Hello everyone! Frequent YouTube users among you may have already noticed the new channel format that was introduced in March (currently in beta). Called YouTube One, it’s billed as a way to better personalize and brand your page, which it does pretty well. I experimented with LSNTAP’s YouTube channel to see what YouTube One has to offer. Let’s take a look at the changes.
Channel Art
The first and most visible change is the addition of “channel art,” displayed in a banner format much like your Facebook page. This is a great way to make your organization’s colors and branding more prevalent, to include a nice photo of your staff or office, or to just make your page more visual overall.
The big however for me, though, was that it was a bit difficult to find an image that looked good for LSNTAP’s page. First of all, you need a fairly large image – larger than most of us are used to using for profile images or social media. At a minimum, it should be 2120 by 1192 pixels; YouTube recommends 2560 by 1440 pixels. In contrast, a Facebook banner image is 851 by 314 pixels.
Secondly, the mechanism for adjusting the way the channel art looks is not terribly flexible. YouTube One is designed to be viewed on all sizes of screens – which is great, and we’ll get to that below – but adjusting the channel art so that it looks good in all formats is no easy task. After you upload an image and click “Adjust the crop,” you’re presented with a screen like this:
The large box and the smaller one inside it represent different screen sizes. From what I can tell, the large one is for viewing on a TV and the smaller one for viewing on a desktop (mobile viewing is also considered but I’m assuming that it’s just a smaller version of the desktop size). That’s great, but after a certain point you cannot make the boxes any smaller – in the example above, they only get a few pixels smaller than what’s shown. In addition, you can’t move that smaller center box around independent of the big one to get a better picture.
The result is rather frustrating.
In the end, I went with a simpler, more repetitive image that didn’t rely so much on vertical objects (like Seattle’s Space Needle):
Maybe if I had read YouTube’s Channel Art Guidelines from the beginning some of this could have been avoided. (On a related note, the typewriter was supposed to be ironic since we’re a tech organization and did that come across?)
Ready for multiple devices
As I mentioned above, YouTube One is designed to look good whether it’s seen on a smart phone, a tablet, a desktop computer, or a TV. That’s partly why the channel art is so tricky – but it does pay off. With all the recent hullabaloo about mobile-friendly sites, YouTube has done all the thinking for you; you just have to follow the rules.
Web links
You may have also noticed a group of icons in the bottom right-hand corner of the channel art images above. Whether you did or didn’t, here they are again:
In addition to describing your organization in the “About” section of your channel, you can add links to your website, other social media sites, or whatever you want. These links will be inserted as an overlay on your channel art. You can also choose to feature other channels to promote their content as well.
Encourage subscriptions with a “trailer”
One of the more interesting features of YouTube One is that it encourages you to create a “trailer” for your channel, encouraging people to subscribe. It only appears for those who have not already subscribed, so that it doesn’t get in the way of subscribers. You can use an already existing video, or create a totally new one; either way, it should be quick and light and contain only the essential information about your organization (plus maybe an epic battle or dance number? Just a thought).
Sections
YouTube One gives you a checklist of things you should ostensibly do to maximize the potential of your fancy new channel. Most of these I’ve already gone through above, but when I reached the suggestion to “add a section” I was stumped. What is a section? How is it different from a playlist?
It turns out that sections are pretty much what they sound like and that I may have overreacted a little. Sections basically offer alternative ways to organize your content in the different ways in which visitors to your channel might search for specific videos.
For example on the LSTNAP channel, a visitor might be interested in just looking at the most updated information in the webinars we’ve done so far this year: in that case, they can visit our “Webinars 2013” playlist. But what if they had heard about our insanely popular viral video and weren’t sure what it was called? Well, then they could check under the “Popular uploads” section. Or if they were interested in a particular webinar that was split into pieces (as we’ve done with our most recent two webinars, “35 Free and Low-Cost Tools” and “50 Tech Tips”), they could find all the pieces of those videos in their own sections.
Sections can be created based on a number of criteria: recent or popular uploads, playlists as a whole or individual playlists, or a certain tag. For instance, I tagged the “35 Free and Low-Cost Tools” webinar videos with a descriptive tag, made that the section criteria, and presto! A specialized section for those videos. You can create sections with any combination of videos based on a specific tag; new videos with that tag will be added as they’re uploaded.
Sections can be displayed as horizontal rows or vertical lists, and it’s easy to re-order them – just hover over one and this set of icons will appear in the top right-hand corner:
From here, you can shuffle sections up or down, or (with the pencil icon) edit their criteria and appearance or delete them. Turns out sections are pretty useful!
(Random fact: saying a word so often that it begins to lose its meaning is called semantic satiation and I think that’s what happened with this section on sections. Sorry about that. Section section section section section.)
What do you think of YouTube One? Will you switch over, or will you revert to the old format (for as long as you still can, anyway)? Why? Tell us in the comments!
Happy Friday, everyone!
Liz
Great little free open source flowchart tool: Dia
This presentation is being put on by one of my new favorite youtube channels, the channel for Princeton's Center for Information Technology Policy.
Bring Your Own Device and Sandboxing Technology
Next Week: Special Panel Lunch Discussion: Friday, May 10, 2013, 12:30 PM, 306 Sherrerd Hall, Streaming Live: https://www.youtube.com/user/
CLE credit expected.
Join us for a panel discussion on the evolving legal, policy, and technical issues associated with the use of personal mobile devices for work. The panelists will explore the tension between the need to protect business information (including personal information for which businesses are responsible) and respect for users’ privacy and personal content. The current advantages and limitations of “sandboxing” technology will be covered, focusing on opportunities for enhanced information security (on the business side) and privacy (on the personal side).
The panelists will be Keith Epstein, General Attorney & Associate General Counsel Advanced Mobility Solutions, AT&T Services, Inc.; Bart Huffman, Privacy & Data Security Practice, Locke Lord LLP; and a speaker from OpenPeak, Inc., which provides multimedia touch-screen device and device management platforms.
Hello everyone! Thanks to everyone who attended the 50 Tech Tips You Absolutely Should Know webinar training last week! For those of you who didn’t, keep reading for some great tips! Videos of each section will be released every two weeks and added to this post.
Our presenters included:
- Liz Keith from Pro Bono Net
- Leah Peabbles from Colorado Legal Services
- Anna Hineline from Legal Assistance of Western New York
- Kim Marshall from Arkansas Legal Services Partnership
- and Brian Rowe from LSNTAP
To kick things off, Keith talked about a few of her favorite tech tools:
Google Reverse Image Look Up allows the user to search an image, rather than key words. Using this tool, you can find other sites that use stock images you’re considering using on your site, or find other sizes of those images.
Goo.gl is similar to bit.ly, in that it can create shortened links. In addition, it will produce statistics on how many people use the link and where they were referred from. It can also generate QR codes.
Embed a YouTube video to a Specific Start Time to avoid unnecessary parts of lengthy videos.
Broadcast an event using Ustream with your own channel, hosted on Ustream or on a third party like Facebook. It’s useful for conferences and training, as a community forum, or for conducing interviews.
Wordle.net is a tool for creating attractive word-based infographics. The user simply inserts a URL or copy & pastes text and the tool creates a “word cloud” with the most frequently-used words in the text displayed largest. The user can adjust how it looks.
Easel.ly is another easy-to-use infographic creator with a group of templates that are free to use.
Infogr.am is a slightly more sophisticated inforgraphic tool than Easel.ly. An alternative is visual.ly, which can create a weekly infographic of your site’s statistics. To see some good uses of infographics, see the Center for Computer Assisted Legal Instruction (CALI)’s Pinterest boards.
Goodwill Community Foundation has a number of free tutorials (in both English and Spanish) on common pieces of office software like Excel and Word.
DigitalGov University also has a number of technical lessons ranging from constructing an API to social media. It’s directed at federal employees and live trainings frequently require a fee, but archived trainings are mostly free.
W3schools.com is geared toward a technical audience but also has some great tutorials on things like HTML and CSS. Codeacademy is an another alternative, as is lynda.com.
Next, Peabbles talked about a few of her favorite tools:
WinMerge is a free, open-source tool for comparing folders and documents to see which has updates or differences.
The Snipping Tool is a built-in feature of Windows 7 which allows the user to take quick screenshots.
Password Tips include not writing down your passwords, not auto-saving passwords, not using common words like “dog,” and changing passwords often. Try using Password Savvy to create more complicated and harder-to-hack passwords.
Print to PDF in Outlook overcomes Mac-to-PC or other formatting barriers, since almost everyone can open PDFs. Essentially, it creates a PDF of your emails that can be sent to someone else.
Fences Desktop Organization creates folders to help organize a messy (computer) desktop.
Format Factory is an easy way to convert files from one file type to another, as well as resize photos.
Unshorten.It is an easy, free way to unshorten links if you’re skeptical of where they came from or if they’re trustworthy.
Toogl is a really easy-to-use, free online timekeeping device.
7-Zip is a free .zip file extractor.
Draw in Firefox with a browser add-in. It can help if you’re taking screenshots, demonstrating a website, or doing some other kind of online presentation.
Next, Hineline talked about a few of her favorite tools:
Google Apps have great tools, and the Deployment page is really helpful for transitioning from Microsoft Office products.
support.google.com is a go-to place to answer any questions about Google products.
Email as Tasks in Task List in Gmail; your email is simply added to your task list.
Google Keep is Google’s version of Evernote; you can save all kinds of lists, links, photos, and other notes. It can sync between your smartphone, computer, and Google Drive account.
Two-step Verification has become popular security measure. It sends you a code via text message when you log into your email or other accounts via a new computer as an extra layer of security.
Chrome Remote Desktop is a free app for Google Chrome. It allows someone to both see your screen and take control of your computer. This is a great resource for tech support or anyone who works from multiple computers or places.
Single Sign On allows you to use a third-party account (like Facebook, Yahoo, Gmail, Twitter, etc) to log into other sites. So if you’re already logged onto Gmail from your account, you can sign on to other linked accounts with a single click.
Enlocked is an email encryption service. It strikes a nice balance between being secure and being usable - it’s not the most secure or the most usable, but it’s a little of each. Both email and attachments are encrypted, and the recipient can either download a plugin to read the email, or they can log in to enlocked.com to read the email.
Passpack stores passwords and allows you to share them with other users.
Asana is a project manager in which users create workspaces to which other users can be invited; within workspaces you can create specific tasks. Asana is free up to a certain number of users.
Next, Marshall shared a few of her favorite tips, focused on content management:
Borrow content from ftc.gov, dhs.gov, fema.gov or your state’s attorney general website. Visitors can order brochures or other information for free, as well as find videos and other content that are free to use.
www.sharelaw.org is a great, secure site which allows access to other legal aid sites from which users can borrow content.
www.lawhelpinteractive.org also has some great pro se resources which you can download and borrow for your own program.
Quick and Easy Fact Sheets are pre-formatted templates to help attorneys write content for the site.
Plain Language Tools include WriteClearly.org, PlainLanguage.gov, and LSNTAP’s Readability & Designing for Low Literacy Tools. Aim for a fifth- to eighth-grade reading level (and keep an eye out for LSNTAP’s upcoming Web Accessibility Guide!)
Quick Writing Tips include short sentences, bullet points/numbers, large and easy-to-understand headings, lots of white space, a 1-2 page maximum, and getting straight to the point.
Print Friendly allows you to view a website with only text; no sidebars, videos, or anything else distracting. It can also create PDFs.
QuickMeme.com creates easy memes that you can use within your office to encourage each other or just take a break!
Songza is a great site for streaming music. Users a presented with a set of options for pre-made playlists based on what day and time it is and what activity they’re engaged in. For example, a weekday morning might feature “drinking coffee,” “working,” or “waking up happy,” each of which will present a series of genres and individual playlists to choose from.
Finally, Keith presented the tech tips garnered from a survey sent to the LSTech email list:
UltraVNC from Michael Bowen of Community Legal Services allows you to use your PC to remotely control someone else’s.
colorfilter.wickline.org and read-able.com from Liz Leman of LSNTAP help the user with accessibility issues. The former displays a website the way that a colorblind person would see it, and the latter tests the readability of your website.
ninite.com from Luke Elzinga or Montana Legal Services Association is a great go-to site for setting up new computers because it displays software packages that are frequently downloaded together.
Mention.net from Michele Nicolet of the Shriver Center is a social media “listening” tool. It can send you alerts when your organization is mentioned on a set of sites that you specify. It can also share, export, and analyze data. It’s free up to 500 mentions per month.
Google Forms from Michael Hofrichter of the Houston Volunteer Lawyers Program helps to create all kinds of forms: registration, volunteer information forms, and so on. The interface is similar to SurveyMonkey and doesn’t require any specific technical expertise to use. Data is tracked in a Google spreadsheet.
WorkFlowy from McGregor Smyth of New York Lawyers for the Public Interest is a powerful list-making tool. Each item on a list can become its own list, with separate pages and items.
Tech support care packages from Jillian Theil of Pro Bono Net creates specialized groups of tech support “care packages” to help parents or grandparents understand how to tell if emails are suspicious, how to unsubscribe from newsletters, and more.
Use OneNote 2010 for screenshots from Chuck Henegar of Pine Tree Legal Assistance. OneNote makes screenshots very simple.
Get offline from Kate Bladow of Powered Pursuits with sites like netsquared.org and nten.org/techclub. These are social networking sites for organizing meet-ups for local techies.
Create a tech tips program of your own from Patrick Reynolds of Pro Bono Net. Use a newsletter or other forums for organizations to share tech tips internally.
Have a great day!
Liz
