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Week 9 - Youtube/Podcasts

Thing 31: Discover YouTube; embed a video in your blog

We've spent a lot of time playing with a lot of Web 2.0 tools over the past couple of months. Each of them is powerful in its own right, but in terms of hype and popularity, they pale in comparison to what might arguably be the current king of Web 2.0 -- video-sharing.

And when we talk about video-sharing, of course, we have to talk about YouTube. It is the most popular video-sharing site on the Web (more than 1.2 billion each day in 2009, up from only100 million YouTube videos each day in 2006. In an age when everyone has access to inexpensive digital video cameras, it has redefined the concept of user-generated Web content.

YouTube and other sites like it allow users to easily upload and share videos on the Web. Users can post comments and rate the videos; they can also create YouTube accounts, add videos to their list of "favorites" and create a network of YouTube contacts with whom they can share videos. (Sounds a lot like the photo-sharing site Flickr, doesn't it?)

YouTube also allows users to easily embed videos in their Web sites and blogs. And, governments can have their own "channels" (pages). And believe us, if we can embed these videos and create these channels, anyone can do it.) Check our our own YouTube channel or the Morris County Prosecutor's.

Do some searching around YouTube and see for yourself what the site has to offer. You'll find everything from classic TV commercials and 1980s music videos to historic moments in time and live political debates ... and plenty of weird, weird stuff in between.

Of course, YouTube isn't the only player in the video-sharing world. Other popular sites include Yahoo Videos and Vimeo and more. There are video sharing sites that are "family friendly", too. For the purposes of this assignment, though, we'll stick with YouTube.

Your Thing 30 assignment
Here's what we'd like you to do:

1. Visit YouTube and search for some videos that interest you. Check out the comments and ratings on the videos and see how they work. OPTIONAL: Consider creating a free YouTube account and inviting friends or colleagues to be your YouTube "friend."
2. Embed a video in your blog. Here's how: (a) find a video you like, then look for the the box that's labeled "Embed." It will appear at the right of the video. (b) Copy and paste all of the coding that appears in the "Embed" box. (c) Go to your blog, create a new post, then click on the "Edit HTML" tab. (d) Paste the YouTube coding into the HTML view of your blog post. (e) Click on the "Compose" tab and finish composing your post.

Now you're a YouTube pro! If you have a digital video camera, you might also want to try uploading some of your own personal videos and sharing them with friends and family. It really is a lot of fun!

Thing 32: Discover some search tools for locating podcasts

A podcast is an audio or video broadcast that is distributed over the Internet. What differentiates a podcast from regular streaming audio or video is that the delivery method for podcasts is often done automatically through RSS feeds.

In 2005, "podcast" was named the "Word of the Year" by New Oxford American Dictionary. With the growth of podcasting over the past couple of years, it's easy to see why.

Podcasts take many forms, from short 5- to 15-minute commentaries to much longer in-person interviews or panel group discussions. There’s a podcast out there for just about every interest area. The best part about this technology is that you don’t have to have an iPod or a MP3 player to access them. Since podcasts use the MP3 file format, all you need is a PC (or portal device) with headphones or a speaker.

iTunes, the free downloadable application created by Apple, is the service most often associated with podcasts, but if you don’t have iTunes installed, there are still plenty of options.

For this assignment, you are asked to take a look at some popular podcast directories. Do some exploring on your own and locate a podcast that is of interest to you. Once found, you can easily pull the RSS feed into your Bloglines account as well, so that when new podcasts become available, you’ll be automatically notified of their existence.

Here are some resources that will help with this assignment:

• Podcast tips for iTunes users
• There are many, many podcast directories besides iTunes available. Here are three of the more popular ones that, unlike iTunes, don't require a software download:
  • Podcast.com
  • Podcast Alley
  • Yahoo Podcasts

Thing 31 assignment
Here's what we'd like you to do:

• Take a look at one or two of the podcast directories listed above and see if you can find a podcast that interests you. See if you can find some interesting accounting- or business-related podcasts here like book review podcasts or library news.
• Add the RSS feed for a podcast to your Bloglines account. For complete details on how to add RSS feeds to your Bloglines account, see Thing 22.
• Create a blog post about podcasting. What do you like about podcasts? What do you dislike?

Thing 33: Discover the Government Employees Social Networking site GovLoop.com and the Audio-Blog site called BlogTalkRadio

Thing 33 assignment:
This one is easy:

1. Visit GovLoop.com and listend to a show or two on BlogTalkRadio about Web 2.0 or Government 2.0
2. Create a blog post about which podcast(s) you listened to and what you learned.
3. Blog about how you might use podcasting in your organization.

Thing 34: Final thoughts

We've arrived at the end of our nine-week, 33-assignment program, and we hope you had as much fun and learned as much as we did! Those, after all, were our goals from the start -- to learn and to have fun. Mission accomplished ... we hope!

We have one final assignment to complete:

1. Compose a blog post with your final thoughts about Morris County Learning 2.0. What were your favorite parts of the program? What were your least favorite parts?
2. Be sure to tell us what Web 2.0 technologies you plan to use as part of your everyday life going forward. How will you make use of these technologies?
3. Also, be sure to tell us how we might use these technologies to better serve our members.
4. Finally, give us your suggestions for improving this program. How can we make it better, so that it will be an even more powerful tool for your colleagues?

Thanks for participating ... and for making lifelong learning a priority!