. I kept running around in circles, in deep philosophical thought, without getting things done. My own form of apathy was killing me, and I had to move on, I felt.

I have a confession to make. Well, I have several, and they include feeling terrible with how I parted with BlogSoft, among other things, but the one confession that is relevant for political videoblogging is:

I am sorry for losing the questions. For the two years of inactivity where I couldn’t motivate myself to anything, apart from helping my friend Lars-Henrik with his United Nations vlog last year, and helping organize VlogEurope this year (last year’s event in Milan I simply couldn’t get myself into dealing with at all, apart as a participant).

The returning passion
It started 5 weeks ago, when I met my new girl-friend, Michelle. I began seeing my life with new eyes. Yes, love helps that way, as the poets know all about. Then, VlogEurope this year, in Heidelberg, was important for me. Some of the great discussions that weekend reminded me of the passion of my earliest months of videoblogging. A few weeks ago I wrote a rambling post, trying to guide myself into my new path, and I mentioned a conversation I had with Tajee, who attended VlogEurope coming all the way from Tokyo. She is interested in, among other things, videoblogging in the context of a charity organization. Walking down the streets of the beautiful city of Heidelberg, talking with her about that, I suddenly felt like I had a cramp in my chest. I realized that I need to get back into this. Stop obsessing over how stupid I find ze shows. Gee, how cynical I had become with the development of videoblogging as yet another distribution channel for more of the same old crap! I should stop obsessing over what I don’t like, and instead focus on what I do like. What I believe in.

It was a process. I thought about public service vlogs, and I thought a lot about where political videoblogging is today, also asking for links at the videoblogging yahoogroups.

There were two things my friend Jay wrote that struck me. First was his comment about not making it so complicated, and showing what I love. Then was his comment about political videoblogging and the importance of transparent processes.

when I think innovative stuff….i think of a project where the
process is transparent…where the videos tell the story overtime.
where there is little spin, but instead I get to see people actually
do what they do.

Joining Radikal Ungdom
Last monday, September 17th, I joined Radikal Ungdom (Radical Youth), which is the Danish sister party of Unge Venstre, where I was active 02-05. In Unge Venstre, I was board member of Bergen Unge Venstre, member of the International Committee, member of the Balkan working group, and I launched a new magazine for international issues within the youth party.

Within 24 hours my vision for my work in the party was clear. I had contemplated being active with international work within the party, or joining the Balkan working group, or perhaps volunteering for the members magazine, but I ended up committing myself to videoblogging and blogging. Push the envelope on all ends, getting as many people in the party to videoblog as possible, or at least be more aware of what is happening in that area. Once again, to push. Push, without regard for how stupid I may look with my childlike naivety and enthusiasm.

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And it all comes back to me now, as I write this, at 7 AM on a september tuesday morning in Copenhagen. It all comes back to me, the silent moments in the past, and the moments where I connect two people, concepts, phrases or ideas, and the moments when I felt like my head was about to explode. My head feels like the last minute of this video right now:

Click To Play

(I created this video for the now defunct The PAN website. The PAN was a group videoblog with 8 editors from the U.S. and Europe)

Furthering political videoblogging in Denmark
Yesterday, I arranged the first of many vlog outings in Copenhagen. Unfortunately, only one other wanted to attend, but we went to Jagtvej 69 and took some footage about the situation with the Youth House, and we went to Nørrebroparken and talked about the development of rural spaces for the youth, and other things. Afterwards, we attended “Mediemandag” which is a weekly meeting about media and the use of media in my new party. Here we discussed many things, including the question “What is RSS?” which I was happy to tell them that I know about. We also did a short video for this blog that I made to simply show them the process.

My goal now is to get a team of people in the party together. The “vlog crew” would experiment, document, edit, and publish. It would do talking head videos, and it would do more provocative/humorous shorts that could be used to illustrate our own policy, or ridicule the policy of our “sworn enemies”. Personally, I especially look forward to taking a closer look at Karen Jespersen, who has political views I strongly disagree with.

Then, my goal is to take videoblogging to the next level at the annual general meeting of the Radical Youth on October 26th-28th. I can not reveal many details now, but if we manage to prepare this properly, it will be a landmark, at least for me.

I will organize weekly “vlog outings” on mondays at 5 PM, starting from the central square of Copenhagen. Videos from these expeditions will come online to a specific blog in a steady stream, and some of it will just enter the big data HQ for later use.

I hope to gain organizational/political support for these kinds of web-video projects within the party, and I hope that we can create a culture of videoblogging that can be of lasting effect.

This post is way too long, and way too meta, but it is important for me to write this. To write it out.

I am back in action. Now, let’s kick some butt!