Being a future facing animal, it is not my nature to spend much time looking back - even at the end of a year.  But as the festivities of Christmas fade and 2006 draws to a close before a new year dawns, I cannot resist reminding myself ... and maybe you ... of what I believe history will determine as being one of the most significant events of the past year.  I refer to YouTube and the way it burst on to center stage of the planet and in a short time, has literally changed the rules of .... well, almost everything.  At this time of year when I and millions of other Christians around that planet recall the birth of Jesus Christ as the son of God, it is worth reminding ourselves that, according to the Bible, we too were created in the "creators" image - presumably meaning that our primary raison d'être is also to be "creators".  You would hardly think that looking around this Christmas as we "consumers" celebrate by way of countless gifts (given and received) of CDs, DVDs, books and goodness knows what else.  I have long argued that for the latter part of the past century, the human race (at least in the developed world) has, through the limits of media distribution technology, been held captive in a cage of creative consumerism.  Well, YouTube plus the open access nature of the internet, coupled with the low-cost tools of Hollywood in all our hands, liberated us in the year 2006 AD.  Now anyone, and I mean anyone, who wants too create anything (and I mean anything) in video format can share it freely with the world.  Not only is this beginning to shatter a myriad conventional wisdoms, it is also shaking the foundations of hundreds of business models - all based on the use of yesteryear's technologies to maintain creative scarcity - with the prospect of exploiting consumer demand to generate 'wealth'.   There is nothing wrong with that - provided it is taking place freely in a free market - which is hardly the case today, but that's another story.

So now the genie is out of the bottle and YouTube demonstrates that the world  abounds with creative talent ... talent that is capable of creating and, thanks to the (currently!) 'open access' nature of the internet, distributing around the globe, material that is both the brilliant and banal.  As a small Christmas gift, I thought I would point you to just two of the millions of creative contributions to be found on YouTube.  Whether you find one or other, both or neither 'banal' or 'brilliant' is entirely up to your taste and judgment.  So, given that I am writing this blog entry from my home in Sherborne, Dorset, UK where I have spent Christmas, I thought you might appreciate this masterpiece by a certain Richard Squire (who he?).    And if that bowls you over and you want something more mundane, like a bit of guitar playing, then perhaps you should watch and listen to "Funtwo"(for that's his name!) as he fires off Pachalbel's Canon  -   over 12 million people have already viewed this one so forgive me if you are one of them!   But one thing I can be certain in saying - without the internet and YouTube, none of us would have had the pleasure of seeing just how creative Funtwo and Richard both are.  Roll on 2007 and watch out world as we all revert to nature – as creators!  ... and roll on Project Venice and event more disruption to conventional 20th century business models for wealth creation by herding us as consumers.  So I wish everyone a very Happy and Productive New Year and may all you creative disruptors prosper and may the vested interests of 2006 feel the full destuctive impact of the resulting climate change!