“Sous-veillance” turns Big Brother on his head

Silicon reports on the growth of "Sous-veillance" this morning, a growing trend (apparently) in which techno-savvy busybodies can take videos of the nation’s crumbling infrastructure and bring the government into line by posting them on YouTube. In a report by the European Information Society Group (Eurim), it laid out its vision of turning ‘Big Brother’ on its head so we can collectively scrutinise those in power with our camera phones.

This is hailed by the report as a major step in increasing citizen engagement but is it actually going to work?

While the report is well intentioned, the technical nous and equipment needed for angry citizens to upload their videos could be prohibitive. The trouble is that the people who do the majority of complaining about public services, and I’m making a sweeping statement here, are likely to be precisely the ones without the knowledge to get these videos online.

It’s also unlikely that the videos are actually going to have any affect on those in power. Unless someone catches Boris Johnson graffitiing a bendy bus, or something similarly sensational, these videos aren’t going to be top of the YouTube charts so won’t be seen and definitely won’t create the required angry mobs needed to start a political movement.

The verdict? This report is well intentioned but "Sous-veillance" is unlikely to take-off unless done on a local and very specific scale.