YouTube broadcast live yesterday with the “Project for Awesome,” a grassroots charity event spawned by John and Hank Green (see website).
Several hundred videos and millions of comments supported a collection of charities, and reminded viewers that the YouTube community remains alive. Check out the YouTube channel and Nice Peter’s Spanglish love song (the top-rated of dozens of videos). As of yesterday the raffles alone raised more than $90,000! Kittens are awesome.
Here’s my video, which explains the initiative a bit… and auctions off my “Beyond Viral In My Pants” book.
It was an awesome show and an awesome turn out. Only one thing could have made it better, if unclenalts was there.
BC
Thank you, Kev, for helping to get the word out there. DFTBA (although you rarely do)!
– Jason
I know it’s a good thing and all, but for some reason the whole P4A rubs me the wrong way. Seems more like a massive publicity stunt than an effective charity event. Maybe it just seems cheesy and superficial compared to other much more focused and successful online community fundraising I’ve seen before.
I think it’s a good idea, but the last couple years it seems to be so much more about the VlogBrothers than about charity, probably because everyone is choosing different charities and John and Hank are the unifying element. The gaming of the YouTube system is the other thing that bothers me too.
Not all of the videos irked me (I thought Greg Benson’s was really good), just the ones that felt like a part of the nerdfighter circlejerk.
@Alexis
THANK YOU.
This event is no different than their “conference” that had earlier this year. The vlog brothers are glory hounds trying to be the Penny Arcade of online video.
I also got the sense this went from grassroots and “underground” to a bit more commercial in 2010. But I can’t think of anything I’d have done differently to avoid it. If I was John/Hank I’d welcome YouTube’s spotlight of it. So while I continue to awe at John, Hank, and fellow nerdfighters… I definitely think there were a few that did it for exposure.