need a little advice re: videos

[Rivkah Schweke]

Can someone offer me an explanation of the best way to go about creating a "library" of videos on my ning site?  I'm just starting it so I don't have anything to show as of yet.  But here's my first hurdle:

There are over a dozen speakers, and each has his/her own "channel" on you tube with hours and hours of video.

What is the best way to present this on ning?

Additionally, we just started using u-stream, so people can see live lectures.  We'd like to display this right on the front page, and then send it "back" to the "archives" later.
  I guess that would be with the you tube stuff?

I just don't know how to do this properly.

I have more questions but I guess this is the first!

Oh and if someone knows of a good example that could give me some great inspiration, that would be amazing.  Thanks!

Thanks so much!

Rivkah

[Jim Kinson]

Rivkah, that is a good idea and something that might work well on my network too. Posting here so that I might join in on any ideas. Great question. Thanks, Jim

[Kat]

Give each speaker a unique tag. Apply the appropriate tag to each speaker's video. After that, you can add the tag to the end of this URL and hyperlink as you please (as a sub-tab, side-bar link, or whatever).

YOURURLHERE.com/video/video/search?q=

For example...

The URL for Speaker One's videos would look something like this: YOURURLHERE.com/video/video/search?q=speak1

Speaker Two's URL would look something like this: YOURURLHERE.com/video/video/search?q=speak2

And so on.

[Kat]

Oh! Since the speaker's videos are on Youtube, simply hyperlink to each of their channels on Youtube on your own site.

[Nor Cal Social Media]

Hi Rivkah,

I think Kat's suggestion is right on.

Here are a couple things I do to create channel separation for my site.

• Members with personal interest videos not directly related to my site's niche theme can post on their profile videos, but this is not something I feature. I don't have any links to the video library other than someone could find through profiles.
• Videos that do fit are embedded to a video blog. So the blog application is reserved for this kind of featured programming and is prominantly displayed via one of my main top navigation tabs.

I don't know if the same dynamic applies to what you are doing, but my point is since you can also embed videos in other social modules than the actual video section, you can take advantage of that to create distinct libraries.

For instance, if those speakers are actually members on your site, then perhaps they might upload their own videos. Or, if that was not something you wanted to bother them with, you could accomplish the same essential thing for them by posting to their comment wall, or organizing via the forums application.

It might depend on how you want people to find the media. If you want them to search it, then title/tag. However, if you want to guide them through it in any particular order such as by speaker or subject matter, you might also accomplish this through use of discussions.

U-Stream to archive might fall right into place with a chronological application like a blog. from there you can RSS FEED that places like I've done with my Ning Creators profile.

I know there's been talk of "video categories" you might want to look into for more relevant info. One good suggestion was to create albums like the photos have. In lieu of that capability, you could use photo albums to present videos. You choose a pic that acts as the cover for the presentation, then add the link in your photo description.

So there are a number of possibilities for this depending on what you are aiming for and how you plan to make use of your site's applications.

Best, Anthony