Over 17,000 views on YouTube in 24 hours

This does not qualify as a viral video, perhaps, but I was still blown away to see that my daughter's 2 minute response to President Obama's speech yesterday has had over 17,500 views on YouTube in just 24 hours.

Whoa! What happened? I'm not 100% certain, but apparently thanks to Twitter and Facebook links it was shared rather widely yesterday, including on the site Reddit. (H/T to PBKrissy.)

I'm sure Sarah will be as surprised as I was to see those view statistics when she comes home from school today. How amazing to think that she shared her thoughts with over 17,000 people in the last 24 hours... The day of social networking and viral video sharing in which we live is remarkable, and is fraught with opportunities as well as dangers. In any previous era of human history, would a 9 year old have had a similar chance to share her voice and thoughts with others around the world, particularly in a comparable timeframe? I don't think so. Even though I work with social media constantly, situations like this still amaze me.

The global stage is here.* Are we having the conversations we need to have with each other to not only remain safe, but also leverage the tremendous power this learning and communications platform affords us?

Tonight at our church here in Edmond I'm starting a 15 week course entitled, "Digital Dialog: The Intersection of Technology, Learning and Faith." My lesson plan just changed - I'll be sharing this video and these viewer statistics tonight as a conversation starter. I'm also going to share the TEDtalk, "Kevin Kelly on the next 5,000 days of the web."

Consider the fact that this presentation was recorded in December 2007, a year and a half ago. These statistics are amazing, but they are, in fact, outdated. Wow.

H/T to Anthony Mayfield for the reference to this video on his post, "The anonymity dilemma."

* "The Global Stage" is a term I first heard from Marco Torres. Marco has created, btw, a new website using Squarespace. I can't wait to hear him present in about a month at ACTEM in Augusta, Maine!

Technorati Tags:
dialog, education, obama, safety, sharing, video, youtube, viral, response

On this day..

• YouTube comment moderation is great (and recommended) when videos go viral - 2009
• Find a guest speaker via the MERLOT Virtual Speaker's Bureau - 2008
• Renee Hobbs coming to Oklahoma to address media literacy - 2008
• Improvements in Garageband '08 for podcast publishing - 2007
• Podcast189: Things Mid-Del Learning Leaders Are Passionate About - 2007
• Digitizing audio - 2005
• Surrender or Commitment? - 2005