Comments on: For Michael Wesch, Video Shows, Tells, Does

By: After Web 2.0, Michael Wesch Takes On YouTube « NewTeeVee

After Web 2.0, Michael Wesch Takes On YouTube « NewTeeVee — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 21:53:54 +0000

[...] Takes On YouTube After telling us the story of Web 2.0’s evolution in the 5-minute The Machine is Us/Ing Us, Michael Wesch took his specialty in cultural anthropology and applied it to the full breadth of [...]

By: NewTeeVee » Web Vidiots Party Like It’s 1999

NewTeeVee » Web Vidiots Party Like It’s 1999 — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 16:15:52 +0000

[...] I arrived at the Wired party, and spotted award winner Michael “The Web is Us(ing us)” Wesch, it became clear that the explosion of online video is playing a large part in fueling the new [...]

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 02:23:34 +0000

Thanks Liz, it was a major highlight of the expo for me to meet you as well. Your panel was great.

Om, love your work as well. Our ethnography of YouTube is more specifically about the personal vlogging community of YouTube which makes up about 2% of all uploads. We will be releasing our first draft of a 45 minute documentary in mid-May. It will be made up of 9 segments, each one being the result of an undergraduate student's semester-long research project.

As Robin would probably agree, watching your own video go viral is a remarkable opportunity to see the shape of the contemporary mediascape. My students and I tracked the video's spread carefully not just to bask in my "15 frames of fame" ;-), but to learn more about the structure of the web today and how YouTube fits within that structure. The video also had the wonderful effect of allowing us to make lots of friends on YouTube, which has been essential for our project.

I hope that satisfies your inquiring mind! Thanks for the questions.

By: Robin

Robin — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 22:46:55 +0000

Agreed -- seeing that video on the big screens was inspiring.

I think there's a clear competency there, Om -- this is a guy who took a set of ideas that are often vague & inchoate (even here in SF -- forget in the middle of Kansas) and boiled them down into one sharp, seductive articulation. And in video no less. Imagine if every academic with big ideas could do that!

By: Liz Gannes

Liz Gannes — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 17:30:33 +0000

Ha! You are so skeptical. I'm not going to speak on behalf of his students, but I'd guess web 2.0 in action is more interesting than web 2.0 in a classroom. Don't you think it will be interesting to see the application of time-tested anthropological methods to something that's culturally relevant like YouTube?

By: Om

Om — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 15:09:38 +0000

What the hell is ethnography on YouTube mean?

By the way what did this video add to his core competency - which is teaching his students at Kansas State? DId it bring any new insights to his students, or was it just another example where he got his 15-frames of fame?

Inquiring minds want to know!