My pet project, PlutoCrazy

A Facebook friend asked me to explain what my obsession, called PlutoCrazy, was. She didn't want the press release version, but my personal motivation to put so much time, effort and money into something that doesn't show an immediate return on investment. It took me a long time to type out an answer so I'll use the same one here.

The standard press release used pretty much everywhere was...

PlutoCrazy is seeking people from all walks of life to participate in our Eyes In The Street project.

PlutoCrazy is far from a plutocracy, which is defined as rule by the wealthy, or power provided by wealth. The company name was chosen as an easy to remember play on words. PlutoCrazy represents a growing number of everyday people, mostly university students, who use the internet to communicate and tell others about their cities, countries, and people of interest in their areas, as well as report on local events. PlutoCrazy doesn't cover political or religious topics, instead restricting reports and interviews to entertainment, historical, sociological, environmental, humanitarian, and leisure based topics.

The challenge is to have someone be what PlutoCrazy calls Eyes In The Street in every sizable city on the planet. PlutoCrazy isn’t a charity, nor are we asking for volunteers. You’re paid for video reports and interviews, so this is a job, while at the same time being a calling for anyone seeking to make a difference in the world and have fun doing so.

Our goal is to pass on unfiltered and uncensored information that is free of agendas, and hopefully replace misunderstanding, distrust, and misinformation with familiarity, understanding, and friendship. It’s an ambitious project and one being done without assistance from government grants, corporate donations, or assistance from religious or political organizations that would undermine what PlutoCrazy is all about.

My from the gut and heart explanation of what I was up to is...

Thanks for asking about PlutoCrazy. It's a global project in which I recruit what are called Eyes In The Street in every larger urban centre on the planet. The EITS people do video reports on events or place of interest in their area, or interview people of interest such as musicians, artists, humanitarians, environmentalists, scientists, etc. and share the videos over the web.

The hope is to replace xenophobia generated fear, misunderstanding and distrust with understanding, familiarity and friendship, by showing young people that, no matter where someone is from, they're all the same, have the same hopes, wishes and dreams. My generation is a waste of time, mostly bigoted, narrow minded, distrusting products of cold war mentality. But those under 25 can be enlightened and realize that the world of their parents, and the one their leaders want them to believe still exists, is a sham. The goal is to show that world is full of people who all bleed red, need to eat and drink water to survive, want to grow up, prosper, marry and maybe have kids. I figure once my generation have all died off, if we're replaced in business and government by enlightened and informed people the world will be a better place.

The challenge is to find someone, or more than one person, in every large to mid sized city on the planet to do the interviews and make the reports. They're pretty simple affairs too, for example, Meli is an EITS reporter in Sweden and just uploaded this video http://www.plutocrazy.com/blog/?p=565. Coming is something on Dreamhack, an annual tech convention, and an interview with Emelie Wahlin a Swedish singer. Fun stuff for a univeristy student to do while making some extra cash you'd think but the count is ten flakes for every one young person who is serious, even though I pay for the video interviews and reports. Nonetheless, in a year I'll have all I need lined up and I'll see if I can change the world.

So now you have an insight into what I am all about. I live, breath and dream this project 24/7... so yeah, I guess obsession is an appropriate description.