(week 8) a cornucopia of oddities

I discovered this video on YouTube after our very own Lili Wilkinson played it at a presentation she made about new librarians and new technologies earlier this year. The video was created by Michael Wesch, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at the University of Kansas.

The Machine is Us/ing Us: "Web 2.0" in just under 5 minutes

I find the most interesting thing about this video to be its conclusion about the new permutations of the web and the way we us it in our lives - Wesch notes that we will have to "rethink a few things:

• copyright
• authorship
• identity
• ethics
• aesthetics
• rhetorics
• governance
• privacy
• commerce
• love
• family
• ourselves"

I couldn't agree with him more. In my own life I see how Web 2.0 is changing the way I communicate with and relate to my friends, how I obtain news and opinions, how I discover new music, and how "visible" my life is to anyone in the world who cares to look for me. (And I hate to think how many times I've broken copyright laws on this one little blog!)

Back to the various Tubes - thus far I've rarely used video my professional career; however, having examined it again in light of our Learning 2.0 programme (as opposed to in the light of "I'm completely obsessed with So&So's video clip and want to watch it again), I'm interested to see that it's being used to promote genealogy collections in libraries (this video is more professional but, while describing the collection, is mainly about the redevelopment of the collection building, while this one is dorkier but much more practical, guiding patrons on how to use the collection). Not to mention the myriad of other videos to be found.

In comparison, I found TeacherTube and Science Hack very uninspiring - while both may be good ideas, at this stage they have very little content (eg TeacherTube only returns one result for a search on WW1!). And as always, when someone has already created a near-perfect site/functionality already, I do wonder why people feel the need to re-invent the wheel and provide content via yet another portal which people will have to search separately?