Month: April 2010

Friday Five: Best. Videos. Ever?

youtube_340To commemorate YouTube’s fifth birthday (April 23 is the big day), Time recently posted a list of YouTube’s 50 greatest hits. The list is based on popularity, so you’ve got the usual suspects: Evolution of Dance, Dramatic Chipmunk, Susan Boyle’s debut and so on.

There’s nothing wrong with many of these selections (I could watch Dramatic Chipmunk all day long). But there is a difference between something that is “great” and something that is “popular.” The self-titled debut album by Ramones never even sold half a million copies, but music critics everywhere agree it’s one of the greatest rock albums of all time. So, on the theory that greatness is in the eye of the beholder, I give you five of my favorite YouTube videos.

Battle of the Album Covers
Great animation of album cover art as they fight to the death. Contains some graphic violence. (Get it? Graphic violence?)

Hitler finds out KU lost to UNI in the 2010 NCAA tournament
The latest — and funniest — in a series of parodies of the German film Downfall, about Hitler’s personal demise.

Chad Vader: Day Shift Manager
If you aren’t a Star Wars geek, you might not appreciate this series of videos about Darth Vader’s younger and less talented brother, Darth. Here’s the pilot.

Facebook abuse
Greg lays down the law to his office colleagues about appropriate use of Facebook. May not be safe for work.

Miss Teen South Carolina Calls 911
Must viewing for all US Americans.

Bonus (but not embeddable) music video: The Zimmers – “My Generation.” Great work by one of the world’s oldest rock bands, The Zimmers. And a great message.

What are your favorite YouTube vids? Please share.

Upcoming webcast: starting a social media policy

From the gratuitous self-promotion department:

In June, I’ll be co-presenting an Academic Impressions webcast on how to create a social media policy. My co-presenter will be Teresa V. Parrot of Widmeyer Communications (@tvparrot on Twitter).

We’ve been talking about this topic for a few months and agreed that colleges and universities could use some guidance in developing social media policies (or guidelines, as we like to call ours,since our campus culture — like many others — has an aversion to anything stamped as “policy”). In this session, Teresa and I plan to go beyond the nuts and bolts of creating the policy to also cover the nuances of selling your administration on the policy and building buy-in.

Since we’ve got several weeks before we present, I’m hoping to tap into the hive mind of the Internet. I’d be interested in hearing from you about what you see as the most important elements a social media policy should include. Also, if you have a social media policy for your university that you’d be willing to share for this webcast, please let me know, either in the comments here, on Twitter or via email (at andrew DOT careaga AT gmail DOT com).