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Not heading to Anaheim for ALA? That doesn’t mean you have to miss out on everything. LITA’s BIGWIG Social Software Showcase web page already has a number of videos and screencasts of presentations posted to it. There will also be some live webcasts and discussions during the conference. Check the Showcase page for times and details.

Among the many excellent presentations, Jason Griffey’s Video 2.0 and the New Media Revolution really caught my attention. In a delightful bit of recursiveness, Jason presents a video about new video tools that will make virtual participation in meetings, presentations and such much easier. In themselves, they’re very interesting, useful tools. But what happens to privacy when it becomes possible to broadcast anything, anytime, anywhere? How do we process the onslaught of media madness? Jason poses questions about what this media revolution will mean for society and what it means for libraries.

Note from the final section of the video:

We talk a lot in libraries about information literacy. We need to move beyond text. Text led the first media revolution. We need to prepare for the next revolution. You can use these tools to participate in the future of expression. If you don’t, your patrons certinaly will.

Think of how many schools, libraries and other learning organizations block internet video  altogether. Where will they be in this revolution?

The new Vado pocket video camera from Creative Labs looks like a rival to the popular Flip video cam. Slightly lighter and thinner than the Flip, it also has a slightly larger LCD. The Vado has 2GB of memory, the same as the Flip Video Ultra, but at a list price of $99 it’s $50 cheaper. Check out this review at Digital Inspiration.

Congratulations to the seven children in New York State who submitted videos about their favorite books to the nationwide StoryTubes video contest.

All the New York State entries have been posted to the NYS Summer Reading Program web site.

To enter the contest, children in grades 1 to 6 made short videos about their favorite books. And they’re delightful to watch!

All of the entries from around the country can be viewed at the StoryTubes site. During May, finalists will be selected the following categories and everyone will be able to vote.

• May 5 - May 11, 2008 - Hair-Raising Tales
• May 12 - May 18, 2008 - From or For the Heart
• May 19 - May 25, 2008 - Of Heroes and Heroines
• May 26 - June 1, 2008 - Facts, Fads and Phenoms

The StoryTubes project was created by the folks at Gail Borden Public Library in Elgin IL. Staff of the Children’s Services department at Middle Country Public Library in Centereach & Selden NY were the coordinators for the Northeast region.

Flip Video has committed to giving away 1 million Flip Video cams to qualified non-profits to help them tell their stories. Check their guidelines to see if your library or organization qualifies.

Pure Digital Technologies announced the Flip Video Spotlight program in September 2007 at the annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative. We imagine the impact that video would make if every nonprofit organization had a camcorder to tell the world about problems that need to be solved, opportunities that need to be seized, abuses that need to be corrected, and people who need to be extolled.

The Program will distribute Flip Video Ultra camcorders. These are easy-to-use, high-quality devices with on-board software to enable editing, organizing, and video publishing through AOL, YouTube, MySpace, and other popular video sharing sites.

flickr has been hinting at including video for a while now and now it’s there. I haven’t uploaded anything yet, but it  looks as easy as uploading photos. Check out  flickr’s blog post on the new service and their FAQ page as well.

Videos can be a max of 90 seconds  and no more than 150 MB.  Video upload is available to Pro members, though anyone can view video content. I like flickr’s description of video as being a “long photo”.  I like that they’re trying something new that members have asked for and that they’re not quite sure how it will work or where it will go. Trusting their community, way to go flickr!

I’m so glad I’ve taken some short videos this week, I’m going to see if I can upload something.

(via Angela at Melange)

Thinking about buying some of those terrific little Flip video cameras for your library? Then check out this rebate that Melissa Bergin from Niskayuna High School came across today:

If you go to Flip Video’s website  there is a rebate of $15 each if you buy three or more cameras. If you go to “where to buy” at the top menu, then pull down to “educators”.

Thanks Melissa!