Week #9 - things #17, 18, 19 - podcasts and video

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#17 YouTube
I am familiar with YouTube. YouTube can be fun, educational, entertaining...just like libraries. Since we are such a visual society these days, YouTube is right on track.

It is also great for seeing and/or listening to old music clips, sharing videos, catching up on tv shows, learning a new cooking technique, catching a news clip, or trying your hand at acting and becoming a famous star. It's got a little bit of everything for everybody.

Checked out the "Book" video clip - very funny and so true. I am happy to see students and faculty at the college library where I work still checking out real books. Now if we could just get the text to expire when the book is overdue. Hmmm...

Checked out the Web 2.0 clip - very smart. I spent a lot of time behind-the-scenes on the source page of my former employer's website doing metadata tweaking. It is amazing how one can manipulate her internet page these days.

I already embedded my YouTube video clip earlier in my blog in response to the wiki assignment. The sound was good; the video image was poor quality - very pixelated. And the video was a bad tribute to Star Trek fashion but I love it. I used the "add video" feature and pasted the url from YouTube. I also shared the link from David Allen's GTD.

I was introduced to clips from my now-favorite comedy duo musical group Flight of the Conchords (from HBO) thru a YouTube link off a friend's Facebook page. Gotta love online social networking.

The viewing quality of the clips is not always the best; the sound is pretty good though. It seems like good metatagging is most helpful for people viewing your posted clips. The great thing is - it takes up no space on your site.

There are the copyright issues and borderline porn that YouTube tries to keep under control.

#18 podcasts

I do have iTunes for uploading music to my iPod nano but I'm going to try to go back to my bloglines account and upload glt's poetry radio.

Podcasts seem to be the internet's answer to the dvr or vcr.

I seem to be doing something wrong. I went to my bloglines account and added an RSS feed to glt's poetry radio and now I don't see it in my list of feeds. It said I subscribed. Hmmm... http://www.wglt.org/podcasts/GLT_Poetry_Radio.xml is in my microsoft feeds - should it be there?

Next. . .

#19 Ebooks and audiobooks

Ebooks and audiobooks are not something I have delved into too much.

Let's start with audiobooks. Due to the fact that I live in such a small state, my commute doesn't offer enough time to appreciate an eBook or an audiobook, not to mention I am the driver. I can see myself not paying attention to the road like I should. Reminds me of distracted cellphone user-drivers. I think these work very well if you're a passenger on a long trip.

My hesitance in listening to an audiobook is that I will zone out and not really listen or be distracted by everything around me because I am not holding the book in my hand and turning the pages myself. I like the escape of reading and tuning out the world. Don't think I could do that being read to. And there is always the possibility of someone being a bad reader (suggested by a co-worker who has experienced this).

Reading is a learned skill that is falling by the wayside with children due to the interference of video games, etc.

Ebooks, such as the one's viewed on the Kindle, seem pretty lightweight and convenient. And the text is larger. Probably will be popular when its price is more reasonable and its package is more aesthetic.

The Ebook World Fair site is pretty impressive with its stats. All this information at your fingertips. Amazing dissemination of information. Great resource tool for research available instantly.

LibriVox - chapter a day - seems pretty cool and manageable. It's like getting your newspaper emailed to you every day. You've got mail!! Something to look forward to.

So are eBooks as valuable as traditional print books? Why or why not?

Yes and no.

Yes, because they open up a world of reading to people that may not be exposed to it, due to handicaps and time constraints. There is that instant gratification. And it is available 24/7 and some even for free. As long as the gatekeepers of accuracy and copyright are there.

No, because nothing can replace opening and holding a book in your hands, smelling the pages, viewing the prints or pictures, dogearing (ok maybe not a word)a favorite passage, highlighting or underlining a passage, writing notes in the margin, the ownership of those bound pages (if only temporary)and just imagining the book's history.

However, I'm not saying to write in the library book.

Reading a book is a very tactile experience no matter what the subject.