Virtual Theaters for Documentaries

SnagFilms is a great idea for getting documentary films in front of more people, writes Walt Mossberg. It's a new service that allows anyone with a blog, a Web site, or even a page on a social-networking site, to open a virtual movie theater and show these documentaries, free.

[via The Wall Street Journal]

Toddlers Get Their Own YouTube

Totlol is a brand new community-moderated video website designed to be enjoyed by those between the ages of 6 months and 6 years. WebPro News reports.

Its video embeddings are based on the YouTube API, making for a customized, integrated look.

Totlol’s reads: "Online video is a great new experience, and new parents discovered that showing their tots videos on the computer screen is a great way to spend time together. So they head to the leading video websites.”

Making Money, the How-To Way

Some 25 years after “Jane Fonda’s Workout” topped the home-video charts in the United States, Americans’ fascination with instructional videos has shifted to the Internet, where a virtually unlimited amount of shelf space guarantees there is something for everyone. The New York Times reports.

"Learning how to turn a flashlight into a laser is not a top priority for most people. Yet Kip Kedersha’s step-by-step instructional video that teaches how to do just that has been seen online by more people (1.88 million) than live in Manhattan (about 1.6 million).

Mr. Kedersha’s online library of 94 videos includes tips on how to chill a Coke in two minutes, simulate a gunshot wound and start up a PC quickly.

Many of the clips have been played hundreds of thousands of times, turning Mr. Kedersha into the top earner on Metacafe, a video-sharing Web site that pays the makers of popular videos. In little more than a year, the site has written him checks totaling $102,000.

... Plenty of entrepreneurs and financiers are hoping that the wave Mr. Kedersha has begun to ride is a long way from cresting. In the last two years, investors have put tens of millions of dollars into start-up companies with names like WonderHowTo.com, VideoJug, Howcast, ExpertVillage and Graspr, which are all hoping to become the YouTube of how-to video clips.

These start-ups have attracted former television executives and veterans of Internet giants like Google, Yahoo and MySpace."

WineTasteTV

Broadcasting&Cable reports on the launch of a new online video site, WineTaste TV.

"The site will offer wine and wine-related products via a partnership with igourmet.com and will feature a variety of on-demand videos on everything from wine tastings and reviews to interviews and winery tours, as well as blogs and coverage of events."

Flickr Video Launches

Flickr users can now add video clips alongside their photos, a much requested and much anticipated feature that has been promised for over a year. TechCrunch reports.

"Flickr video is not a YouTube clone by any means. The goal is not to have people upload long videos or clips of copyrighted material. To reinforce that, videos can be only 90 seconds in length and 150MB in size (however these limitations may be changed later). "

Teachers Tap Video-Sharing In the Classroom

Video in the classroom has evolved since the days when teachers wheeled in film projectors on carts. More teachers are using online video-sharing sites modeled after Google Inc.'s YouTube to engage with students. And video is no longer a one-way channel of communication; students are participating in the creation of videos, too. The Wall Street Journal reports.

On TeacherTube, educators share material, such as instructional math videos, with classrooms around the world. Another site, SchoolTube, mainly hosts videos produced by students in class with the help of their teachers.

But while video-sharing sites can help capture students' attention, critics say such services will have difficulty gaining wide support from school administrators, who often block access to Internet sites like YouTube."

ShoeTube

Spotted on Springwise, a new web sharing community video site about shoes, called you guess it, ShoeTube. To most women, and I'm one of them, this makes perfect sense.

Nokia to save planet

Nokia has announced that it will be sponsoring a new website - Connect2Earth.org - launched by two of the word's biggest environmental outfits, the WWF and IUCN. The site is aimed at young web users with a platform for videos, pictures and written contributions to environmental debate.

[via Tech.co.uk]

New York City Ballet launches own YouTube Channel

New York City Ballet has announced the launch of its own YouTube channel.

Here you will find interviews, preview videos, rehearsal and performance footage, which because of rights issues, cannot be found anywhere else on the web.

[via danza ballet]

deviantART: YouTube for artists

Spotted on Crave, a YouTube for artists: deviantART.

DeviantArt gets 1.5 billion page views a month, making it one of the most popular Web sites that many people have never even heard of.

Despite the name, only a fraction of the art on the site is what might be labeled deviant. In reality, the site boasts millions of user-uploaded works of art, everything from photography to 3D digital conceptual art to old-fashioned canvas-and-paint portraits.

Think of it as a YouTube for artists trying to show their own work. Pieces can be viewed, commented on, even added to a user's own gallery of favorites. The range of work defies characterization, but there is a heavy dose of cartooning and fantasy art as well as some adult content, which is blocked for unregistered users.

... The site's goal, in a nutshell, is to democratize and inspire art."

Surgery TV

Surgery TV launches online featuring extended clips of medical procedures in 5 to 10 minute segments.

Eyelash transplants, adjustable breast implants, and regrowing fingers: Those are just some of the cutting-edge medical procedures streamed online.

Broadcasting & Cable via NewTeeVee

YouTube for Smart People

The New York Times profiles Big Think, a video startup launching today that bills itself as "a YouTube for ideas." Reel Pop reports.

"The site's organized around meta concepts -- religion, politics, business, etc. -- and displays interviews with accomplished citizens, e.g. John McCain, Richard Branson, Calvin Trillin, etc.

Instead of staid, boring reels, Big Think splices the interviewee responses together to form a pastiche centered on a single question: Who are we, What can we learn from Brutus, why did Sept. 11 happen, and more.

The site uses a novel interviewing method that removes the interviewer (voice and all) from the process, then overlays a peppy soundtrack. Very watchable."

ShoeTube.tv. New Online Video Channel Devoted To Footwear

ShoeTube.tv, a web channel devoted to nothing but shoes - okay, there will be a little bit about boots, too - is scheduled to launch on Valentine's Day.

Programming for the site includes regular segments such as "Pimp my Pump," for example, allows women to show off their own shoe embellishments; "Walk on By" features woman-on-the-street videos shot in major U.S. cities, and "Real or Deal" invites contestants to decide whether a designer shoe is real or a knock-off.

... A number of fashion writers have been hired to blog about shoes and to add a social network element and create forums, so that "viewers can comment as well as post their own shoe videos, YouTube-style.

[via Online Media Daily. Image from Angellica2017 Diary]

Educators get TeacherTube

A former Texas principal launched TeacherTube this year so educators could upload their students' videos and share creative lessons while developing an online community.

The site boasts about a million page views a month, drawn in by rapping math teachers and wacky experiments.

More than 9,000 videos have been uploaded and watched by about 40,000 users, including a growing number of New York City educators.

"TeacherTube is a great way to celebrate student work," said Jeblin DelaCruz, who has helped several city public schools create and upload videos. "They love it. It's a MySpace generation, so they're used to creating media."

[via new York's Daily News]

Related:

-- UC Berkeley puts courses on YouTube

-- Pitzer College offers YouTube class

GodTube offers wildly popular alternative to YouTube

GodTube.com, which was rated the fastest-growing online site when it launched in August, aims to "help the church get people back into the pews". USA Today reports.

"GodTube grew nearly 1,000% in its first month, and had 1.6 million unique visitors every month. There are currently more than 38,000 videos on GodTube.

Chris Wyatt came up with the idea for GodTube after reading a survey about falling church attendance. And while churches can upload video-sermons to the website, Wyatt insists that Christians still need to attend an actual church.

"GodTube is by no means a substitute or alternative for church," he said. "We're here to help the church."

Christians aren't the only ones using the Internet to share their faith. For Jews, there's JewTube.com, and for Muslims, IslamicTube.net.

Though the two sites are considerably smaller — JewTube gets about 175,000 visitors per month and IslamicTube 23,000 — the two sites are similar to GodTube in their mission to promote their individual faiths and surrounding cultures."

YouPorn: Amateur porn video sharing site

Taking a line from YouTube YouPorn allows people to upload their home-made sex videos as well as view other people's postings for free. But unlike on the popular file-sharing site, here, anything goes. metro.co.uk reports.

Watching someone who could be your nextdoor neighbour having sex is far more exciting than watching regular pornography,' says Andy Henderson, 29.

"Set up last year, YouPorn isn't the first site to offer amateur porn footage – a quick Google search unearths a raft of options. But it is one of the few sites that is free, hosting only low-key advertising – something that's helped it become one of the fastest-growing amateur porn sites in the world.

... While there is no shortage of people logging on to the site, the number submitting their own videos is far lower, according to www.youporn.co.uk.

Like most reality TV shows, watching and taking part are two very different things. The site webmaster quotes an average of 100,000 hits a day but only 50 to 100 postings each week."

WineandFoodTube.com

WineandFoodTube.com went online this month, collecting the best of international food and wine content from YouTube, including videos from top chefs and restaurants and roving amateur critics and cooks.

About 20 videos being uploaded to the site each day.

[via ninemsn.com]

SciVee: A "YouTube for scientists"

A specialized "YouTube for scientists" has been launched by the National Science Foundation, Public Library of Science and the San Diego Supercomputing Centre. The Inquirer reports.

"SciVee allows scientists to upload their research papers, accompanied by a video where they describe the work in the form of a short lecture.

According to the web site, SciVee hopes that it will make the more or less incomprehensible world of scientific reports easier to understand."

Call for banning "thinspo" videos

According to Canada.com, just as network administrators cracked down on pro-ana websites a few years ago, an eating disorder foundation wants social networking and video sharing sites - most of which have terms of service banning harmful content - to evaluate "some of the more hardcore" thinspo videos being posted online.

"... In a statement to CanWest News Service, a spokesperson for YouTube placed responsibility for the site's 8,000-plus thinspo videos squarely on its users: "Our community controls the content on the site and they're the ones (not us) who flag content they deem inappropriate."

On a lighter note, while searching for ""thinspo" on YouTube I came across this: "Reverse Thinspo".

Video Sharing for the Jewish Community

Could catering to niche markets be the next big wave in online video sharing?

Springwise reports on Yideoz, a new venture launched for the Jewish community, is banking on it by offering a forum for uploading and sharing video files that appeal specifically to this demographic—promoting cultural pride as well as providing a venue for expressing shared interests.

"Like other content sharing portals, Yideoz makes its money through ad sales, so users can log on at no cost to view featured favourites or browse categories such as Food and Cooking, Friends and Family, Holidays, Israel and more. Members are encouraged to build profiles and network with others through the site—joining groups, posting comments and of course uploading their own videos."

EBay debuts online video safety guides

Another great way to use video online. eBay.co.uk has published two new online safety videos to help educate users on how to buy securely through the online marketplace, reports Netimperative.

"Hosted on the site within the Safety Centre, the videos include tips on how to buy safely through eBay and how to protect against phishing.

The videos seek to provide clear and straightforward guidance to users, distilling a range of advice and tips into easy-to-watch short programs."

New video site to answer the question: How do I do that?

Today's video craze online reminds so much of the early Internet, when new websites and new ideas were cause for such wonder and awe.

The latest video community which crossed my radar is oodlebox.tv which indexes a series of how-to videos for do-it-yourselfers, including links to knowledge, techniques, tips and resources. The first step to become a video version of about.com?

[via Ledger Inquirer]

Dailymotion Officially Launches In U.S.

French based Dailymotion, an independent video sharing site has launched a U.S. version of their site, reports WebPro News. "The U.S. site launches with the MotionMaker program that identifies and rewards contributors to the Dailymotion community.

Dailymotion says they have monetization strategies for content partners and the site itself. The monetization programs for content partners include banner and in-video advertising, which will allow advertisers to reach users at a local level. Advertisers can reach online users by using contextual in-stream ads and niche behavioral targeting through channels."

TVtrip. Video sharing site for world travellers

Four former managers from Expedia Europe have founded the new TVtrip.com website, writes Internet Travel News.

"TVtrip.com links video, travel and Web 2.0, by enabling internet users to find their hotel among 1500 hotels in 25 European destinations, via its own video clips.

These films – show the various types of rooms, the facilities (meeting room, gym spa…) as well as the area surrounding the hotel.

Tvtrip.com is developing an on-line community which will allow travellers to share their opinions and upload their own video clips. As a result, hotels will also gain a valuable insight on their clientele.

TV trip will offer a library of 1500 videos, including 25 European destinations and 75% of European travellers."