YouTube University...only on YouTube!

I've just seen this from fallofautumndistro...



Need I say more? Only that I probably charge less than he does!

Seriously, while this is brilliant parody it never ceases to amaze me how many people struggle to understand the intricacies of YouTube. No one knows it all - although Nalts seems to have it pretty figured out and Renetto will tell you all the problems that need fixing! But the thing I've noticed is, almost without exception, people on YouTube are prepared to talk. They'll discuss the site, give you tips and predictions for where online video is going. So if you're feeling in need of some education just ask!

Annoyed by money-grabbing Old Media

I spent the weekend in Sarajevo. My laptop stayed at home and there's no 3G network over there, hence the silence on TheGutenbergEffect. Strolling down Maršala Tita, one of the main shopping streets, I saw a sign saying 'Journalism Development Group' with 'New York University' written in their purple underneath.

It's no secret I love New York so that's what grabbed my attention. But then I remembered back in the early nineties I read an article in The Times that openned my eyes to how wonderful writing could be. Why it was this article I don't know, why was it not Shakespeare or Keats or Pepys? It just wasn't. It was Bernard Levin and an article titled: Satan laughs at Yugoslavia.

I have the cutting buried somewhere so on arriving home I went to dig it out. Then I paused and thought in this day and age it's more appropriate to google it. Nothing. To be fair I'd forgotten it was Levin who wrote it. I knew it was The Times and I knew the headline. So I searched thier online archive. Success. But success at a price, an unexpectedly, annoyingly, inexplicably high price.

Ten quid for access to ten archived articles! Maybe that's not a lot but in Bosnia ten quid bought a nice dinner for my wife and I. I wasn't about to spend that on access to one article I want, one I know is hiding somewhere in our attic. So for now I'll revisit the articl in my memory, until I find the time to mount a physical search.

As for The Times and their unexceptably awkward archive system. Perhaps it's time to write a letter to the editor!

If they're that stupid...!

'Youngsters Unaware Of Web Vetting' shouts the headline, as if pronouncing some great technological injustice. The reality? It's merely describing a general lapse in common sense. Alongside the myth that the web is anonymous lives the lie that you can delete things! Once published you have commited your thoughts and actions - in word, photo or video - to the collective consciousness, probably for the rest of earth's existence.

This isn't a problem if you've nothing to be ashamed of, but who's really in that position? Sky's article talks of the potential issues this raises for university or job applicants. Those mundane examples have nothing of the allure of 'seeing' Obama's checkered drug history or the moment when Bill did not inhale! As the implications of greater transparency grip society we have to choose: judge as we would not like to be judge or reassess our appeciation of grace, mercy and forgiveness.