<div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div id="gmail-:gun" class="gmail-Ar gmail-Au gmail-Ao"><div id="gmail-:guj" class="gmail-Am gmail-Al editable gmail-LW-avf gmail-tS-tW gmail-tS-tY" aria-label="Message Body" role="textbox" aria-multiline="true" tabindex="1" style="direction:ltr;min-height:489px"><div>"This is our world.  5/7 ocean, 2/7 land.  135 sovereign countries.  The home of 3,400 million people, and tonight for the first time we can see right round our world from sunset to dawn by television.  Television stations in 14 countries all around the world have joined up to make one program, this program.  In 43 control rooms all round the world, production teams are monitoring and selecting the hundreds of pictures and sounds from 5 continents which will combine to make this historic program."<br></div><div><br></div><div>That was the opening from the 1967 live TV program, <a href="https://youtu.be/s3LmQFt4pQc?t=41">Our World</a> which featured live footage such as a baby being born in Mexico, the Beatles recording All You Need is Love in London, subway construction in Tokyo, etc.</div><div><br></div><div>I share this with the OS list because Harrison Owen raised the provocative question, "What would it look like if 8 billion people were in conversation?"  In the context of where we've come since 1967 with 400 million people watching that one highly produced program, maybe the question isn't so crazy after all.</div><div><br></div><div>Sincerely,</div><div>Lucas Cioffi</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>P.S. - Here's some additional random info/context about the 1967 broadcast from Wikipedia...</div><div><h2 style="color:rgb(0,0,0);margin:1em 0px 0.25em;padding:0px;overflow:hidden;border-bottom:1px solid rgb(162,169,177);font-weight:normal;font-family:"Linux Libertine",Georgia,Times,serif;line-height:1.3"><span class="gmail-mw-headline" id="gmail-Broadcast">Broadcast</span><span class="gmail-mw-editsection" style="font-family:sans-serif;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:isolate;margin-right:0px"><span class="gmail-mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right:0.25em;color:rgb(84,89,93)">[</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Our_World_(1967_TV_program)&action=edit&section=3" title="Edit section: Broadcast" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(6,69,173);background:none;white-space:nowrap">edit</a><span class="gmail-mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-left:0.25em;color:rgb(84,89,93)">]</span></span></h2><p style="margin:0.5em 0px;color:rgb(32,33,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px">The opening credits were accompanied by the Our World theme sung in 22 different languages by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna_Boys%27_Choir" title="Vienna Boys' Choir" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(6,69,173);background:none">Vienna Boys' Choir</a>.<sup id="gmail-cite_ref-EBU_7-0" class="gmail-reference" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:isolate;white-space:nowrap;font-size:11.2px"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_World_(1967_TV_program)#cite_note-EBU-7" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(6,69,173);background:none">[7]</a></sup></p><p style="margin:0.5em 0px;color:rgb(32,33,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px">Canada's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CBC_Television" title="CBC Television" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(6,69,173);background:none">CBC Television</a> had <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_McLuhan" title="Marshall McLuhan" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(6,69,173);background:none">Marshall McLuhan</a> being interviewed in a Toronto <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_studio#Production-control_room" title="Television studio" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(6,69,173);background:none">television control room</a>. At 7:17 pm GMT, the show switched to the United States' segment about the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glassboro,_New_Jersey" title="Glassboro, New Jersey" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(6,69,173);background:none">Glassboro, New Jersey</a> conference between American president <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyndon_Johnson" class="gmail-mw-redirect" title="Lyndon Johnson" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(6,69,173);background:none">Lyndon Johnson</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premier_of_the_Soviet_Union" title="Premier of the Soviet Union" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(6,69,173);background:none">Soviet premier</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexei_Kosygin" title="Alexei Kosygin" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(6,69,173);background:none">Alexei Kosygin</a>; since <i>Our World</i> insisted that no politicians be shown, only the house where the conference was being held was televised. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Educational_Television" title="National Educational Television" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(6,69,173);background:none">National Educational Television</a>'s (NET) Dick McCutcheon ended up talking about the impact of the new television technology on a global scale.<sup id="gmail-cite_ref-CBC_1-3" class="gmail-reference" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:isolate;white-space:nowrap;font-size:11.2px"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_World_(1967_TV_program)#cite_note-CBC-1" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(6,69,173);background:none">[1]</a></sup></p><p style="margin:0.5em 0px;color:rgb(32,33,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px">The show switched back to Canada at 7:18 pm GMT. Segments that were beamed worldwide were from a Ghost Lake, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberta" title="Alberta" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(6,69,173);background:none">Alberta</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranch" title="Ranch" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(6,69,173);background:none">ranch</a>, showing a rancher, and his <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cutting_(sport)" title="Cutting (sport)" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(6,69,173);background:none">cutting horse</a>, cutting out a herd of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cattle" title="Cattle" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(6,69,173);background:none">cattle</a>. The last Canadian segment was from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitsilano_Beach" title="Kitsilano Beach" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(6,69,173);background:none">Kitsilano Beach</a>, located in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouver" title="Vancouver" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(6,69,173);background:none">Vancouver</a>'s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Point_Grey" title="West Point Grey" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(6,69,173);background:none">Point Grey</a> district at 7:19 pm GMT.<sup id="gmail-cite_ref-CBC_1-4" class="gmail-reference" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:isolate;white-space:nowrap;font-size:11.2px"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_World_(1967_TV_program)#cite_note-CBC-1" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(6,69,173);background:none">[1]</a></sup></p><p style="margin:0.5em 0px;color:rgb(32,33,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px">At 7:20 pm GMT, the program shifted continents to Asia, with Tokyo, Japan being the next segment. It was 4:20 a.m. local time and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NHK" title="NHK" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(6,69,173);background:none">NHK</a> showed the construction of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo_subway" title="Tokyo subway" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(6,69,173);background:none">Tokyo subway</a> system.<sup id="gmail-cite_ref-CBC_1-5" class="gmail-reference" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:isolate;white-space:nowrap;font-size:11.2px"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_World_(1967_TV_program)#cite_note-CBC-1" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(6,69,173);background:none">[1]</a></sup></p><p style="margin:0.5em 0px;color:rgb(32,33,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px">The equator was crossed for the first time in the program when it switched to the Australian contributions, which was at 5:22 a.m. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_in_Australia" title="Time in Australia" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(6,69,173);background:none">Australian Eastern Standard Time</a> (AEST). This was the most technically complicated point in the broadcast, as both the Japanese and Australian satellite ground stations had to reverse their actions: Tokyo had to go from transmit mode to receive mode, while <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melbourne" title="Melbourne" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(6,69,173);background:none">Melbourne</a> had to switch from receive to transmit mode.<sup id="gmail-cite_ref-AirSpaceMag_1996_2-1" class="gmail-reference" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:isolate;white-space:nowrap;font-size:11.2px"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_World_(1967_TV_program)#cite_note-AirSpaceMag_1996-2" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(6,69,173);background:none">[2]</a></sup> The first segment dealt with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W-class_Melbourne_tram" title="W-class Melbourne tram" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(6,69,173);background:none">trams</a> leaving the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Melbourne_tram_depot" title="South Melbourne tram depot" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(6,69,173);background:none">South Melbourne tram depot</a> with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Broadcasting_Corporation" title="Australian Broadcasting Corporation" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(6,69,173);background:none">Australian Broadcasting Commission</a>'s Brian King explaining that sunrise was many hours away as it was winter there.<sup id="gmail-cite_ref-CBC_1-6" class="gmail-reference" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:isolate;white-space:nowrap;font-size:11.2px"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_World_(1967_TV_program)#cite_note-CBC-1" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(6,69,173);background:none">[1]</a></sup> Two scientific segments, later on in the broadcast, were also included; one, presented from Canberra by the ABC's Eric Hunter showed experiments being carried out by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Scientific_and_Industrial_Research_Organisation" class="gmail-mw-redirect" title="Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(6,69,173);background:none">Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation</a> (CSIRO) to extend the frequency of cereal crop cycles, while the second dealt with the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkes_Observatory" title="Parkes Observatory" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(6,69,173);background:none">Parkes Observatory</a> tracking a deep space object.<sup id="gmail-cite_ref-ABC_8-0" class="gmail-reference" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:isolate;white-space:nowrap;font-size:11.2px"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_World_(1967_TV_program)#cite_note-ABC-8" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(6,69,173);background:none">[8]</a></sup></p><h2 style="color:rgb(0,0,0);margin:1em 0px 0.25em;padding:0px;overflow:hidden;border-bottom:1px solid rgb(162,169,177);font-weight:normal;font-family:"Linux Libertine",Georgia,Times,serif;line-height:1.3"><span id="gmail-The_Beatles.27_sequence"></span><span class="gmail-mw-headline" id="gmail-The_Beatles'_sequence">The Beatles' sequence</span><span class="gmail-mw-editsection" style="font-family:sans-serif;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:isolate;margin-right:0px"><span class="gmail-mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right:0.25em;color:rgb(84,89,93)">[</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Our_World_(1967_TV_program)&action=edit&section=4" title="Edit section: The Beatles' sequence" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(6,69,173);background:none;white-space:nowrap">edit</a><span class="gmail-mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-left:0.25em;color:rgb(84,89,93)">]</span></span></h2><div class="gmail-thumb gmail-tright" style="clear:right;float:right;margin:0.5em 0px 1.3em 1.4em;width:auto;color:rgb(32,33,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px"><div class="gmail-thumbinner" style="min-width:100px;border:1px solid rgb(200,204,209);padding:3px;background-color:rgb(248,249,250);font-size:13.16px;text-align:center;overflow:hidden;width:222px"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:All_you_need_is_love.jpg" class="gmail-image" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(6,69,173);background:none"><img alt="" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/36/All_you_need_is_love.jpg/220px-All_you_need_is_love.jpg" width="220" height="138" class="gmail-thumbimage" style="border: 1px solid rgb(200, 204, 209); vertical-align: middle; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></a><div class="gmail-thumbcaption" style="border:0px;line-height:1.4em;padding:3px;font-size:12.3704px;text-align:left"><div class="gmail-magnify" style="float:right;margin-left:3px;margin-right:0px"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:All_you_need_is_love.jpg" class="gmail-internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(6,69,173);background:url("/w/resources/src/mediawiki.skinning/images/magnify-clip-ltr.svg?8330e");display:block;text-indent:15px;white-space:nowrap;overflow:hidden;width:15px;height:11px"></a></div><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beatles" title="The Beatles" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(6,69,173);background:none">The Beatles</a> performing "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_You_Need_Is_Love" title="All You Need Is Love" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(6,69,173);background:none">All You Need is Love</a>"</div></div></div><p style="margin:0.5em 0px;color:rgb(32,33,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px">As the broadcast took place at the height of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War" title="Vietnam War" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(6,69,173);background:none">Vietnam War</a>, the Beatles were asked to write a song with a positive message.<sup id="gmail-cite_ref-Twenty_Years_9-0" class="gmail-reference" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:isolate;white-space:nowrap;font-size:11.2px"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_World_(1967_TV_program)#cite_note-Twenty_Years-9" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(6,69,173);background:none">[9]</a></sup> At 8:54 GMT the Beatles topped the event with their debut performance of "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_You_Need_Is_Love" title="All You Need Is Love" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(6,69,173);background:none">All You Need Is Love</a>". The Beatles invited many of their friends to the event to create a festive atmosphere and to join in on the song's chorus. Among the friends were members of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rolling_Stones" title="The Rolling Stones" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(6,69,173);background:none">the Rolling Stones</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Clapton" title="Eric Clapton" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(6,69,173);background:none">Eric Clapton</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marianne_Faithfull" title="Marianne Faithfull" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(6,69,173);background:none">Marianne Faithfull</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Moon" title="Keith Moon" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(6,69,173);background:none">Keith Moon</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Nash" title="Graham Nash" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(6,69,173);background:none">Graham Nash</a>.<sup id="gmail-cite_ref-Twenty_Years_9-1" class="gmail-reference" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:isolate;white-space:nowrap;font-size:11.2px"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_World_(1967_TV_program)#cite_note-Twenty_Years-9" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(6,69,173);background:none">[9]</a></sup></p><p style="margin:0.5em 0px;color:rgb(32,33,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px"><br></p><p style="margin:0.5em 0px;color:rgb(32,33,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px"><br></p></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>