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The YouTube Community received a “Foundation Award” from the International Radio and Television Society Foundation. This is a prestigious award that has been given to such accomplished broadcasters as David Letterman, Donald Trump and Katie Couric (who attended the Nov. 16 awards breakfast in NYC to present an award to CBS Correspondent Kimberly Dozier).
I’m honored to have received this award on behalf of the YouTube Community. Here’s a video announcing the award, and showing some of the highlights of the event. I’m humbled, and grateful that YouTube passed the award to us. I’ll be sending the glass trophy (once I super glue it back together) to other YouTubers, and hopefully it will circulate the globe in videos.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvIz2k_eTSI[/youtube]
Okay. I’ve been urging YouTube to share advertising revenue since before I started this blog a year ago. They finally decided to do so today.
This was one of WillVideoforFood’s top 10 predictions for 2007. Needless to say, we’re very excited (see our video reaction). But why now? Top 7 theories.
Martin Sorrell, chairman and chief executive of advertising giant WPP Group, recently used the term “Frenemy” to describe Google.
But David Eun, Google’s vice president of content partnerships, is fostering a “friend not foe” approach, according to the LaTimes. Eun, the former NBC and Time Warner Inc. executive, is Google’s ambassador to the television, movie, publishing and local-media industries.
Trust him, folks. This GooTube Conspiracy thing is all in your head.
Oh- here’s the season opener if you’re following it. Subscribe here.
YouTube is ending 2006 with dozens of technical support problems, and customer service that is reminiscent of AOL when it had a virtual monopoly. In fact, YouTubers have organized a “Bed In” to bring the company’s attention to problems. Ironically many can’t participate because the site, for days, hasn’t accepting videos in a timely manner. My videos in the past 24 hours have been held in a cue despite confirmation messages. And YouTube’s “recent” section shows that there are gaps of time where very few videos made it live (relative to the massive amounts that are uploaded typically).
Technical problems in the past weeks have included:
In recent months I’ve come to appreciate YouTube and the powerful community it has fostered. I’ve met people via YouTube and have collaborated with fellow YouTubers on The GooTube Conspiracy (which mocks the power accumulated by Google and YouTube).
But it’s perplexing how indifferent YouTube has appeared despite this technical fiasco. The response is less excusable than the technical snags:
This is a stark contrast from the way other video sites handle problems. Revver has been one of the less stable sites, but uses its blogs and forums to update users. blip.tv’s founders answer problems via their cell phones at dinner.
YouTube has obviously been swarmed with users, videos and customer-support and technical inquiries. And there’s a certain amount of this that can be explained by rapid growth. But some of these issues can be addressed simply by communicating. But YouTube appears to be sweeping the issues under the carpet.
Here’s hoping the site has a New Year’s Resolution to stabilize its technology and improve its communication with users. The community is tight, but if there was a viable alternative I’d suspect an exile of many users in 2007. Especially since many of the traditional portal sites are beginning to recognize the power of community, and rapidly developing tools to foster it.
I pulled out my crystal ball this morning, and I’m predicting the most significant online-video highlights of 2007.
I’ll be citing these selectively at the end of 2007 (only those in which I was right).
Okay I didn’t use a crystal ball. This video tells a better story about the process I used to arrive at these today.
Here’s my new holiday song. I think it’s going to be a life-long classic. The 12 Days of Web 2.0 Christmas. Feel free to sing along. I’ve provided the lyrics. I spared you from the full, repetitive version.
We’ve issued a press release on the GooTube Conspiracy, and the “participative storytelling” has taken some interesting directions even since we wrote the release.
Here’s the creative challenge. The various plot branches are missing a trunk, as one of the videographers mentioned last night. Some of the characters — who submitted videos unsolicited — are asking for direction because they want to ensure their videos are relevant. So now it seems to want to shift from an organic to a more prescriptive storyline.
With that, we’re assembling some of the core players to develop the motive, prime plot and roles of individual characters. We’re using Stickam to brainstorm, and it’s probably one of the wildest projects on which I’ve ever worked. Most of us don’t know each other and are on totally different timelines… a woman in Paris who stays up to 6 a.m., a waiter in NYC that works the night shift, a PR professional that has a day job, and a high school teacher. Basic practicalities set in. Today I needed to update the storyline without being in the same location as one character. So he recorded his part and e-mailed me the audio file. We’re not really together in this clip called “Sleepless & Confused.”
This will eventually reach a peak, and we want to end it before it gets old. As Highlander says: “Better to burn out than to fade away.” In the meantime, we’re trying to focus the various contributors so that there’s a progressive storyline. It needs to build to something interesting and then have conflict and resolution. Dang- maybe I should have gone to film school instead of getting this stupid MBA.
If any of you have ideas, or know someone that’s interested in helping develop a “blueprint” of a plot… we’re all ears! Naturally we can’t pay because none of us have figured out how to make a dime on this. Maybe a sponsor will surface?
I’ve embedded my favorite video of the series. Here’s a guy that I would never have met, and we spoke at lunch yesterday for the first time.
The GooTube Conspiracy is becoming interactive. If you’re new to this, here’s the story. Steven Chen and Chad Hurley kidnapped me for reasons I can’t explain. My theory is that I did some anti-YouTube rants back in the 1970s and someone told them. Now I’ve been “on the run” from them. On the advice of some viewers I’ve now abandoned my car and I’m on foot.
I’ve gotten some video responses to help me get to the bottom of this. To catch up on the series, here’s the collection so far.
These are not shot in advance- I’m in as much suspense about the next video as the subscribers.
I just parked the domain www.gootubeconspiracy.com in case YouTube takes away my account.
I’ve only recently discovered The YouTube Guide (YTGuide). Each episode is hosted by a YouTube person who identifies some of their favorite video posters. The channel was started by Jim (SuicidalPassion) and is currently edited by Vicky (LestyoubeJudged). YouTube Guide, says Vicky, is “owned by all and the intent to feature lesser known people on YouTube.”
Recent guest host, Holly Haynes, featured my “Bawling is Beautiful” in her recent episode. For reasons I can’t explain, this was more exciting to me than appearing on a television network. There’s something so simple about Holly’s videos. She’s a mother of two and an ovarian cancer surviver. See her other YouTube profile, Haynes1994, (which I first thought was another LonelyGirl15 sponsored by Haynes) and her Xanga page by clicking here.
It’s the “TV Guide” of YouTube, and the gang is entertaining us while helping us find other video creators.