Ten years ago I could not have conceived how the internet impacts my life today. I am on Gmail and an RSS reader constantly. Like many of you, I suspect, I regularly update my Twitter and Facebook, participating in the omnipresent hive-mind conversation. Despite the internet’s dizzying development, it makes sense a brilliant eccentric saw how the revolution would take place. Someone had to be the nerd behind the nerd behind the nerd. Ondi Timoner’s We Live in Public chronicles the eccentric in question, and how he influenced communication as we know it. From hours of footage, Timoner’s lean documentary is disquietingly candid, with a bizarre central figure. It lacks the punch of DiG!, her earlier effort, yet We Live in Public should be required for any prolific Twitter/Facebook user.

All it took was a single tech presentation for Josh Harris to see the internet’s potential. He made millions when he sold web tools to the first internet providers. In 1994 Harris founded Pseudo.com, a live web casting service. His work caught the attention of major news networks – he brazenly told a 60 Minutes anchor he intends to put CBS out of business. Eventually Harris left Pseudo to focus on his real interest: two ambitious human experiments! The first was Quiet, a New York basement where cameras recorded all activity. Quiet residents and were forbidden to leave and didn’t pay for a food/lodging. The price for participation was constant surveillance, the occasional interrogation, and the erosion of sanity (I’m sure the nearby gun range didn’t help). The second experiment was We Live in Public, in which Harris and then-girlfriend Tanya Corrin would broadcast their entire lives on the web. Users could interact with Josh and Tanya via chat, so the couple was all too aware they were being watched. Needless to say, both experiments ended disastrously. Coupled with the dot-com burst, this all left psychic toll on Harris.

Timoner was fortunate enough to meet Harris at the right moment. She filmed Pseudo parties, and participated in Quiet with the other nuts. Harris treats most people with cool detachment, so it must have taken years for Timoner to gain his trust. I’m glad she did – he’s an interesting guy, one who thought nothing of adopting a clown alter ego as shareholders toured Pseudo offices. For the most part, the Quiet scenes feel like an extreme reality show. As a former CIA interrogator humiliates residents, one can easily hear gunfire in the background. Similarly, the We Live in Public footage has the same payoff as Big Brother, except the inevitable break-up feels more authentic. There is even a disturbing moment where the nebbish Harris loses his cool, and his features become monstrous.

What separates We Live in Public from standard reality television is how talking heads are able to analyze the implications of Harris’ experiments. There is exploitative footage, to be sure, but this is a thoughtful documentary. Tanya in particular has a clear-headed view of Harris and why his everything went wrong. Still, everyone involved is curious to see where this communication revolution will take us. The interviewees are articulate and sardonic, and a pleasant counterpoint to the frequent debasement of Harris’ work.

The weakness of We Live in Public is not Timoner’s fault. We already live in public, so his conclusions aren’t exactly earth-shattering. The director’s achievement is nonetheless remarkable, especially since Harris’ story could have been easily forgotten. It’s certainly striking how someone could be eerily accurate about the internet’s future. Now whenever I write on my Facebook wall, I’ll remember Josh Harris once said, “Everything is free here, except what we record. That we own.”

We Live in Public has a limited one-week run at E street. Check it out before it’s too late!