YouTube: Data is the next ‘Intel Inside’

YouTube was created in 2005 and is probably the world’s most popular online video community that allows millions of people to watch and share their own original videos. All of the videos are provided by the users of the site. The ownership rights of uploaded videos are retained by the user however, by submitting the material to YouTube, the user is granting them ‘… a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicenseable and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform the User Submissions in connection with the YouTube Website…’ (YouTube Terms of Use) There is also a significant quantity of statistics and data that YouTube can educe from the number of views, the age and gender of the viewers, to the number of comments posted about a video. This would be an enormous database of data, the ‘Intel inside’ if you will, that can be used to tailor the advertising; YouTube’s main source of revenue; frequently associated with the user submissions.

References:

YouTube Terms of Use, accessed 21st March 2010 at: http://www.youtube.com/t/terms

5 comments March 23, 2010 sarahatkinson347

DIGG: Harnessing Collective Intelligence

Collective intelligence refers to knowledge that has been gleaned from the common understandings of a group of people. This process is used as a filter for selecting highly regarded information. Digg is a web 2.0 application where users submit articles, images and videos from the web. This application harnesses collective intelligence by means of the users collectively determining the value of the content on the site. Users can vote to either ‘digg’ (like) or bury (dislike) a story. Stories that are collectively regarded are prominently displayed on the main home page. Comments can also be made on the content enabling users to have a discussion about topics of particular interest. Users are encouraged to actively participate by voting, sharing of the content via e-mails and commenting on the stories. Digg aims to trigger larger scale network effects by allowing integration with Google, Yahoo or Bing searches, and through Facebook connect that posts the user’s activities on dig onto their Facebook profile.

5 comments March 8, 2010 sarahatkinson347