SensoryMetrics

We Live in Public has been nearly 10 years in the making – and it opens at Sundance this week. Director Ondi Timoner has followed Josh Harris around since 1999. Josh is perhaps beyond description – a former dotcom entrepreneur millionaire, internet visionary, web media artist, IPTV pioneer… Josh’s LinkedIn profile now lists him as the CEO of African Entertainment Network, based in Ethiopia.

I first met Josh in the late 1980s when he and business partner Gene DeRose were running the first internet market research company – Jupiter Communications. We shared a lot of ideas on the future of telephony, caller ID, and internet networks.

The sale of Jupiter allowed Josh to found Pseudo.com – probably the world’s first IPTV network. In 1999, he transformed a bunker in New York City into a pod hotel – housing 100 people and a thousand cameras. The habitants’ clives were recorded 24/7. This social experiment quickly became bizarre – like nothing you’d ever see on Big Brother. That was Josh’s vision of the internet – a total lack of privacy would eventually make it insiduous and lead to the breakdown of society.

FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) – already nervous with Y2K, shut down the facility as the clock rang in 2000. Unfortunately for him, Josh was often ahead of the internet curve. I do wish him all the best with his latest venture.

If you’re not lucky enough to be at Sundance this week (like me), check out this preview video!

We live in public trailer from RADAR on Vimeo.

UPDATE: here’s a Twitpic of Josh arriving at Sundance (with a shiny MacBook!)