If you’ve ever seen a YouTube video like the one below, you’ve experienced video sharing.
The good, the bad, and the illegally downloaded are on YouTube for all to see, which is one reason many districts and libraries block YouTube. Another reason is bandwidth—like music, video is a bandwidth hog. We recommend you complete this exercise during light Internet usage times.
YouTube revolutionized the way video is shared on the Internet by making it easy to upload and share videos. Other video sites have popped up, including Google Video, and now Flickr allows video.
Do some searching around YouTube yourself and see what the site has to offer. You’ll find everything from 1970s TV commercials and 60s music videos to library dominos and kids singing about bloopers here. Of course, like any free site you’ll also find a lot stuff not worth watching too. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t explore and see for yourself what the site has too offer.
Discovery Exercise:
- Explore YouTube & find a video worth adding as an entry in your blog.
- Create a blog post about your experience. What did you like or dislike about the site and why did you choose the video that you did? Can you see any features or components of the site that might be interesting if they were applied to library websites?
OPTIONAL: Try placing the video inside your blog using the copy and paste code for the for “Embeddable Player.”
Other popular video hosting sites:
Why should you know about video sharing?
It’s popular
According to PEW (don’t you just love PEW?), 57% of internet users have watched videos online and most of them share what they find with others. 74% of broadband users watch or download video online. And those stats are over a year old (July 2007), so you know they have to be higher now.
*heart*
People love video. You love video. Admit it. And you’ve had someone, somewhere, send you a link to an online video. That’s the sharing aspect.
There’s more than one way to share
Of course, there are other ways of sharing. By embedding the video on this page, I’ve shared it with you. I can also share it on other social sites, like Facebook, MySpace, Digg and others. YouTube has these handy “share” buttons that make this whole sharing business pretty easy. If you want more information about embedding, see this blog entry:
Embed Your YouTube Videos With Cool Skin Flix Skins.
Trash and treasure
Of course, you’ll also find a lot stuff not worth watching. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t explore and see for yourself what the video sites have to offer. You can see your favorite band playing live (somewhere, somebody recorded it), or catch an interview with an actor you like, or groan over so bad they’re good movie clips (“Nobody puts Baby in the corner“, anyone?).
How Libraries are using Video
Think about the possibility of sharing library information via video. Lots of libraries are doing this already.
- promote a program (Round Rock Public Library’s Sail Away with Books Reading Program)
- introduce your library to the community
- something else
Here’s a video created for the TexShare Databases that you might have also seen:
More information for the curious
Want to make your own videos? Find out how:
- Making and Optimizing Your Videos from YouTube
Feeling brave?
Make your own video and upload it to YouTube or Google Video. If you do, be sure to link it in the comments section below. We all want to see it!
1 response so far ↓
Dorothy // February 6, 2009 at 10:12 am
Youtube is blocked on our work computers. I don’t have a personal computer.