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# Out of Towner Meetup: Kent Bye, Echo Chamber Project
- URL: https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/out-of-towner-meetup-kent-bye-echo-chamber-project/
- Published: 2006-01-03T01:32:15.000Z
- Updated: 2026-03-25T03:33:48.000Z
- Author: Chris Messina
- Tags: Open source, SpreadSpread

![Kent Bye](http://www.echochamberproject.com/files/images/kentbye.jpg)

[This is tonight, January 3, 2006, 8pm at Ritual Roasters! Be there!](http://upcoming.org/event/48407?ref=chrismessina.me)So the truth is, [Kent Bye](http://www.echochamberproject.com/kentbye?ref=chrismessina.me) is a radical badass mofo. And he deserves, nay, *demands*, your respect and attention. You just might not know that if you bumped into him in a supermarket, causing him to drop the peanut butter and fumble the newspaper his nose was buried in. Yet, Kent is a revolutionary of the here and now, [creating a documentary](http://www.echochamberproject.com/node/226?ref=chrismessina.me) that will hopefully, once and for all, set the record straight on how the media hog-tied us into submission on going to war in Iraq in an echolalic orgy of repetition and fake news (naw, I ain't biased or nuthin'). Pulling from, gosh, 60-80 hours of news footage from the days and weeks leading up the war as well as [76 interviews](http://www.echochamberproject.com/interviews?ref=chrismessina.me), he's using [open source methodologies](http://www.echochamberproject.com/node/722?ref=chrismessina.me) and [software](http://www.echochamberproject.com/node/693?ref=chrismessina.me) to [transcribe](http://www.echochamberproject.com/helptranscribe?ref=chrismessina.me), tag and splice this content into usable and reusable chunks of video and metadata that will eventually be used for feature-length documentary. So, anyone who gives a lick about open source media, vlogging, democracy, babies crying in puddles, Radiohead or coffee needs to show up [**tonight** at 8pm](http://upcoming.org/event/48407?ref=chrismessina.me) at [Ritual Roasters](http://ritualroasters.com/?ref=chrismessina.me) in San Francisco. Kent flew all the way in with his wonderful wife from Portland, Maine. Don't stand him up! And yes, full disclosure, he also [interviewed me at length](http://www.echochamberproject.com/node/719?ref=chrismessina.me) about my plans for [open source world domination](http://flickr.com/photos/net2/73566129/in/pool-59904589@N00/?ref=chrismessina.me) when I visited him in Maine this past Thanksgiving. It's only fitting that I return the favor and buy him a latte.

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### 💬 Comments from the original post

**Jen Myronuk** · 2006-01-03 04:11:21

Kent and his wife Jen are truly amazing people--I met them in person for the first time on Monday for tea & conversation (thanks to Chris for making the intro). Led by an engineering background and affinity for filmmaking, Kent's vision for an interactive, opensource documentary mash up is just what the media needs to wake itself from a somber political slumber--and usher in the next era of participatory media. I want to find out how best to financially support his on-going project work--and would encourage others to do the same. This is one of the most important open source media projects of the early 21st century...

**[luxuryluke](http://brandamage.com/?ref=chrismessina.me)** · 2006-01-03 08:45:27

Downloading interview... I wish the actual video was available, or?

**[FactoryJoe](http://www.factorycity.net/?ref=chrismessina.me)** · 2006-01-03 14:53:31

Hey Luke, alas, it was audio only. Lemme know what you think!