Thing 20: You Tube & Video Sharing

My very first post contains an embedded video that I made last summer, while cycling along the Centennial Trail. I've made a variety of small videos, mostly having to do with bicycling, but also one showing a very clever cast-on method for knitting a hat from the center out. I tried to demonstrate the cast-on in a knitting shop, but developed stage fright, which caused my hands to shake so bad that I could barely do the steps. Making the little movie in the privacy of my dining room, and then sharing it via You Tube was a whole lot easier for me!

Embedding video from YouTube (or many of the other sites) is extremely easy. Usually, to the right of the video, or underneath it, is a link you can click to share the video. From that you can either e-mail a link to a friend, or you can copy some HTML to "embed" the video into your own blog. (You can do the same thing with slideshows from Flickr).

Here is one that I'm quite proud of, because it was created by my thirteen-year-old daughter:



Doesn't that make you want to go and read this book?

And that is one way that I think libraries can really use YouTube. Get teens (and other ages as well) to create little video reviews of books, and post them, then link to them through the library website. Teen film-making classes, video tutorials for using databases, or software could also be very handy.

Besides YouTube, there is one other video sharing site that I like to visit. One of the cool things about Vimeo, is that many of their videos can be downloaded. This makes it possible for me to save and play the videos on my iPhone. The filmmaker has control, so can allow download or not.
There are ways to download YouTube videos as well, but at least with the Mac platform, it requires separate software.

Here's a Vimeo video that I particularly enjoy:

Gorge Fog from Andrew Curtis on Vimeo.