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.

Friday Five: FYI edition

Stuff every higher ed marketer ought to know about:

fyi-sm

  1. The American Marketing Association has issued its call for papers for the 2010 Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education. This year’s symposium will be held Nov. 7-10 in San Diego. The AMA is looking for “proposals/papers that report on new and innovative strategies and tactics in higher education marketing. Popular topics include including image and brand building, buzz/viral marketing, marketing research, internal marketing, electronic marketing, new marketing channels, social media, Web 2.0 tools, emerging markets and trends, marketing organizational structure, marketing budgeting, web metrics, and marketing ROI.” Submissions are due April 9, and this year the AMA is even welcoming video submissions. (Hear that, Todd Sanders?)
  2. What do social media users want? According to research from online ad network Chikita (and as reported by Mashable), “Twitterers mostly consume news, MySpace users want games and entertainment, Facebookers are into both news and community and Digg’s audience has a mixed bag of interests.” Also, MySpacers “have no interest in news whatsoever.” (Hear that, news mogul Rupert Murdoch?)
  3. Virtual graffiti. No, that isn’t the name of a Led Zeppelin remix. It’s what’s happening, right now, on college campuses everywhere, thanks to mobile mapping apps like Foursquare. “Since Foursquare’s debut last year,” writes the New York Times’ Marc Parry, “students have diligently labeled, praised, and, in some cases, profaned college campuses. Take this note, easily Googled, that somebody calling himself Mock Redneck Jr. left at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte: The library has Free Wi-Fi, Barely Legal girls and a warm place to drop a deuce.'” Drop a what? (Via Mark Greenfield’s Delicious links.)
  4. The state of campus CMS. Good research results from a survey of content management systems as compiled by .eduguru’s Michael Fienen. Lots of data to sift through here.
  5. From the it-had-to-happen-eventually department: RandomDorm: ChatRoulette for the College Set, via @davewiner.