The Art of Community by Bacon Jono

The Art of Community by Bacon Jono

Author:Bacon, Jono [Jono Bacon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: COMPUTERS / Social Aspects / General
ISBN: 9781449379315
Publisher: O'Reilly Media
Published: 2009-07-31T16:00:00+00:00


Note

As a gesture to the makers of the podcast, it is highly recommended that you spread the word about the podcast episode that your community is featured in. You could do this on your website, in your community’s communication channels, and on blogs. This will help build a strong relationship with the podcast, leaving the door open for future content and interviews.

Videos

Online video has become increasingly popular as the Internet has become faster and more accessible. Although a hefty Internet connection is required to suck said videos down onto your computer for viewing, the sheer popularity of services such as YouTube (http://www.youtube.com) and blip.tv (http://blip.tv/) has demonstrated that many do indulge in such audiovisual delights on the Internet.

While some of us may reminisce about the dark days of dial-up Internet access, it is important to remember that many parts of the world still rely on slower dial-up connections. For these folks, videos are simply not an option. As such, before you get too excited to step into the shoes of Steven Spielberg, you should consider how accessible videos are for your community. As an example, if you are reaching out to a community in a remote part of Africa, you may want to rely on another lower-bandwidth medium. In general, my recommendation is to make use of video, but not as a primary medium. Instead, use it to complement your other, more widely accessible resources.

By far the most popular video service at the time of writing is YouTube. The idea is simple: anyone can upload a video and anyone with a web browser equipped with Macromedia Flash can view it. YouTube opened the doors for anyone with a webcam or a cheap video camera to be able to create and publish online video. This has resulted in thousands of hours of freely accessible video hitting the Internet.

This is only part of the value of YouTube, though. Videos on YouTube are hugely discoverable: it is possible to upload a video and have thousands of people stumble across it. This happens because each video on YouTube also displays a list of videos that are related to the one being viewed. This feature alone hugely increases the likelihood of people finding your videos. To do this you need to ensure that you name and add keywords to describe the content of your video in a way that enhances the chances of a certain demographic of user being able to find it. As an example, if you are part of a mapping community, you might want to tag your video with the words “map,” “geography,” “geo,” “location,” and any specific regions that were featured in the video. It is stunning how many people will find your videos, and this is further bolstered by word of mouth and the simplicity of embedding videos in web pages.

Another hugely useful feature of YouTube are channels. These are home pages on YouTube that contain videos from a certain provider (such as an artist, actor, or your community). There



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