Digital Ethnography: The YouTube Project
April 2, 2007I first came across Digital Ethnography after I’d finished my ALT project and was starting to move on to my Dissertation. I followed up a link which led me to the stunning The Machine Is Us/ing Us – which I blogged in my Transitions post on 17 February – just 17 days after it was released, but – according to the trails that led me to it – I already felt way behind the buzz!
On a more recent post The Machine is Us/ing Us Final Version (8 March) Wesch describes the timeline of the film’s rise to fame:
On January 31st I released the 2nd draft of The Machine is Us/ing Us hoping to receive feedback from my colleagues. (The first draft was only seen by my Digital Ethnography class 2 days before the 2nd draft was released on YouTube.) I sent it to 10 people. Four days later it was the most blogged about video in the blogosphere and the wild ride had begun… It is hard to believe that a little video I created in my basement in St. George Kansas could be seen by over 1.7 million people, be translated into (at least) 5 languages, and be shown to large audiences at major conferences on 6 continents within just one month of its creation.
The ‘Final Version’ is still brilliant, still mesmerising…
[youtube]NLlGopyXT_g[/youtube]
I check back on Digital Ethnography every now and then to see what they’re up to and today found their YouTube Project – I’ve picked up their RSS feed now to make sure I follow what happens next!
