YouTube Becoming Increasingly Vital Platform for News

I was reading this article on Mashable and thought it was interesting enough to repost it on our blog.

by Lauren Indvik

For many, YouTube is a beloved repository for humorous content, how-tos and general entertainment. However, YouTube is increasingly becoming a platform for news.

For four months between January 2011 to March 2012, the most searched-for terms on YouTube were related to news events, according to a Pew Research Center report released Monday.

The most popular videos on the web’s third most-visited site concerned natural disasters or political upheaval since videos with “intense visuals” tend to perform best, says Pew. The Japanese earthquake and tsunami was the most popular news event on the video network: In the week following the disaster (March 11 to 18), the 20 most-viewed videos related to the tragedy were viewed more than 96 million times.

The elections in Russia and unrest in the Middle East were the second and third most popular news topics, respectively. If the focus on international events seems unusual, remember that 70% of YouTube’s traffic comes from outside the U.S.

The footage itself was mixed — 58% of those included in the survey were edited; the remaining 42% was raw footage. Unlike much of the rest of the YouTube, personalities did not play a large role in a video’s success; no one person was featured in more than 5% of the most popular videos in the “News & Politics” section of YouTube between January 2011 and March 2012. Length, too, varied. The median video length was 2 minutes and 1 second, far longer than the average segment on local TV news, which is 41 seconds, and shorter than the 2-minute-and-23-second average national network evening newscasts allocate to a single story.

Both citizens and professionals are playing a role in video creation and distribution. A little more than half (51%) came from news organizations — or, at least, bore the logos of news organizations. Thirty-nine percent of the most-viewed videos came from citizens. Five percent came from corporate and political groups, and the sources of the remaining five percent could not be identified.

In many cases, the videos and their distribution were collaborative. As Pew notes, “a complex, symbiotic relationship has developed between citizens and news organizations on YouTube, a relationship that comes close to the continuous journalistic ‘dialogue’ many observers predicted would become the new journalism online.” Citizens are creating and posting their own videos, and even responsible for uploading more than a third of the content from news organizations. News organizations, in turn, are including citizen-produced content in their own reporting. The interplay, Pew observes, is creating a new kind of television news.

The collaboration is promising, but issues still exist. Although YouTube has guidelines for content attribution, not everyone adheres to them, nor do they offer a solution for every scenario. News organizations sometimes post citizen-captured video without clear attribution; in turn, citizens are repurposing copyrighted material without permission. All too often, the source of a video cannot be identified altogether, creating opportunity for manufactured or even falsified information to spread.

What’s perhaps most interesting about news-watching on YouTube is the way it enables consumers to set their own “on-demand” news agenda. The Japanese earthquake and tsunami registered among the most-viewed news subjects for three consecutive weeks following the disaster, for example.

And what does that mean for news organizations? Lots of positives, says Pew. YouTube offers considerable opportunities to grow one’s audience, brand and ad revenue — a thing perhaps best exemplified by YouTube’s revenue-sharing scheme with the newswire Reuters. It’s also a rich source for raw video footage.

For a deeper dive into the findings, see Pew’s full report here.

Fences, A Desktop Icon Organizer

If you're losing the battle over your workspace to your desktop icons, a secret weapon is one click away. Fences quickly and easily organizes your icons into separate windows on your desktop, either automatically or manually. Labeling these boxes helps keep programs, photos, files, and Web links together, or you might choose to group by project rather than by file type. You'll be able to drag and drop fences (and the shortcuts within them) anywhere on your desktop.

You can also drag and drop shortcuts anywhere, and resize the fence. A scroll bar pops up so you can find your icons in fences that you've resized to be smaller than their contents. In addition to sorting shortcuts, you can hide them completely by double-clicking the desktop; double-clicking again resurfaces them. Fences helpfully lets you exclude select fences from hiding. Customization tools can change the color scheme or take snapshots of your layout at any time, in case you'd like to switch among them without completely redoing your arrangement.

It would be nice in creating a new fence that was smoother and took fewer steps, and that you could create rules for certain files types to automatically download into specific fences. Fences is great for anyone looking for a solution to desktop clutter.

For more information and/or to download the free version, visit:

http://www.stardock.com/products/fences/information.asp

Operating Systems: Windows XP/Windows Vista/Windows 7

2012 Library Blog Winners

Salem Press once again surveyed the library blog landscape in search of exceptional thinking, writing, and information.

General Library Blog Winner In the Library with the Lead Pipe General Library Blog Honorable Mention Stephen's Lighthouse In the Library with the Lead Pipe was a clear winner of the public vote as well as a favorite among this year's judges, who appreciated the blog's cast of diverse writers and wide range of topics and perspectives. In the words of one judge, "almost every post is gold." Stephen's Lighthouse didn't go unnoticed either. The judges thought highly of Stephen's "top-level, unique, and pervasive awareness of the library world and of issues outside librarianship that nonetheless impact it." Academic Library Blog Winner Musings About Librarianship Academic Library Blog Honorable Mention No Shelf Required® Sue Polanka's No Shelf Required® received a strong response from the public and accolades from the judges for sharp and objective coverage of ebook news of interest to libraries. (The blog also won first place in Academic category in 2010.) Aaron Tay's Musings About Librarianship was praised for high-quality original coverage as well as unique perspectives on how to implement emerging technologies in academic libraries. "A stellar example of a dedicated librarian, sharing his work with others with the idea that we can replicate his successes at our own libraries." Public Library Blog Winner Librarian by Day Public Library Blog Honorable Mention David Lee King Two well-cultivated blogs rose to the top in the Public category, both written by librarians with large, dedicated followings. "David Lee King is one of the most trusted names in the library geek world. Even if he is blogging a conference, people are reading," said one judge. "Bobbi Newman is a spitfire and thank goodness for that," said another judge. The judges' votes remained evenly split, but the public vote went in Bobbi's favor. Her Librarian by Dayblog came close to winning in this category in 2011. School Library Blog Winner The Adventures of Library Girl School Library Blog Honorable Mention Cathy Nelson's Professional Thoughts The Adventures of Library Girl was the big winner of the public vote in the School Library category. Most of the judges agreed with the public, calling Jennifer LaGarde's voice "personable" and "enthusiastic" and her posts "chock-full of good ideas." "You can tell she's a go-getter," said one judge. But many were also very impressed with Cathy Nelson's strong voice and focus on multimedia. "Other school librarians will definitely get inspired from reading about Cathy's top-notch work." Special Librarian Blog Winner davidrothman.net Special Librarian Blog Honorable Mention bizologie The Special category was the most competitive this year. All four nominees receiving a strong response from the public. In the end, it wasdavidrothman.net that won the most votes from the judges. They found David's posts thoughtful, forward-thinking, and amusing. In the words of one judge, "His pithy and direct commentary makes me laugh out loud more often than I dare admit." The honorable mention went to bizologie, which scored points for focused coverage and strong personalities of the bloggers. Quirky Library Blog Winner Screwy Decimal Quirky Library Blog Honorable Mention This is What a Librarian Looks Like Both the public and the judges showed enthusiasm for Screwy Decimal for its great name, its good sense of humor, the patron quotes, and relevancy of the topics. "Rita Meade is hilarious. Full stop. Well worth reading just to remind yourself of the lighter side of what we do," said one judge. And while Screwy Decimal re-affirms what "quirky" is all about through humor and wit, This Is What a Librarian Looks Like added a new dimension to "quirky" that didn't go unnoticed. Judges praised the blog for its great user-generated look at librarianship. "A kaleidoscope of faces that shows just how diverse our profession really is." Academic Institution Library Blog Winner Scholarly Communications @ Duke Academic Institution Library Blog Honorable Mention Facts from the Stacks The clear winner of the public vote in the academic institution category was Duke University's Scholarly Communications @ Duke (which has been nominated for an award in the past). The judges acknowledged the blog's "super knowledgeable" posts, "remarkable" quality of writing, transparency, and the overall effort to build a readership. Bellvue's Facts from the Stacksreceived a significant number of votes from the judges as well, who praised the blog's friendly tone, accessible writing, and reliable information about the library's holdings. Public Institution Library Blog Winner Eleventh Stack Public Institution Library Blog Winner Infoblog The absolute winner of the judges' vote in the public institution category was Carnegie Library's Eleventh Stack. According to one judge, "The writers' witty personalities (and their fascinating interests) shine through and show that this library is run by a group of intriguing (and dare I say 'fun') librarians." According to another judge, "I want to steal all their ideas and replicate them on my own library's blog." Another example of what a public library blog for patrons should look like is East Baton Rouge Parish Library's InfoBlog, which received a lot of support from the public.

PDF Convertor, Part II

I had mentioned an online PDF Convertor

( http://rppltech.blogspot.com/2012/01/pdf-convertor.html)

back in January 2012. It converted Office documents and other formats to PDF.

It would be good also to have something that could convert PDFs to Word or Excel or PowerPoint files. With that in mind, there's a free PDF Convertor that can do that.

Go to http://www.pdfconverter.com/freetools/ to try out.

Google's Tribute to Bob Moog

Google is using their homepage today to celebrate the 78th birthday of Robert "Bob" Moog, the inventor of the Moog synthesizer, an electronic musical instrument that changed the sound of music.

People have a chance to play with a simple virtual synthesizer. By clicking on the piano keys, or by using a computer's keyboard, visitors can play their own tunes and experiment with different synthesizer sounds. When the logo is clicked on, the white keys can be played using the row on the computer keyboard beginning with the TAB key, and the black keys with the row of numbers above.

The sound controls are shown in four sections, above the keyboard, echoing Moog's modular design. The first section contains volume controls. The large knob changes the master volume, and the three knobs to its left control the treble, middle, and bass levels, respectively.

The second module contains the oscillator controls. Google's synthesizer contains three different oscillators, all of which generate "raw" waveforms. The first column of three knobs control the octave range of each oscillator, creating sounds ranging from the extremely deep and barely audible to ear-piercingly high and sharp. Each of the three knobs can be controlled independently. Experimentation with these controls may lead to interesting results. The two large knobs in the oscillator controls allow you to change the tuning of two of the oscillators. This acts in a similar way to loosening or tightening a string on a guitar. Finally, the column of three knobs on the right side of the oscillator controls will allow you to choose different waveforms for the oscillators. These can also dramatically affect the shape of the sound.

The third module contains the filters. Once more, these will greatly influence the sound of the synthesizer. The two knobs in the upper left and the lower left corners of the filters module shape the sound by cutting off the highest frequencies and emphasizing certain tones. The knob between them controls portamento, or glide: the degree to which the synthesizer will "slide" between played notes. The other three knobs in the filters selection will apply more modifiers to the sound. Play with these and see what you come up with!

The final module, envelope, will change the overall shape and length of the sound. The top envelope knob controls "attack," or how abruptly a tone will begin to play. The second knob controls "release," which determines how long it will take for silence to resume after a key is released. The last knob controls "sustain," or how loud the note will be when it is held down.

It also contains a four-track recording device that will allow you to capture your masterpiece and share it with friends.

http://www.google.com

To view past interactive Google Doodles, click the link below:

http://www.google.com/doodles/search?query=interactive

Travel 2.0 ----- Coming Soon...

What are Infographics? / Pinterest Infographic

You may have heard the term 'Infographic' lately. It seems like they're being used everywhere now a days, but what are they?

According to Infographic Labs:

Information graphics or infographics are graphic visual representations of information, data or knowledge.

What does this mean? It takes all those plain statistics and brings in a visual element. It makes statistics look fun and more understandable.

So let's take a look at an Infographic on Pinterest!