Heather Ross is back along with Dean Shareski, Rob Wall and Kyle Lichtenwald. They talk about digital safety and identity, digital residents and digital tourists. Unfortunately, Rick and I had to miss the conversation.
I am going to listen now … and you should too!
Enjoy.
Anyone studying social media should have a solid understanding of memes, or how ideas spread over networks. This list of “The 100 Most Iconic Internet Videos” is useful that it gives the general context for each of these viral videos, and gives some insight into how they became so popular (hundreds of millions of views in some cases).
For instance, I have often wondered why Avril Lavigne’s Girlfriend music video was at the top of the Youtube all-time viewed list (but really not THAT interested in doing any research on it). It turns out, the video had a lot of technical help.
Pop-punk songstress Avril Lavigne’s anthem to girlfriend-hating and man-stealing holds the top spot on YouTube for the most viewed video of all time, but it didn’t get there truly organically. Avril’s die-hard fans at AvrilBandAids.com were the first to successfully game YouTube view counts in a massive way by using a complex scheme to cheat the system by opening browsers that refreshed every 15 seconds to repeatedly play the video. They then used the publicity from their cheating scheme to push the clip over the top virally.
Recognizing the power of networks and nodes and understanding why certain messages become more wide-spread than others (whether by merit, messenger, or manipulation) are important media literacy skills.
I gave a keynote today at Canada’s MoodleMoot ’09 in Edmonton, Alberta. Below are the slides and a list of some key links. The talk was given to about 300 in-house delegates and about 80 online (via Elluminate). I will share the recording once/if I get access.
Relevant links in order of appearance:
– Wordle: Make “beautiful” word clouds.
– Networked Teacher: Diagram via Flickr.
– Twitter: Dominant microblogging tool.
– EC&I 831: My open graduate course.
– Open Doctrine: Alec’s own attack ad.
– Network Sherpa: Diagram via Flickr.
– Cathedral and the Bazaar: by Eric S. Raymond.
– The Fifty Tools: by Alan Levine.
– Ustream.tv: Free web streaming.
– Omegle: Talk to strangers.
– Twitter Search via Google: Firefox/GreaseMonkey script to get live Twitter results via Google search.
– Amherst College IT Index: Tracks technologies brought in by students.
– “RiP: A Remix Manifesto“: Excellent open source film on remix/mashup culture.
– An Anthropological Introduction to Youtube: Excellent presentation by Dr. Michael Wesch.
– David After the Dentist: My blog post on this viral video.
– The Show: Ze Frank’s one-year long series feat. “if the earth was a sandwich project“.
– Postsecret: Collaborative art project, people sharing their deepest secrets.
– Amateur: Creative video by Lasse Gjertzen.
– Thru-you: An amazing set of tracks that were created by mashing up youtube videos.
– Grad course trailer: Trailer for EC&I 831.
– Thinning the walls: Visualization of networked teaching.
Update: The Elluminate recording is now available here.
