In our last episode we covered the basics of what makes Web 2.0 so… 2.0ish. In this post we’re going to look at some of the User Generated Video that’s out there, and what your options are as far as hosts.

First and formost, lets look at some of the biggest hits out there. I’m sure you have all heard of the “Chocolate Rain” meme:

You might even have seen this on TV, but I assure you, it all started here on Web 2.0.

There’s been a lot of variations on this theme, my favorite of which stars someone we’re going to touch on later in this post: Chad Vader.

I must admit, I’m pretty partial to Chad.

Of course, there are a number of other viral videos out there, like “Leave Britney Alone!!!“:

Nearly three million views as of this writing on this video alone. Wow. Good job, Mr. Crocker.

Now, remember above where I mentioned one Chad Vader? Well, he actually has his own series: Chad Vader - Day Shift Manager. One of my personal favorite shows, I can’t wait to see more (there are only a few episodes out):

Eh? Pretty sweet, huh? VERY well done, I say. Another good series is a new one, known as ./shutdown:

GREAT SHOW! At least in my opinion. Very super high quality production values, you can get a VERY high quality watchable version on Stage6, a subdivision of the DivX crew. Only a few episodes, but they are GOLDEN.

And of course there are a number of other greats out there, enough to keep some going for a long, long  time. Ask a Ninja, Snowman Hunters, God, Inc (or anything by Francis Stokes for that matter), Mr. Deity, and another personal favorite: Goodnight Burbank

Absolutely amazing.

Now, if you want to get into generating user generated video, the first place I’d go is YouTube. It doesn’t get much more straight forward then that. After you’ve gotten your feet wet you can try some of the others like Veoh, Stage6, Metacafe, or even the venerable Internet Archive (circa 1996).

Stay tuned (via RSS perhaps?) for next time when we delve into the beautiful chaos that is a user generated knowledge base: The Wiki Family.

And now, I bid you adieu with a delightful triplet for the road:

“The Polite War”

“Code Monkey Dance”

“A Love Song from Skullcrusher Mountain”

Tags: Video, Viral, YouTube, Wiki, UGC

Well, I didn’t get to blog from onsite, but at least I’m getting in one more post this weekend. Deanna’s driving, and I’m just hanging out. It was a good time. If you ever have a chance to go to Hershey Park, do so. It’s quite a blast. They’ve got very good rides (I recommend The Great Bear, it’s named for The Big Dipper (Ursa Major), and it’s just as impressive. It’s a top down coaster (meaning you get strapped in and the floor goes out from underneath you), and it has 7 different points of interest - one for each star in the constilation. All in all, though, it’s a great park. Just DON’T GO TO THE WOK AND ROLL!!! The food is horrable, and the price is nuts ($8.99 for a small plate of pepper steak, cruddy lo mein, and some roughage they claimed was pork fried rice (if there’s any pig out there that tastes THAT bad, I feel sorry for it). But yeah, beyond that nonsense it was great.Worth noting if you plan to go, is to keep an eye on the candy bars. Below you can see this creepy Hershey Bar staring at me. I can only assume he wanted to eat me. Frankly, I don’t know if I can look at a candy bar the same way again:

Anyway, we’re now heading home, and fighting our way through 8 hours of joyful traffic (hopfully there won’t be a 2 hour traffic jam this time). Wish us luck!
UPDATE: Before I got a chance to upload this, I got this great pic of Matt. Like father like son, eh?

Microsoft launches Windows Live Writer, a new publishing tool for authoring rich blog posts on Windows Live Spaces, Wordpress, Typepad and other blogging services.

How many different languages can you say “Crap” in? I *JUST* move to Linux and Microsoft releases the best Blogging client I’ve yet come across. It supports all sorts of good stuff. Pics (either from file or URL), Maps (from the new, though somewhat cool Windows Live Map service) but to me the coolest part (apart from the interface which automatically shows what it looks like in your blog) is the fact that it AUTOMAGICLY figures out what the settings for my blog are. Yep. Just put in the blog URL (truevox.net), the username and password, and it figures it out for you! Frankly, I’m impressed. THIS is what other blogging clients need to figure out, it’s finally what a blog should be like.

Come on, Google, we need something like this!

EDIT: Though the screen cap above shows a map, I wasn’t able to upload it because Microsoft puts it into the blog as a standard pic hotmapped to their servers, and I don’t like to host pics on my servers ‘cuz I’m cheap and pay by the byte. But it DOES work (and well too!).

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Have you ever had a REALLY pressing technical question? You know, the kind that Ask Metafilter likely would know the answer to but you NEED that answer now, not later? Then may I recomend to you a REALLY neat new Expert to User service called Qunu. Here’s how the service works (in their own words):

It’s an AMAZING service. It has singlehandedly gotten me able to use Linux (btw: I’m using Ubuntu now; posting from it THIS VERY MOMENT!!!). I’m just stunned at all the free, volentary help offered.

The service sets itself apart (in my opinion) by not having some propritary app sitting on the desktop (an app they would ether have to code for everything from Lunix to OS/2 to Windows and beyond, or write in Java). Instead they were smart enough to integrate with the Jabber network (just like our good friends Google)  so that an expert can just have their favorite Jabber friendly client open, and be ready to accept questions. COOL!

Check it out over at www.qunu.com. You won’t regret it.

Oh, and feel free to check this out and Digg it too, on Digg.com!

Here’s a neat little game I found on Digg:

 

MotherLoad Use your digger to excavate as much ore as possible

Play this free game now!!

It’s a neat little game about digging down to get to the sweet, delicious ore. Mmm… Ore…… Arrgghh…………….

Anyway, here’s a screen capture below. I think you should go check out the game NOW! It’s pretty cool.

You can digg it here. And of course, just go Here to play the game itself!