There is a well-known principle that the value of a network is equal to the square of the number of users. This principle is what gives the public Internet its astronomical value. The same principle applies to libraries, and with more than 160 million items in the collection, the Library of Congress is among the world's most valuable resources.
YouTube has more than 150 million videos available, and the billions of daily viewers certainly demonstrates its value. In 2012 alone, YouTube received some 48 hours of new video content uploaded every minute. This avalanche of video is a wonderful thing, and YouTube content can educate, inspire, and informs us.
The Educator as Curator
Good educators, whether public
school teachers or corporate
trainers, have long enriched their
lessons with content they find
useful. Whether snips from books,
magazines, or web sites, audio,
films and videos, teachers have
always illustrated their lessons with
materials that engage multiple
senses. Of course in the Internet age there
is no shortage of material, but
there is a shortage of curated
material. Any web search will
return both factually correct and
factually incorrect content, and
students often do not know the
difference. And the educator
needs to provide material to
students that has been not only
vetted as correct, but also as safe.
Today, the educator can quickly
find relevant content for free, and
this content is often more current,
and better, than expensive
purchased video-library collections. By simply importing selected, selfvetted content into DEVOS with a
few mouse clicks, a teacher, a
librarian, or a anyone, can create
their own collections of content
that may be used in classrooms or
provided to students for viewing at
home.
Library Example
One example of educational
content is Kahn Academy. While an
educator can simply use the Kahn
Academy web site to access the
videos, it is better to import the
desired videos into DEVOS so that
they are part of your collection.
Once in DEVOS, you can add in-line questions, create your own
titles and descriptions, and add
associated documents.
You might include several videos
about French History from
YouTube, several French History
videos from the school library, and
several recordings of recent
classroom lectures. It might also
include several student-produced
videos. Your "French History"
collection is now what you have
decided is useful and appropriate,
and it cost you nothing.
Importing YouTube
The import process is very simple.
Search YouTube for the topic you
wish. Refine your search and find
the video you like. Press a button
to add it to a list. Repeat until you
have all the content you want for a
particular subject. Press a button
to publish all of the videos in your
list to DEVOS.
Unlimited Storage
DEVOS provides unlimited video
storage for YouTube content, so
you can have as many videos as
you wish. You can create new
videos from your home, office, or
anywhere, elect to upload them to
YouTube and make them available
in DEVOS. This is a sensible thing
to do for content appropriate for
public distribution, since virtually
anyone will be able to view it. For
content that is private, simply
upload directly to DEVOS.
Channels
A Channel is a collection of
content. A channel called "History"
might contain all content related to
history, but you may also have
sub-channels that further refine
and organize you content library.
Your "History" channel may have
sub-channels "World History",
"Ancient History", "European
History", etc. Because of the
channel organization, it is easy to
have a subject matter expert be
responsible for the content in each
channel.
Importing Existing Libraries
Because DEVOS automatically
converts uploaded video into the
proper form, you can bulk import
existing video libraries, or import
content one-at-a-time. Legacy
video systems using MPEG-2 or
Windows Media can be migrated to
DEVOS with minimal complexity.
VCR / DVD / BluRay Import
DEVOS customers routinely digitize
their physical media using DEVOS.
Not only does this make the
content instantly available and
useful, it helps to preserve the
content and can eliminate cabinets
and draws overstuffed with tapes
and disks.
Bottom Line
You may no longer need to pay for
content subscriptions, and more
and more organizations are
electing to create their own.