August 2009 Archives

In the never-ending quest to figure out just how useless/boring/annoying a homemade video can be and still somehow "go viral" comes Viral Video Film School. Part of Current TV's InfoMania program, smart-ass host Brett Erlich provides informal (read: highly snarky, occasionally funny) "trend reports" covering the gamut of decidedly not-ready-for-prime-time video clips dumped online.

Topics range from the straight home video cheesiness of YouTube's Best Campfire Explosions and People Destroying Things to the sad and terrifying spectacle of YouTube's Worst Demo Reels. And while the mind reels just pondering the sheer number of hours this guy sinks into watching all these clips -- not to mention thinking up jokes about them -- the most terrifying part is that Erlich's wraps, more often than not, do seem to reveal trends in viral video.

So forget all that fancy-schmancy metrics research and the intentionally low-fi "viral video" you're company is producing: just shoot some grainy footage of tortoise sex or document your latest shopping binge on a webcam and voila! You've got viral video.

When we turn to our computers or fancy blinky gadgets for our hourly news streams, one of those sources is Twitter. And when Twitter goes down because of a supposed DDOS attack against one politically-vocal account in Georgia, social networks everywhere call for all hands on deck. 45 million pairs of thumbs take their day of rest. Work productivity swells. NFL coaches desist in fining their players. Chuck Norris hashtags stand still. Aplusk drops off the trail.

Amid Twitter humor videos and speculation ad nauseum surrounding the criminal hackers and "Cyxymu," the social network outage affecting Facebook, LiveJournal, and the Google umbrella of sites may give other news sources a fighting chance for your eyes and ears. Maybe we'll even pick up a newspaper.

All Twitter jokes aside, Cyxymu took a risk in identifying himself as Georgy, a 34-year-old economics lecturer and critic of Moscovian politics. Approaching the one-year anniversary of the Caucasus region dispute, this is another reminder that social network shutdowns and political silencing are forming a partnership.