''WE LIVE IN PUBLIC'' is a 2009
documentary film
A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...
by
Ondi Timoner, which profiles
Internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
pioneer
Josh Harris. Its theme is the loss of
privacy
Privacy (, ) is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves, and thereby express themselves selectively.
The domain of privacy partially overlaps with security, which can include the concepts of a ...
in the
Internet age.
Synopsis
The film details the experiences of "the greatest Internet pioneer you've never heard of,"
. The
dot-com millionaire founded
Pseudo.com
Pseudo.com was an early streaming content service. It was founded by Josh Harris (internet), Josh Harris, who broadcast an AM radio show solely dedicated to the Internet, after which tapes of the show would be carried 12 blocks from the WEVD Radio ...
, the first
Internet television
Streaming television is the digital distribution of television content, such as TV shows, as streaming media delivered over the Internet. Streaming television stands in contrast to dedicated terrestrial television delivered by over-the-air a ...
network during the infamous tech boom of the late '90s. After achieving prominence amongst the
Silicon Alley set, Harris became interested in controversial human experiments which tested the effects of media and technology on the development of
personal identity.
Ondi Timoner documented the major business-related moments of Harris' life for more than a decade, setting the tone for her documentary of the virtual world and its supposed control of human lives.
Among Harris' experiments touched on in the film is the art project "Quiet: We Live in Public," an
Orwellian,
Big Brother
Big Brother may refer to:
* Big Brother (''Nineteen Eighty-Four''), a character from George Orwell's novel ''Nineteen Eighty-Four''
** Authoritarian personality, any omnipresent figure representing oppressive control
** Big Brother Awards, a sat ...
concept developed in the late '90s which placed more than 100 artists in a human
terrarium
A terrarium (plural: terraria or terrariums) is usually a sealable glass container containing soil and plants that can be opened for maintenance to access the plants inside; however, terraria can also be open to the atmosphere. Terraria are ofte ...
under New York City, with myriad webcams following and capturing every move the artists made. The ''