Irked: Another Unnecessary Viral Video

Here’s something that kinda irked me. There is this new “viral video” that is going around and it’s not funny, informative or the least bit engaging! I watched it thinking there had to be a reason why it’s a “viral video”. and really it’s not. It’s the video about a tennis player who lost and hit himself in the head with his racket. It didn’t over reach, he just hit his head with the metal part instead of the string part by accident.

I’ll post it here so you know what I mean, but I really don’t understand why things like this get so much hype. I feel bad for the guy. Oh in case anyone cares, which no one really does for videos like these: He’s Mikhail Youzhny playing at the Masters in Miami.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AEfCQxVmxM]

And you know what, just to counteract that participating in that viral spread. Here’s a viral video I did enjoy. And this video stems from a viral video thread of videos. (This came from Sarah Silverman’s “I’m F*cking Matt Damon“, which lead to her boyfriend, Jimmy Kimmel’s response video, “I’m F*cking Ben Affleck“, which featured Don Cheadle, and other celebrities did their versions. But this one tops it)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5jyTc6rnbI]

Curators Of Content: A Link between Steve Rubel, South Park, Chris Anderson and Me.

What inspired me to write about something other than music? Well, last night Steve Rubel came to Hofstra to speak to a crowd of students. Most were there for the extra credit or to make connections, others were there for general interest. I was there for both. I’m pretty up to speed with technology and where it seems to be heading and where it is now. So when he asked if everyone knew what RSS was, I wanted to hammer my head into a wall when people giggled and admitted they did not.

But let’s leave my disappointment in my fellow students out of it. Rubel is the Senior Vice President of EdelmanDigital. His talk was not about RSS feeds or what people need to know about today and new media, (because he posts about that regularly in his blog), but about micro-collaboration. His first slide said, “Mass Reach Is Dying”. I know.

Rubel mentioned a few different things. The most interesting and thought provoking comment of all of us being “Curators of Content”. Besides adding that to my resume (kidding), I really had to think about that. Curator of Content. Think about it. We choose what to share. We choose what’s worthy of attention. Like a museum curator chooses what is art vs. not art; we choose what is worthy content vs. unworthy content. In a sense, I’m posting this because I think it’s worthy of attention. Get it?

Rubel also mentioned Wikinoimics, a book revolving around Internet collaboration. He said it includes 4 different points: Openness, Peering, Sharing and Acting Globally.

Besides now Wikinomics goes next to Freakonomics on my reading list, it made me wonder how the economy plays in with the Internet and new media. I know it’s a lot!! But still… how can we handle it?

And I’m not the only one asking. After I left Steve Rubel’s speaking event, I got some dinner, and then watched South Park. Ignoring the ridiculous story line that Canadians all went on strike, they touched on a point of Internet and how much money it can make. The boys ended up making a viral video which they went to stand in line with all the other viral video stars to collect their theoretical checks which their millions of page views would have gotten them. But the thing is, it’s all theoretical money.

Well, here comes connection number 3! Chris Anderson from Wired Magazine explained how there are two new economies, which seemed to be emerging. Our economy now (which still needs to catch up with the Internet) is the monetary economy. Anderson, in an interview with Charlie Rose (about his book, The Long Tail? he said the two new economies are attention and reputation. Why do some websites get more advertising than others? Because they have more readers (more attention.) Or they are known for being smart and being honest and having a good reputation, which leads to trust. In that way, Curators of Content are or will begin to get paid based on having a good reputation or gathering attention.

Basically, bloggers, journalists, advertisers, and the general public (not necessarily a mass audience) have to individually decide what’s worth attention and what has a worthwhile reputation.

Below is some supporting material. Enjoy. And the music blogging will continue later.

Feel free to watch the Chris Anderson interview here

South Park clip:
[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=gVfX0wC7INA]

And Steve Rubel’s Blog, Micropersuasion.com

<3 Curator of Content, Sara Knee