It was created by a Kansas State professor of Digital Ethnography(interesting title), Michael Wesch.

What  has happened with this video is an example of the new web in and of itself.   On his website, Wesch writes:

On January 31st I released the 2nd draft of The Machine is Us/ing Us hoping to receive feedback from my colleagues…. I sent it to 10 people. Four days later it was the most blogged about video in the blogosphere and the wild ride had begun. It has been fun and amazing for the most part – sometimes overwhelming – but always exciting. It is hard to believe that a little video I created in my basement in St. George Kansas could be seen by over 1.7 million people, be translated into (at least) 5 languages, and be shown to large audiences at major conferences on 6 continents within just one month of its creation. In some ways, the journey of the video speaks volumes that the content of the video could only hint at. I know I could not have done this with the technology available 3 years ago – certainly not 13 years ago….

Also, as part of the “new” open source concept of an interactive web, he has licensed it under Creative Commons, which means that people are free to add to it, change the music, etc. 

As part of the class, students are responding to the video with their own videos.

I found this video an undeniably powerful one that asks us some very hard questions.

I believe in line with Daniel Pink that the new skills that will be important in this web 2.0 world will have to do with design and empathy–and the effectiveness of this video to move us and inspire thought is a tremendous example of the power of communication skills.  

What are your thoughts?

To see a video explanation of Michael Wesch’s class, use this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYcS_VpoWJk

This is cross posted at www.futura.edublogs.org.