YouTube: the budding auteur's wildest dream. Or the public figure's worst nightmare. A place where one's goofiest whims, a moment's gaffe, or personal triumph may live forever in infamy, readily accessible at any time of day by anyone on the planet.
Amongst the online communities I belong to where we are all members of a fandom following the career of a favorite celebrity, YouTube has been a godsend, as people share the wealth of their experiences. Those who are fortunate enough to attend concerts shoot videos and put them up, to be enjoyed by those who are not able to come, as well as provide a nice visual memory of the shows for those who are. I've uploaded many of my own personal videos and viewed countless more. Quality is as varied as the individual shooting the vid, but it can be quite nice to have even a crappy video preserving an event rather than having nothing at all.
For the purpose of this work exercise, I started by looking up the SIL promo video (in which I am a happy cast member :) ) on YouTube and saw what other vids popped up. Everything from well-planned, well-executed promo videos nicely advertising other library systems, to the hasty out-of-focus whims of teenagers chasing their giggling pals through the stacks. And don't forget that timeless classic: "Library Porno." (Actually pretty innocuous.) I've already used YT quite extensively to look for vids for my own personal interest. One feature I like is how links to videos of similar content pop up on the screen to offer similar suggested viewing options, which can lead one to some very interesting discoveries indeed. But then again, it can set you off onto one of those endless internet loops, where you just keep clicking and clicking until you suddenly blearily realize that it's 6 am and time to get ready for work again.
I had not experienced Hulu or Fancast before. On Hulu, I looked up my favorite tall Greek topic and was able to come across some links to interviews with him that I had not yet seen, or hadn't seen in years, which was fun. I am in general not a big TV person, and while at one time a major cinemaphile have kind of burned out on movies. So for Fancast, just for fun I tried looking up an old British series I used to like, "Doctor in the House," and found it. I tried the "Six Degrees" feature to see if it would yield the subsequent seasons of the series, which had been given different names ("Doctor at Large," "Doctor on the Go," etc.) but I had no luck. It may very well be that they are just not available at this time.
I will keep these sites in mind for periodically checking in for things that may be new in regards to my boy CM, but as I mentioned, I am just not a big TV/movie person anymore. I can see how these services could be useful for libraries; from the basic reference aspect as well as providing the opportunity for library programs and services to be put on video and shared. YouTube could become the great promotional tool of the century. Today one upload, tomorrow the world.
And hey... just because I can: ;)
"..any way the wind blows..."
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