We Live in Public

A documentary films that explores the life of one of the first internet pioneers Josh Harris. The film follows him though all the different inventions and experiments that he created – Jupiter Communications, Pseudo, Quiet Experiment, weliveinpublic.com, and Operator 11. The film also shows his visionary predictions regarding surveillance, people wanting internet fame, data collection and ultimately how the internet is going to shape our existence.

His Quiet experiment, which features constant surveillance and lack of any type of privacy shows how vulnerable people are. The environment in which everyone’s live is public and the lack of personal space can drive people to the extreme. In many way this experiment is reminiscent of Stanford Prison experiment except that in the Quiet experiment the cameras were the guards. The Quiet experiment created an environment in which people wanted to escape cameras and living in public as much as they want to avoid totalitarianism.

4 / 5
Director: Ondi Timoner
Starring: Josh Harris