What is YouTube?

www.YouTube.com is a video-sharing website both for amateur and professional content.
Unregistered users can watch the videos, while registered users are permitted to upload an unlimited number of videos.
Before the launch of YouTube in 2005 (originally created by employees of PayPal and now owned by Google), there were few simple methods available for ordinary computer users who wanted to post videos online. With its easy to use interface, YouTube made it possible for anyone who could use a computer to post a video that millions of people could watch within a few minutes. The wide range of topics covered by YouTube has turned video sharing into one of the most important parts of Internet culture.
Members of YouTube.com are offered to be a part of groups called "Channel Types" that make their channel more distinctive. One of the channels is the “Non-Profit & Activism” which Global Unions are part of. See ITUC’s for example: http://www.youtube.com/ITUCCSI
If you are interested in viewing YouTube videos, you can:

• Visit the website: www.YouTube.com
• Get them on your phone: http://www.youtube.com/mobile
• Add videos to your website: http://www.youtube.com/youtubeonyoursite
• Get YouTube feeds with RSS (for more on RSS please visit the UNI webpage under e-UNI) http://www.youtube.com/t/rss_feeds

If you are interested in publishing videos on YouTube, please read the following chapter.

Alternatives to YouTube are listed here: http://chaos-laboratory.com/2007/08/30/top-31-free-alternatives-to-youtube-video-hosting-sites/

How do I start in YouTube?
There are two main reasons to publish your union videos on YouTube:

1. Offer them to a wider audience
2. Your webserver cannot manage the weight of your videos or doesn’t do streaming, so you put them on YouTube and embed them on your webpages (embedding videos means putting a piece of html code on your own website which links to the videos which are originally on the YouTube servers. You’ll find the code to embed next to every YouTube video:
   

So…let’s start! You first need to create an account. Go to http://www.youtube.com and click “Sign Up” at the top of the page. Follow the easy instructions and you’re ready to start uploading.
Video sources:

• If your union outsources it’s video production to a company, ask them for a “YouTube version” they will need to send you for you to publish online
• If you’ve taken videos with your digital camera, make sure they are no longer than 10 minutes in length and no bigger than 1GB in file size. They will have to be in one of the following file formats: .WMV, .AVI, .MOV, MPEG, .MP4, DivX, .FLV, or .OGG
  (check the settings on your video camera and make sure you film in widescreen format – 16:9 if possible, as YouTube changed the aspect ratio of its web video player from the traditional 4:3 to 16:9.)
• The mobile phone video format is also accepted on YouTube, so if you’ve taken videos with your phone, transfer them over to your computer and use those to publish online!

Click the yellow Upload button and browse for your file(s). Make sure you categorise them and name them properly with good tags (keywords) so they are easily found online.
For more help, click here: http://www.youtube.com/t/yt_handbook_home

Once you’ve created your account, let UNI know so we can subscribe to your video feed! http://www.youtube.com/user/UNIglobalunion

What’s in YouTube for unions?

• A direct access to an online database of union videos which can be used for media publications, campaigning, building awareness,
• A possibility of sharing these online video “libraries” with members and growing links with members already active on YouTube,
• A new way of networking with other unions online and staying informed of union activities world-wide,
• A chance to dialogue with the union videos’ audience who comment on the videos and expect a discussion to take place on the various issues,
• An improvement for unions’ visibility online, being part of one of the fastest-growing, most popular data-sharing websites,
• A number of unions may not have a website per say or simply the possibility of streaming their videos through their service provider’s server: YouTube stocks and organises your videos and streams them online for free.

How does UNI use YouTube?
UNI has its own channel at: http://www.youtube.com/user/UNIglobalunion where a number of videos have already been posted. We’ve set up a YouTube booth in our Head Office to catch our visitors on camera and offer more video material to complement our communications. We post our videos on YouTube and then embed them on various pages of our website. For example if we have a video on Private Equity, we’ll put it up on YouTube and then integrate it into our Private Equity webpage so our website visitors don’t have to go to YouTube and leave the page to see the video. We are hoping to find more union channels on YouTube, so let us know you’re there!

More help:

• Contact me: webmaster[a]uniglobalunion.org
• Visit: http://www.commoncraft.com where web 2.0 tools are explained in quick and simple videos (in English) – really worth having a look!