Videos

From IPL Wiki

Video sharing sites allow users to upload, share, and play videos on the Web.

Contents 1 About 2 How does it work? 3 Best Practices 4 IPL examples 5 Hands on Activity 6 Articles about 7 Feedback and Prize Drawing

About

Although people have long been uploading and posting videos to sites on the Web, one of the problems has been that viewers often had to download the very large video files and then play them on their own computers, which required appropriate software for playing videos in various different video formats. YouTube, launched in 2005, is the most popular of the new online video sharing sites that allow users to upload and share videos playable on the Web and hosted online for free. YouTube allows users to upload various video format types which are automatically converted to a commonly viewable format (Adobe Macromedia Flash); users can upload up to 10 minutes of video in each file. In "An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube," Mike Wesch shows some of the landmark moments in YouTube's history and discusses the evolution of video as communication among the YouTube user community. With the increasing availability of computer webcams, users can often 'talk' to their online audience through videos in a style that has been called 'vlogging' or video blogging; YouTube also has interactive features allowing users to indicate that videos were posted in response to others' videos, as well as to 'favorite' other people's videos. Many alternative video hosting/sharing sites exist including Vimeo (founded in 2004), Blip.tv (founded in 2005) and Ustream.tv (founded in 2006); some video sites focus on supporting particular types of videos, such as TeacherTube (founded in 2007) which hosts educational videos by the K-12 education community.

How does it work?

Video sharing on the Web involves recording images and audio, editing and processing them into appropriate file formats, and hosting them on the Web for viewing. Digital video can be recorded using Web cams, video cameras and camcorders; alternatively, there are screen capturing programs such Jing and CamStudio which will capture digital video of the computer screen. Screen capturing is useful for making 'how to' videos on computing and Web topics as well as "machinima" videos of activity within online games and virtual worlds. Some video creators use Audacity to capture sound files and then add the audio files ('soundtracks') to the video files during editing. Commonly used programs for editing digital video files include Windows Movie Maker, Apple's iMovie and Camtasia.

Video files can be shared on the Internet by downloading or by streaming. Downloading involves saving the entire file on your computer, then opening and viewing it using appropriate viewer software for that type of video file. With streaming, the video file is played over the Internet in a stream, and the viewer watches it as it arrives. Streaming can include previously recorded video files as well as live-broadcasted events or 'webcasts.'

There are many video file formats to choose from when creating video streams. The most common formats are:

• Windows Media (.wmv)
• RealMedia (.rm or .ram)
• Quicktime (.mov)
• MPEG (in particular MPEG-4) (.mp4)
• Adobe Flash Video (.flv or.f4v), sometimes embedded within ShockWave Flash (.swf) files

Your choice of video file format may depend on how you plan to share or host your video files. YouTube, for example, accepts uploaded video files in QuickTime .MOV, Windows .AVI, or .MPG files, and particularly recommends videos in .MP4 format at 640x480 resolution for best results. Completed videos can be uploaded for online hosting at Youtube, Blip.tv, Vimeo, UStream.tv and Teachertube among others.

Best Practices

• Stephens, Michael. Tame The Web: YouTube and Libraries http://tametheweb.com/category/youtube-libraries/
• InfoTubey Awards http://infotubey.com/
• Cornell University Library http://www.youtube.com/user/olinlibrary
• Orange County Public Library http://www.youtube.com/user/oclsvideos
• New York Public Library http://www.youtube.com/user/NewYorkPublicLibrary
• Library of Congress http://www.youtube.com/user/LibraryOfCongress
• Library of Congress Webcasts http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/

IPL examples

The Internet Public Library has a variety of videos available on YouTube:

• Internet Public Library on Youtube

These include interview and 'how to' videos, as well as favorited videos by other users; there is also an example of what a video created on Animoto looks like when posted to YouTube.

Hands on Activity

• Activity #1: First, create a short video. Use your webcam, digital video camera, or capture activity on your computer using a screen capture program such as Jing or CamStudio ; alternatively, you can make a video out of digital photos using Animoto. If you are using a screen capture program that does not record sound, you can capture sound simultaneously using Audacity. (With Animoto, you will be able to select a music soundtrack; note though that you are limited to 30 seconds of video on a free account as in this IPL example Animoto video.) Second, you'll likely want to edit your video with a video editor such as Windows Movie Maker, Apple's iMovie or Camtasia. If you plan to upload your video to YouTube, you will want to cut the length to 10 minutes or less for each video and to export/produce/save the video in MPEG4 (.mp4) format. Finally, upload your video to a Web content sharing site such as Youtube, Blip.tv, Vimeo, UStream.tv or Teachertube. To upload, you'll first need to create an account; for Animoto and Jing, during the setup or production process you'll be prompted to establish accounts at a content sharing site (Animoto allows uploading to YouTube or Smugmug while Jing works with Screencast.) Lastly, play your video online to see how it looks and sounds. Many content sharing sites will also have a way for you to copy html code that allows you to 'embed' your video into your own online blog or webpage if you wish.

• Activity #2: Sign up for a free account and explore a video content sharing site such as YouTube, Vimeo, Blip.tv, Ustream.tv and TeacherTube to see what features it has for users. Some things to look for would be the ability to "favorite" videos of other users, comment on and rate others' videos, create 'playlists' of related videos, and more. Try some of these features out, such as 'subscribing' to a channel or 'favoriting' videos, to see how they work.

• Activity #3: Create a remixed video. Using the Creative Commons, you can search for freely downloadable images, videos, and audio/music that has been licensed for distribution, remixing and reuse (click on the blip.tv link in Creative Commons search for video, Jamendo for music and Flickr for images). Be sure to copy down the creators' names to give appropriate credit in your video to those artists; look for anything on the item that tells you about 'rights' or 'attribution' to give credit properly (a link in Flickr, for example, could say 'some rights reserved' - click on that link to learn more about use and attribution for that item).

Articles about

• Hickok, John. (2002) Web library tours: using streaming video and interactive quizzes. Reference Services Review 30(2): 99-111.
• Islam, Ramona and Porter, Leslie (2008). Perseverance and Play: Making a Movie for the YouTube Generation. Urban Library Journal, 15(1). http://lacuny.cuny.edu/ulj/1501/islam.pdf
• Michel, Jason P., Hurst, Susan and Revelle, Andrew. (2009) Vodcasting, iTunes U, and Faculty Collaboration. E-JASL: The Electronic Journal of Academic and Special Librarianship, 10 no. 1 http://southernlibrarianship.icaap.org/content/v10n01/michel_j01.html
• Olson, Erik. (2009) 6 Things To Know About Video For The Web - Part 1 http://www.viget.com/inspire/6-things-to-know-about-video-for-the-web/
• Olson, Erik. (2009) 6 Things To Know About Video For The Web - Part 2 http://www.viget.com/inspire/6-things-to-know-about-video-for-the-web-part-2/
• Porter, Michael and King, David Lee. (2008) Video in Libraries. Public Libraries 47 no. 6 : 19-21
• Webb, Paula L. (2007) YouTube and libraries: It could be a beautiful relationship. College & Research Libraries News 68 no. 6 : 354-355.

Feedback and Prize Drawing

To give feedback to the IPL about the 15 Things and to register for the prize drawing, please visit: http://vll.ipl.org/15things/index.html

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