CREDIT: GEORGE MARAGOS
The Social Lab will feature YouTubers in the city living together and documenting their journey as a human experiment. The creators of the project are Matt McKeever (left) Peter Kloczko (centre) and Kellan Paniccia (right).

Londoners Matt McKeever, Peter Kloczko, and Kellan Paniccia are creating Canada’s first YouTube house called The Social Lab, not to be compared with other reality television shows of the past.

“We’re essentially trying to be the polar opposite of that outrageous jack-ass approach, but people are so familiar with Jersey Shore and The Real World,” McKeever said during an exclusive tour of the 880 Dundas St six-plex located next to Illbury & Goose, across the street from the Western Fair District.

McKeever’s YouTube channel focuses on documenting his experience as a real estate investor while providing personal financial education.

McKeever met Kloczko at an Old East Village town hall;,having noticed him vlogging, and introduced himself.

Kloczko is known as “The Hungarian Experiment” on his YouTube channel, which focuses on fitness and nutrition.

McKeever and Paniccia were connected through a meet-up for real estate investors, together co-founding London Financial Independence Retire Early #LDNONFIRE.

Paniccia’s YouTube channel centres on real estate renovations, as well as featuring a story about the London Brewing Co-op.

Together going to town halls to discuss the idea of The Social Lab, they received plenty of positivity, as well as feedback from the CBC and London Free Press.

Making no presumptions, McKeever explained the thought process behind The Social Lab in hopeful terms.

“We’re not married to a certain outcome or expectation of what this evolves into; it’s really an experiment. We [are going to take] five dedicated [Youtubers] that want to hon their craft, and see if in eight months they can ramp up their channels. It’s a limitless platform for random experiments,” he said.

Paniccia detailed how The Social Lab will benefit the resident You- Tubers.

“The value proposition is the half price rent, they’ll get their own bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, and living space. [Also], a big focus of this house is the idea that you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. Everyone can learn from each other, and if everyone’s working together, there’s no chance they won’t ‘level up’,” Paniccia said.

Kloczko explained how The Social Lab will interact and engage the community using social media.

“We’re going to experiment, the idea [is to have] five different perspectives looking at the same view. What’s going to happen when they’re all presented with the same goal; how are they going to shoot, vlog, expose, and show things?

[Others] can be a part as well, you can be a recurring person in the videos, or if you’re someone who loves editing we’re [also] creating a technician class. [Though] we don’t have any more public auditions, message one of us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, or just post on The Social Lab’s Facebook page and we’ll get back to you right away,” Kloczko said.

London is a choice city for this project and the Old East Village community will surely benefit from the positive publicity. A few examples of the experiments being brain stormed for The Social Lab are social media flash mobs used to clean parks, vlogging to promote local businesses, and using social media followings to support community initiatives.

Kloczko alluded to the future possibility of Social Lab outlets beyond London.

“We have people reaching out to us from Mexico and New York. The flash mob a park idea could be an idea for people who want to participate; where in the next week do a two minute video of you saying, ‘Hey I’m with The Social Lab and we’re going to clean up this park’,” Kloczko said.

Look for a soft launch in September with videos of auditions, the construction of the house, as well as frequently asked questions.

The Social Lab is planned to launch worldwide in October once the contestants are chosen and move in.

According to Paniccia the first rule of Social Lab is to talk about Social Lab, so join in the conversation on Facebook, follow their journey on YouTube and check out the web site meetup.com/The-Social-Laboratory/ and if you’re interested in participating contact them at TheSocialLaboratoryEmail@gmail.com.