A couple of weeks ago D’Arcy Norman posted about Michael Welsch’s latest video, An anthropological introduction to YouTube, recorded during a presentation to the Library of Congress on June 23rd, 2008. It’s been on my to-do list since then, but I only today got around to watching it on my wife’s iPod during the drive home from vacation today (she was driving at the time). Michael’s name may be familiar as the guy who burst on the scene last year with The Machine is Us/ing Us. This one’s almost an hour long, but WELL worth the time. This guy and his students are good – really digging out some interesting themes and trends surrounding YouTube. I’m going to start following along on the Digital Ethnography blog.
As an aside, this is actually the first time I’ve watched any full-length video on an iPod, and I was really impressed with the quality. I thought YouTube had added the ability to download videos, but later realized I was able to do so thanks to the Better YouTube Firefox Extension – go get it!