Fri 23 Oct
5.30pm
Gwe 23 Hyd

UK/2008/60 mins/ctba. Dir: Ivo Gormley. With Saul Albert, Ed Miliband, Alan Cox.

A film project about the power of mass collaboration, government and the internet.

In his student flat in Colchester, Jack Howe is staring intently into his computer screen. He is picking the team for Ebbsfleet United`s FA Trophy Semi-Final match against Aldershot. Around the world 35,000 other fans are doing the same thing, because together, they own and manage the football club. If distributed networks of people can run complex organisations such as football clubs, what else can they do?

Illustrating examples such as Ebbsfleet United (a football club owned and run by its fans), Zopa (a bank in which everyone is the manager), and Couch Surfing (a vast online network whose members share their homes with strangers), the film takes a compelling and positive look at how this type of participation could transform the way that countries are governed. If distributed networks can run complex organisations such as football clubs, what else can they do? The documentary brings together leading practitioners and thinkers in this field, inviting them to examine the possibilities for participative government and features contributions from Ed Miliband and George Osborne.

The founding principles of these projects - transparency, self-selection, open participation - are coming closer and closer to the mainstream of our social and political lives.