One of the earliest newspaper articles I was able to find about YouTube talks about some of it’s earlier viral videos: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/03/arts/03tube.html

As this article points out, something that made YouTube stand out then (as well as now) is that the videos are made at home, and yet draw so many viewers. To be honest, this is one of the reasons that I chose YouTube as a topic that I wanted to research because I find it fascinating just how far some channels have come. It’s also amazing how many opportunities can come their way just from making YouTube videos!

As for an archival collection, I unfortunately am not able to find anything because YouTube is still a very young website, being launched in 2005.

An interesting image I thought I’d include comes from February 2006, when YouTube was still a fairly new website: http://web.archive.org/web/20060214034104/http://www.youtube.com

It’s easy to see how far YouTube has come over the past six years when the above image is compared with the homepage today: http://www.youtube.com

Overall, each of the above sources would be useful to me in my research because they help to give me an image of what youtube was like in it’s early stages. I definitely am excited to go more in depth and figure out exactly what brought YouTube to the point it’s at today!

The idea that grabbed my interest in the reading for this week was the digitizing of historical texts. Although scanning can provide a more accurate image of the text, it’s not as easy to read as a transcript version. As mentioned in the reading, it is difficult to translate texts to a virtual copy without loosing some of the meaning. This issue caused me to think about translations of various texts from one language to another. How many texts are not as accurate as they should be because some phrases or words are lost in translation?

I also found it interesting how much of an influence funding is when it comes to digitizing images and text. Of course, it makes sense that the better quality equipment and copies you have to work with, the better your digital reproduction is. However, it still seems sad to me that if there isn’t enough funding, an image or text may not get the quality it deserves in a digital environment. It should be interesting to see how this process changes things down the road, as both our digital and analog histories begin to merge into one.

Research Question Idea: What was the initial purpose of YouTube as a website? How has it changed over the years?

Oversleeping is not fun! [9/6/12]

When I woke up this morning, I knew something was off. As I glanced at my alarm clock, my thoughts went a little like this:

• It’s 10 am.
• Crap!
• I should have been in class an hour ago.
• I have to leave for another class in 20 minutes..
• Awesome.

As I sleepily pulled myself together for class this morning, I texted my mom and vented a little bit about not waking up on time. I found she had almost called me, and that my alarm had been on the radio setting. Not being in Florida, it didn’t pick up a radio station, and the volume had been too low for the static to wake me up. It was as if everything was against me going to class this morning.

Being a girly girl doesn’t help.

It’s not that I need to be wearing makeup or to have my hair done to feel confident, but it certainly makes me feel much more put together. I’m not usually the roll out of bed and go type. I had to work with the time I had this morning however, so I went through a mental check list:

1. Teeth brushed?
2. Clothes?
3. Laptop?
4. Keys?
5. Shoes?

Finally, I managed to leave and get myself out and to my second class on time. Hopefully my alarm clock will be more cooperative with me in the future!

P.S. Here’s a little thought for today! Everything happens for a reason!

The topic which I found most interesting in this week’s assigned materials was the History of the Internet youtube video. It initially drew me in as a film major because I liked the simple format that was used in the video to explain the history as a story. It also was interesting to me to see how far the Internet has come since it’s creation just a few years before I was born. It’s amazing what a huge part of our everyday lives the Internet has become, from checking our local weather in the morning to having an evening chat with a friend who is hundreds of miles away via Skype.

I also was interested in the details of the “Getting Started” chapter of Digital History because I took a web design class in high school. It reminded me of the things I already knew, but it also definitely brought my attention to how much I would still have to learn if I were to design a website today!

Finally, here are three topics I might be interested in researching this semester:

1. The History of YouTube

2. The History of MAC (Makeup Artist Cosmetics)

3. The History of the Caladdagh