I’ve been trying to figure out how the new media is changing our world–what gets noticed, how ideas break through the clutter, how we behave differently. There’s alot to get my arms around.

According to The Center for Media Research, more than 9 billion videos were accessed on the Internet in July 2007. Like television, online video has its share of the human version of amazing pet tricks. For example, a man juggling hammers doesn’t sound all that amazing until he gets the hammers to stick nicely in the ceiling– 1, 2, 3.

And  I’m seeing online video being used for a variety of purposes–beyond individual self-expression that can look like a backyard movie from the 1960’s and more than a one-for-one replacement of television:

• Education: The University of California, Berkeley placed 200 full-length videos of class lectures on the Berkeley You Tube channel, with almost a million hits in less than a month. iTunes does something similar with its iTunes U. Randy Pausch’s lecture educates us on life, not just academic topics.
• Entertainment with a human resonance twist: Three-minute video of a woman singing about the life of a mother, to the tune of the William Tell overture.  Passed on to me by several people, I also witnessed a mother showing the video to her kids on her laptop, while staying at a hotel for a karate retreat.
• Marketing:  Humane Society of Boulder provides YouTube video of animals awaiting adoption. According to the Wall Street Journal, Target plans to use YouTube to post a fashion show for this season’s looks.
• Inspiration/motivation: Take a look at this video on free hugs.

What I’m noticing so far:

• Access once restricted by time, place and money is now available with an Internet connection.
• Simple messages that speak to who we are as human beings can reach more people than one could meet in a lifetime, in a matter of days, without prior platforms or stunning credentials.
• Moving images bring alive what words and pictures cannot.

Like any technology, online video can be abused, misused, and brought down to the level of the user’s creativity and imagination (or lack there of.) We’ve seen that with other mediums.

Facebook is a whole other beast that I’m just starting to get educated on.  Marci Alboher, the New York Times blogger about careers, has a post on this topic that has given me a great jump start.