On Wednesday, November 21, 2012, the developers of the LinkTV World News app for iPad, Darin Wilson and Chuck Musser, joined YouTube for a live online discussion and demo of the app in action. Watch the talk now:

How does technology and the Internet express Oneness? I was watching clips from the upcoming ONENESS: The Big Picture (premiering on May 9th) and Deepak said "The Internet is the emergence of something so powerful but we have not realized it's impact."

This feels very true and I think the proper respect is due. If I write an email or a blog from my heart, it seems to have much more of an impact...people respond in kind. It is like the actual energy of my intention comes through my writing, or more like it, this web of light that connects us. This is Oneness, is it not?

I recently went to a conference called Wisdom 2.0 Summit where they were exploring how we use technology to connect in ways that are beneficial to our well-being and useful to the world. I have to say that having lived and worked in both fields -- technology and spirituality (is this a field?...not sure what to call it, but I do work here...) I was prepared not to be impressed with the level of consciousness there, but I am happy to report that I was wrong. There are people at Google, Twitter, Facebook, Mashable and Zappos that seem to have a deep connection to their responsibility to the whole. I almost cried I was so relieved. I mean if you look at the Huffington Post, they have added a religion section and are dedicating themselves to supplying the world with great wisdom teachers and this is a mainstream political publication!  They recently posted a story called "The Internet as a Living Symbol of Global Oneness" by Sufi teacher Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee. In this article he said, "I believe that the Internet is a gift we have been given. It provides an image of how the energy of life can flow freely in a way that defies the barriers of nationality and geography. Yet sadly because we are so immersed in the surface activity of this technology, in its tools of commerce and communication, we do not realize its deeper, symbolic dimension. A symbol is a connection to the sacred ground of our being which alone gives real meaning to our daily life."

I would love to hear Deepak comment on this.... I would love to hear how he honors this connectedness in his communications with life and community. I hope to ask this question on Mother's Day, May 9th when we host a live chat with him. I am certain mothers care about this issue because it is part of a larger issue. How do we live a life that honors life....

Every April, the city of Austin explodes into a rush of crowds dodging from tech event to film screening to music performance (to barbeque) as part of the annual South by Southwest (SXSW) festival. As Link TV’s Director of New Media I occasionally have to make the personal sacrifice of braving the crowds to keep Link TV on top of the latest tech trends. This has paid off through the many partnerships that were created last year that are now a part of our new project ViewChange.org.

At Link we’re often asked why not all of our programming is available online. It’s because we are largely an acquisitions broadcaster, which means that instead of only creating original programming, we often license the best content available from other countries around the world. These documentary and film rights are usually sold piece by piece to cable, satellite, and online, as well as “territory” by territory. That last point is why, for instance, Hulu is not available outside the US, and the BBC iPlayer is not available in the US. The rights have been carved up and sold to different regions and different platforms.

Because SXSW is a unique combination of film and technology, several panels dealt with the topic of online distribution. Industry icons Mark Cuban (owner of HDNet, Magnolia Pictures, Landmark Cinemas and the Dallas Mavericks) and Avner Ronen (owner of Boxee, a free media center application which will soon have Link TV programming) are notorious for their outspokenness, and together are also known for a public spat they had last year, which continued throughout the session, with Cuban arguing for cable- and satellite-based on-demand services, which are profitable, and Ronen pushing for online distribution.

Monday marked the public launch of AnyClip, a movie quote service which allows visitors to search for any scene from “any film” (caveat: they have indexed thousands of films, but not all films). After their successful private launch at TechCrunch last year, they were forced to reexamine the idea that they would be able to present actual video clips for their entire quote library online. This was an initial criticism I had for the site. The same rights restrictions that limit Link TV’s site are in play for AnyClip, and until they can guarantee a certain dollar figure in revenue to the studios, they will have to rely on text-only quotes.

	AnyClip's vice president of product and technology Nate Westheimer

Homing in on this feature could be lucrative for them, if they can partner with technology platforms like Blu-ray to provide quick search within films, or with other streaming services with larger libraries who would find the search tools useful. For instance, in another SXSW panel Peter Becker (Criterion) asked, “Why can’t you type ‘You know how to whistle don’t you?’ into Netflix and get the exact scene from To Have and Have Not?” If Netflix partnered with Anyclip, that could happen. But deeper than that, users can tag scenes with descriptions, for instance “Rocky training montage” or “When Harry Met Sally orgasm scene.”

Deeper than that, you can also find, for instance, all the scenes from boxing movies that involve trainer-athlete relationships. That could be a great tool for discovery, or displaying related content. AnyClip probably wouldn’t advocate this, but the potential for mash-up artists to create the ultimate, say, cross-movie training montage is fantastic. Now that there are multiple potential revenue models for AnyClip, they might find some more traction in the industry.

Read more about AnyClip at VentureBeat.

That’s it for tech right now. Up next: Film.

Check out the conclusion of Super 30, a documentary about the Ramamujan Academy in Bihar, India. Bihar is India’s poorest state. Fewer than half its 90 million inhabitants can sign their own name. Yet this extraordinary academy takes a small number of impoverished Bihari children each year and prepares them to seek admission to one of the toughest universities in the world, the Indian Institutes of Technology.

This program premieres TONIGHT at 11PM Eastern/8PM Pacific, and is available to watch online in its entirety here.