In computer news this week June 12, 2007
What tribe do you belong to on the
Electronic Frontier ?
The
Youtube tribe.
Last week on Raw Bytes I explained the simple process of becoming a Youtube member, which is open to anyone.
So now that you’re a member – what do you do ? Well you start uploading movies that you’ve made, which is now technologically simple for anyone. 10 years ago – impossible – today – so easy grade school kids can do it.
Youtube is probably the #1 internet video site today – it seems all the popular videos always hit Youtube first. This includes the recent anti-Hillary video, which has had more than 3 millions hits, supposedly done by Obama supporters, and today’s Go Away Paris Hilton video which expresses the sentiment of many people, and is already in the thousands.
Both of those videos are professionally done, but the vast majority of Youtube videos are homemade, using simple ingredients.
First you need a digital movie camera, which might cost $ 250, more or less, but that’s what mine cost a year ago. Then you need a computer, which you probably already have. And on your computer already is a software program you may not have noticed – Windows moviemaker – which is really all you need to create great looking movies, with titles, sound, and cool video effects.
Let’s take a recent event – Bloomsday – which we all love here in Spokane. If you go to Youtube and type Bloomsday 2007 in the search window – you’ll see several videos of this year’s race.
The most viewed one today was done down in Peaceful Valley at the intersection of Riverside and Clarke avenues, where the old Bloomsday routes used to merge, and was done by a lady who was walking her dog and walked up to see the race with her digital camera, but managed to catch the spirit of Bloomsday with all the walkers and a rock band playing music.
So you go out and shoot a video of whatever you want, and probably your camera will record sound too. Then you upload the video to your computer – all video cameras today come with cable and software to do this – and then you open Windows moviemaker and import the video you shot. Here you can add titles, and fades, use the soundtrack that you shot or add a different one, and then save it as a windows moviemaker file (.wmv) and upload it to your Youtube site.
Then you add a few key words to your video that people would probably type in when they’re searching, and then you hope that people find and see your video.
There are several categories to upload your video to, like Comedy, film&animation, music, pets&animals, sports, and others. And youtube is one of the new online social communities, so a way to get your videos seen it to interact with other Youtube users, and link to their videos, and hope that they favorite yours too.
Youtube videos have had more than 1.73 BILLION views and there is more than 45 TERABYTES of video online today, as claimed by one of the many sites that endorse Youtube and have hints on how to use it to market your products and online content.
And for just great all around time wasting – you can spend hours - days and weeks just looking at all the videos, to the point of becoming a computer recluse resembling the late Howard Hughes.
The Youtube internet tribe – I like it and am a member.
For Raw Bytes
This is Frank Delaney
(C) 2007 MTA Micro Technology Associates
http://www.mtamicro.com/kpbx.html
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