Remember these guys? They were front page news on October 9th 2006 when it was announced that Google was buying Youtube for the then princely sum of $1.65 billion. Now they have disappeared into the milieu of The Valley.
Someone needs to dig them out and give them a Nobel Prize. Heres why:
Yes, yes, this video is on Vimeo, not Youtube. But it is a life changer, well worth your 9 minutes right now, even if you've already seen it once. Millions have, though it's hard to know exactly how many because The David Foster Wallace Literary Trust insists it is a copyright violation, so it continues to be taken down and re-posted. (Thats an issue for another day and another post)
- One Video
- Millions of lives changed
- $0 distribution cost to the content producer to put it in front of ∞ eyeballs
- No editorial barrier to entry
This is the world-changing power that the Youtube revolution brought.
Ted Talks change lives and make the world a better place.
Brene Brown - 14 Million Views
Simon Sinek - 16 Million Views
Ron Finley - 2 Million Views
Dennis Dutton - 1.5 Million Views
In a smaller but more dispersed way Youtube changed the world by empowering us all to do things we'd never attempted before. There are literally hundreds of millions of tutorial videos out there.
And then there is the power to change a single life.
In 2007 Arnel Pineda was literally picked from a life of mediocrity in Manilla to be the lead singer of Journey. All because of a few Youtube videos uploaded by a fan.
"But theres so much time-wasting stuff out there on Youtube"
Now I'm the first to admit that theres a lot of junk out there, but that doesn't detract from the fact that 0.01% have changed the world immeasurably for the better.
"But internet video was an idea who's time had come/there are lots of video websites/those guys were just in the right place at the right time"
Internet video had been around since the mid-nineties, but it was hard to upload, self-hosted, and difficult to watch (remember Real Player?). In fact it was an idea that was overdue, and those who made Youtube did a lot of work to bring the right mix of features and technology together to make internet video work. To the victor go the spoils.
"But they only give out Nobel Prizes for physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and peace"
True, but over the last 113 years the theme has become that those receiving the prize made achievements in their field which precipitated world changing effects. How 'bout a new prize for those who change the world and help make it a better place? Then we could restore the peace prize to those who work on ending wars, disarmament, and peaceful relations between nations. (If you haven't already noticed, the peace prize has gotten seriously off track in just the past 10 years)
Chad Hurley, Jawed Karim, Steve Chen; you are my laureates.
Now I'm gonna go watch Katy Perry's Tenage Dream... on Youtube.
No comments:
Post a Comment