Who tube?

Youtube, has become a well-known word around almost anyone who has come into contact with a computer. It is something I was exposed to when I was overseas and I just thought of it as another trendy video site. Never did I think it would become so universally used.  Everyone seems to take advantage of easy video posting and the helpful search bar. Even in the last election, the candidates posted youtube videos on their campaign websites.

In the past I remember going to video sites that were separated by categories. One of the earliest popular sites was ebaumsworld, (spelling?). This was an entertaining site, that listed humorous videos, and other types of clips, but one could never be sure what kind of video would come up and could spend hours looking for one that was related to a subject for which they searched.

Now if I want to hear the newest music video, see a popular news broadcast, view a teacher's lecture or watch my little brother act out a skit- its all at the touch of a button. The videos download fast and come with rating. These rating and commentary can help the viewer assess whether it is worth their time. Of course one must practice filter techniques as one never knows what will come up either video-wise or commentary postings. 

For this class, I decided to join the thousands who have become members of youtube and have posted videos. To become a member wasn't difficult, but I had to learn how to format my video correctly, hence I did not pay attention to the title very well. It simply downloaded with the title medium- (signifying the size of the video I downloaded).  I later changed the title to "How far would you go?" I posted it to share a small clip of my Togo, Peace Corps experience and to broadcast to others who may be interested in the Peace Corps. I have been surprised at the number of visitors who have seen it. The last time I checked there was a total of 70 people and I can only remember showing around 5 people this video. It makes me curious to think about who has accessed this video and watched part of my life. I also have a longer video but have learned that youtube has a memory limit of how much can be downloaded onto once space.

The video itself is okay, but over the Christmas break I will probably be editing a little more. There were points where my voice was too soft, and I need to rerecord because my words were mumbled. Overall though, its not bad for my first youtube debut. Click here to see the video. 

I am impressed that someone has already given me a rating of 5 stars, let's hope it doesn't get any lower.  

I  hope to post another video by the end of the day and can now officially call myself a youtube junkie. This knowledge is helpful though, videos and multimedia tools seem to be the one tool that everyone appreciates within education. I hope in the future, if I do transition into a library that I can use youtube and other future video websites to help advertise the library and educate people on the reference tools that are available to them. This will definitely be a communication tool that I carry on with me into the future. 

I can only imagine what kind of spin offs will happen next. I've already seen a website called Godtube, and I'm sure that there are a series of developers coming up with social video sites designed to trump youtube. This video site is definitely riding the wave of the future as more and more people want to connect themselves with the world and see the world through the eyes of others.