[Video] The Divided Brain

Renowned psychiatrist and writer Iain McGilchrist explains how the 'divided brain' has profoundly altered human behaviour, culture and society.

I was directed to this excellent video via David Marsden in a thoughtful discussion over at the OAC: Anthropology, society and the unconscious mind.

I am especially a fan of how the animation condenses McGilchrist's brilliant lecture into a 10-minute educational cartoon. Check out the RSA Animates on YouTube for more of this creative and innovative series.

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YouTube goes mobile

YouTube.com co-founder Steve Chen has said that consumers in many areas of the world will be able to access videos from YouTube through mobile phones by next year. He made his comments to a group of enthusiastic Web users at a forum on Internet developments in Taipei. The Taiwan-born entrepreneur said he expected that clips between 30 and 60 seconds would attract commuters on subways or buses.

As for those who travel by train, clips of up to 10 minutes will be most popular to pass the time, he believes. He said that as technologies continue to develop at a rapid pace, web sites should keep up by offering richer content and greater mobility so users can access the content from almost anywhere.

Chen and his family emigrated to the United States from Taiwan when he was eight years old. In 2005, he setup the video-sharing website in San Mateo, Calif., with colleague Chad Hurley. The company, which was once run mainly out of a garage, sold to Google for $1.65 billion last year, and all because Chen and Hurley needed to find a way to get videos to each other that were too big for email. [source]


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Conflicting views on Web 2.0 (Part II)

With reference to my recent post on Web 2.0 sites catering to non-generating content 'viewers' rather than uploading 'contributors', here's more on the debate.

Since the media starting emphasizing the low percentages of 'participants' who actually create and upload content to sites like YouTube, Flickr, and even Wikipedia, the phenomenon has been portrayed as some kind of failure of the socialized web initiative. As I mentioned earlier, this neglects several important factors. Firstly, the Internet, like many things, is characterized by a user participation which necessitates only a few content 'producers', because it is the viewing of this content which promotes further production. Secondly, and I think more importantly, media commentators neglect that Web 2.0 sites still work along the same premises as other sites always have: get as many viewers as possible, then advertise to them. Whether that advertising is third-party or not is besides the point. The intention on the part of those who upload videos is to have their material seen. Some content-generating users are also 'viewers' (and vice versa), but that does not have to be the case to have a significant 'social' presence on these sites. None of the weak percentage rates given to UGC (such as 'only 1% of users contribute to YouTube video content') seem to emphasize the participatory social nature of the comments that users leave based on videos they watch, the ratings they give them, the feeds they subscribe to, how many times they email or link to them, or other elements of facilitating, and contributing to, the prolonged existence of the site. These websites remain popular regardless of the number of unique content producers. Many people probably feel they do not have the technical knowledge, time, inclination or patience to put videos on the web.

It should also not be surprising that, as people spend more time sitting in front of their computers, the machines will take the place of the old magic box, the television, which is relegated to that archaic location: the 'family' room. Yes, it used to be called that for a reason.


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Spain's Cuatro launches YouTube web portal

Spanish television channel Cuatro is launching a portal on Google's YouTube, showing clips of the broadcaster's most popular programs to try and build a young audience in and outside Spain. The move by Cuatro, a free-to-air channel launched by Spanish TV group Sogecable in November 2005, follows a similar move by the BBC earlier this month. "With a community of millions of young users on line, YouTube is a perfect platform to reach new viewers," Cuatro's director of content Elena Sanchez said in a statement on Thursday.

YouTube, bought by Google last November, first gained popularity for short, comic sketches that were created and posted on the site by users. It has also faced increasing legal threats from big media companies, including a $1 billion lawsuit from media conglomerate Viacom Inc, angry that the site has become a popular means of pirating their television shows. Cuatro is Spain's sixth most popular free-to-air channel, with an audience share of 6.4 percent in 2006. [source]

Well, it is no secret that a website designed to allow users to post their favorite video content will result in the posting of popular television and other visual media programming. Of course, much of the content on YouTube is user-generated and personalized video, but many people also supplement their online viewing with commercial programming. In many ways, Internet, and computers in general, have become analogous to the television revolution. The difference, of course, is the Internet is faster to respond to the demands of users who want to choose - and, importantly, contribute to - their own content.

It is, therefore, about time that more European television stations realize the possibilities - and financial dangers - inherent in Internet video sharing supplementing existing programming. To what extent the spread of Internet programming is bound to be the death of television reminds me of the debate surrounding VCR being the death of the movie industry or cassette tapes being the end of the music industry.

It is true, as Cuatro argue, that YouTube is an excellent source of young viewers - or viewers of any age - for their programming. The tactic of putting television programmes online for later or continued viewing (including archives of past episodes, previews of newer episodes, discussion groups, photos, blogs, etc.) is no longer 'new'. Most networks do it in some respect. Is there, then, a qualitative distinction between this practice, and using an already popular platform (YouTube) to cash in on an already expansive user base?

As an anthropologist, I am not entirely interested in the corporate economic outcome of these activities per se, but more how they relate to the actuality of human society on the ground (in the home, that is). Are people moving away from collective television viewing and towards more isolated, individualized viewing online? I would venture that there is more convergence. People are more likely to combine various types of technologies (including viewing content on mobile phones or video iPods) than to abandon one for the other. Even if Cuatro and other companies offered full-length episodes of programmes online for free, would viewers abandon their TV sets?

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