Day 8

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Lesson 8

When I was a kid, I used to think it would be great if we could just watch any movie or TV show ever made at any moment. We’re not there yet, but we are close. Very close.

Cable television has come out with movies and television shows “On Demand” and “In Demand”. These are generally newer programs and movies, although they are starting to add older programming.

People are now using the internet to become creative in this area. As copyright laws are ironed out, more and more content is becoming available. Existing television networks are finding ways to broadcast content online for free, while still maintaining advertising revenue.

We have also experienced a flood of user created content. While some of this content is bland, thoughtless video of users sitting in front of their webcams doing something silly or stupid, other content is well thought out and entertaining. As video editing tools develop into more user friendly applications, some of the content is even becoming studio quality.

We’re going to look at two companies, YouTube and Hulu. You may have heard of both of these companies. YouTube allows users to upload their own content for everyone to see and even subscribe to. Hulu hosts old and new television and movie content and allows their users to view the content online. My favorite Hulu show right now is “Chuck”.

Here is some YouTube fun for you (click the “play button” triangle in the middle):

That was iJustine, or iJ. She’s publishes a video log or vlog, which is kind of like a blog, but with video. You might have noticed she’s a bit, well, crazy. But it’s an endearing, like a little sister, kind of crazy. She’s an example of good quality user content. While you may or may not relate to iJ, her content is well produced.

Next, let’s look at something from Hulu (click the “play button” triangle in the middle):

Since I didn’t think you really wanted to sit on my blog for two hours watching a full length feature film, I embeded a movie trailer for the Pixar movie “Up”. Hulu has been advertising quite a bit on television and their content is growing by leaps and bounds.

Homework

Yeah, I know. I should have paid more attention in scool because I really never figured out that homework contains the word “work”. But, while I’m trying to figure that out, go watch some videos online. Make sure you leave a comment below to let people know what you found. Here are some links to get you started:

The main YouTube website:
http://www.youtube.com
YouTube is branching out into television shows:
http://www.youtube.com/shows
But their strength is still user generated content:
http://www.youtube.com/members
And of course, our friend iJustine:
http://www.youtube.com/user/ijustine

The main Hulu website:
http://www.hulu.com
Hulu Movies:
http://www.hulu.com/movies
Hulu Television:
http://www.hulu.com/tv
My favorite show on Hulu:
http://www.hulu.com/chuck

Wrap Up

As you can see, the internet is full of ways for people to connect with one another. In the beginning, some were afraid that the internet would cause people to grow further apart as they spent time online. In the beginning, that might have been true. But, as the internet grows, people find new ways to connect with each other.