No one wants to be a pirate.

Instead of my usual post, today I present a video created by myself on the topic of the Somali Pirates. The main reason I created this video was to discuss not what the pirates are doing but rather why they are doing it. No one wants to be a pirate and the only reason Somalis have gone this route is to solve some of their problems.

While this doesn’t justify their criminal actions, it does behoove us as citizens of the world to examine why they are doing these actions and see if there is anything that can be done to resolve the issue without simply resorting to violence.

Ever since the bloody rescue of the captured American captain, Somalia is back in full frontal view of the American viewing audience, which hasn’t really happened since the Black Hawk incident back in the 90’s. Letting this problem linger since then is one of the many causes of the issues Somalia is facing.

Since the fall of the state back in the 90’s Somalia has been in constant turmoil over warlords and gunmen. This has led to a very destabilized society without any source of money, food, or growth.

Along with this issue, one of Somalia’s main sources of food, its seas have been facing major issues over the last few years. Overfishing from foreign boats who sign dubious deals with the “government” has taxed on villagers only source of food leaving many fishermen to take to arms to feed their families.

As well, one of the major concerns is the illegal dumping of toxic waste by foreign countries in the waters of Somalia. These actions threaten an already taxed and debilitated food source for the poor country.

These last two reasons have been cited by Somali Pirates as their primary concerns and justifications for their actions. They view their pirating and ransoming as a way to pay for food, medicine, supplies, and the removal and clean up of these illegal-dumping activities.

And with the spread of wealth as the money gets spent, the Somali citizenry becomes complacent with the use of illegal money to support their lives.

People shouldn’t have to resort to these activities simply to survive, and as citizens of the world in this global society we should look at solving the problems that are causing the criminal activity, not just punishing it. No one wants to be a pirate. We shouldn’t give them a reason to be.

On the topic of "Viral Videos"

One of the major things to come with the proliferation of Internet technology is the ability to access and upload web video.

This was the topic of conversation for our lecture this past week.

One of the most interesting things that we came upon were some of the figures about web video such as:
-total videos uploaded to youtube – 78.3 million
-average video length- 2 minutes 46 seconds
-time it would take to view all of this 412.3 years
-average age of uploader: 26.57

Of course those numbers are constantly changing, however the point I'd like to examine is what really makes a viral video viral.

At our discussion we discussed that for the most part there are 4 types of web video:

-business generated

-business generated but customized

-business initiated, user-generated

-user-initiated and user-generated

These categories tend to be the general kind of videos that we as users experience. However, my thoughts are what makes a viral video, and do any of these in particular make better viral videos?

In general, one would assume that business backed videos with seo campaigns and marketing campaigns can push any video to be a "viral" while the more user-created may have a harder time or requires a bit more luck to really reach the same level.

We learned that it really doesn't take that many people to begin the cycle of sharing and take a video viral, but in general does a marketing campaign, seo campaigns take away from the quality and notion of a viral video? Do we really worry if a viral video needs to be user-created and initiated?

Thoughts?

Video Blogging at its Best.

With South by Southwest starting I'd figured I'd take a look at some of the new information coming out of it. Of the panels at SxSW, one of the interesting ones chronicled by Megan Garza at Austin Chic was a panel on Video Blogging, which uses video recording and tools such as youtube and other video hosting sites to create your own video feed on the topic of your choice.

The panel talks about being successful in video blogging and in particular I believe the points discussed in the panel can be applied to the use of video blogging for business as well.

Uniqueness, originality, transparency, and overall being true to the character of the company and the representative of that company are cited as means of succeeding in this form of social media. As well, it is interesting to note how many of the uses of podcasting can be applied to video blogging. Video blogging allows you to communicate to your audience numerous forms of communication and is really only limited by the time, money, and effort spent on the project.

As the panel tells us, look towards creating a unique experience for your consumer.