Week 2 Response

            In the readings this week we have explored a couple important aspects of digital storytelling, videos and pictures. There are a couple well known websites that rank second to none when it comes to people sharing their pictures and videos with the world. You Tube allows people to easily post personal videos and search for videos that interest them. Flickr similarly allows people to share their pictures, and comment on pictures posted by others. These websites are great ways for ordinary people to tell their stories digitally. They are also proving to be good tools for public history institutions to utilize digital storytelling to share their stories.

            Public history institutions, such as museums and archives, have been using a feature of Flickr known as The Commons to share their photo collections with the world. According to The Commons home page, “The key goal of The Commons is to share hidden treasures from the world’s public photography archives.” Visitors of The Commons are also encouraged to leave comments or add tags to the photos they find. So not only are The Commons a way for organizations to share their photographs, it is also a way for the general public to contribute information and knowledge to these pictures. The best thing about The Commons is that some truly remarkable photographs which are publicly owned can finally be viewed by the public. Very few people can go to The Library of Congress or the National Archives to see these photos. But thanks to The Commons, these photographs can be conveniently viewed in one place while providing viewers a way to contribute their own insight to the collections.

            Museums and other public history organizations are also using YouTube to share their stories in a variety of ways. One thing that You Tube can do for organizations such as these is help to extend their collections beyond the physical confines of their facilities. The National Archives for example have posted several videos on You Tube to describe their collections. This way they can show people some of their more guarded collections that are normally difficult for the public to view. One You Tube video posted by The National Archives describes their room for treasures, which holds some of their more interesting collections including several documents that refer to the Yeti. Much like The Commons, You Tube allows institutions such as The National Archives to share special collections with the world which would otherwise be difficult to see.

            Pictures and videos are extremely important to digital storytelling. As they say a picture is worth 1,000 words, and our ability to use these digital mediums effectively will help us to tell our stories as best we can. You Tube and Flickr are both effective and easy to use. I encourage all aspiring digital storytellers to use these websites to help tell your story.