YouTube Turns the Audience into Producers

MC101s were in high spirits on Monday evening as we attended a Fireworks Concert at the Hollywood Bowl. This pic was taken in the Bowl Museum, where the students found some of the answers to their field trip assignment.

According to a recent National Public Radio story, YouTube.Com has become yet another online success story, seemingly overnight. YouTube users post videos of varying quality and then tell their friends where to find the videos. And some of those friends post their own videos, perhaps as a response. The making, showing, recommending, and commenting on these videos is a prime example of social computing.

Although most of these videos are seen by only a few people, some of them are watched by a shockingly large numbers. There is a strong viral aspect to the very successful YouTube videos: someone "discovers" a video, emails 10 friends about it, who collectively email 75 friends about it, who email 600 friends, and so on. Some YouTube videos have over a million viewings.