free ideas

When you go to the Epoch website we present a "Free Idea". This concept was thought up by Todd Lamb. Director. Writer. All around creative force. And, a friend of Epoch. I love it. It embraces the spirit of today's culture in a subtle amusing fashion. Participate and share at virtually no cost. 

In the short time since the launch we've received an unexpected amount of contributions. Unexpected since as an industry I don't see a lot of public participation. I was happy to be proven wrong. Although I found out that despite the large number of entries the vast majority of them used pseudonyms instead of their real names. 

I've written about lack of transparency before. For every comment on my blog I receive five times as many personal messages. They are usually questions, additional thoughts or requests. 99% of the them are positive. On occasion, I get negative feedback. In the best cases, I've heard disagreement with my opinions. In the worst, I've actually been accursed of offending someone. The common thread with the negative comments is they are, with the rare exception, through a third party and never made public.

Let me make a public confession. Many of things I write I don't completely agree with. I'm trying to think out loud, unfiltered and honest. It's to raise issues of the day. Spark a debate. Create community and dialogue. I never intend to offend. If I have, I apologize. Snark is not my aim. 

Lately I'm a little down on this whole blog thing. Maybe I'm too sensitive when I hear negative feedback without the ability to respond. It makes me think I may be doing more harm than good, to my company and possibly the production community. Is it too much effort for not enough satisfaction? Or impact?

George Patton once said "If everyone is thinking alike than everyone isn't thinking". This is one of several reasons I started this thing 11 months ago. I welcome divergent thought. I desire constructive debate without the negativity. I'd like it to be public and I want more of it.

I'll end on a question since that might make it easier to evoke response. Why isn't our industry more transparent in their opinions? Obviously I have my own thoughts on it but would love to hear yours.