Tag Archives: ethnography

Online Video

The Great Social-Media Consumption Project: Open Mic Time!

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As you may know, we have two audiences for WillVideoforFood:

  1. Online-video industry advocates (agencies, bloggers, marketers, media). These people quietly graze for stories, but rarely interact.
  2. The online-video junkies and Nalts watchers. These folks are more active on the web, and usually keep this blog alive with a clever thread of comments– which is more interesting than the blog itself.

Well guess what? It’s “open mic” time for the latter group, and the former group can listen carefully as if they’re watching a focus-group behind a 2-way mirror! Let’s learn how hard-core online junkies daily consume media and interact with friends, colleagues and family.

You see, our media consumption patterns have changed radically in recent months and years. We don’t wake up and watch morning shows, and then check e-mail (unless you’re wifeofnalts). Instead, we consume via a customized, electronic intravanious drip of what and who important to us via RSS, e-mail, YouTube, blogs, and social-networking applications.

I encourage the curious to read the thread below. Anyone can post comments, but I hope all readers will take note of the insights below. I may try to summarize them in a future post:

  • What’s a typical day for you on the computer? What do you most look forward to, and how do you consume the information?
  • What’s changed most in the past year? Do you use e-mail less/more, or have new destinations you love?
  • How do you keep current on videos, news or new sites/tools that interest you? Do you find them, and share them? Or does someone you know help you find them? How on EARTH do you know so quickly when I post a new video? Do you use Google alerts to track certain words (like your name or a company name)?
  • What advice would you have to people who are trying to engage more in Web 2.0, social media, online-video and other communication tools?

I’ll start with my own typical day (see more). You may want to write your own description before reading mine so it doesn’t bias you…

Continue reading The Great Social-Media Consumption Project: Open Mic Time! →

book, Online Video

Statistics and Ethnography of YouTube

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Have you discovered Mediated Cultures (Digital Ethnography by Kansas State University)? Professor Michael Wesch spoke at the Library of Congress, and posted his video of the presentation here. I haven’t been through the whole thing because I didn’t see Nalts in the index. Hah. It’s funny because it’s true. But I did see that Bnessel does appear.

I ran into the blog while trying to research some recent stats about YouTube. While on the crapper this morning, I read in Streaming Media that YouTube streamed 3.8 billion videos and was trying to compute the “market share” my ~1.6 monthly million views. The math confused me and my calculator, so I decided instead to take solace that I represent more than 1% of what Hulu got that month.

Welsch also writes about something called Aethetic Arrest, which is a tricky concept that I won’t even try to summarize. But you know I arrest you with my aesthetics, don’t you? Especially when I find out my daughter just got ear rings yesterday without my having a say in it (video below).

I really like it when people use literary or philosophical terms to describe YouTube videos. It’s such a weird mix. I had someone approach me after my presentation at a Yahoo conference in Toronto and characterize my videos, and now I can’t even remember the words she used (something about bringing absurdity to the benine, but benine isn’t even a word… Maryland, what did she mean?). It reminded me of when we used to study literature in school and I was pretty convinced we were thinking way deeper about the work than the author ever did.

Then she explained to me that the art and the analysis of the art are two different things. And that made sense to me at the time. Except for the fact that she referred to my crap as art. Sorry I’m still in shock about the ear rings.