From Vlogging to Blogging: Peter Oakley (YouTube's geriatric1927)

Anm.: Deutsche Version dieses Blogs hier.
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I registered my first channel at YouTube, back in mid-August 2007, and started to subscribe to fellow YouTubers that seemed interesting. And some time later (I'm not exactly sure when; might have been 2008 already), I discovered the channel of someone who was unique in several ways.

First of all, you might think that YouTube is the realm of the young exclusively - kids, teens and young adults between 13 and maybe 20 years of age. Well, although they certainly make up quite a big part of the video-making YouTube community (and, in so many cases, make tremendously fascinating, entertaining and stunningly well edited videos!), there are more age groups represented there - yours truly included, haha!

Peter Oakley (83)
well known as The Internet Granddad
on his YouTube channel
http://www.youtube.com/user/geriatric1927

Still, I was surprised (in the best possible way!), when I, one day, watched a video from a YouTuber named geriatric1927.

An elderly gentleman was talking about events from his life - doing so in a wonderful English, and with a sonorous, yet gentle voice, that compelled me. I finished watching this video, wrote a comment, and then went straight to this YouTuber's channel, hoping that I might find some more videos.

Indeed I did - way more than 100 self made videos were on display there, and most of them, by the time, were part of a series called "Telling it All", just as the video I had watched had been.

Well, I made sure to first click the "Subscribe" button - because I wanted to be on the safe side there, not wanting to miss any of his newly uploaded video from then on, but watch it "fresh from the oven", so to speak. And then, I spent possibly two hours in a row watching this YouTuber's videos from #1 onwards. And in the following days, I returned ever so often and kept watching, as much as my time allowed me to do.

Back then already, geriatric1927 had way over 40,000 subscribers, and was well on his way to make it to 50,000. For those of you who are a bit shaky with multi-digit numbers, here's the verbal expression:

Forty frickin' Thousand ... Fifty that's unbelievable Thousand!

Hmm, are these a mathematical terms? Well, if not, they sure should be :-)!

I wrote a lot of comments on his videos, because every single one was simply interesting, captivating and entertaining. But all there was and is, of the things that fascinate me, is far better self-experienced than written in a blog, so I highly recommend that you take a look yourself!

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When I started making videos myself, and uploaded my first one on July 30th 2008, I had never thought to get any subscribers at all. I didn't even know whether I would make more than just one more video - because my YouTube debut "Oh, I'm on camera!" was only the (crash?) test dummy for the video I really wanted to make, which had a purpose and message - going out to (back then still) presidential candidate Barack Obama, and launching a campaign to support one of the YouTubers I was subscribed to. And this second video (made one day later) I started sending to all of my subscriptions (geriatric1927 among them), and to a lot of other YouTubers.

And then something happened that I had never expected: I got a first subscriber myself ... and it indeed was geriatric1927! I was amazed and humbled - seriously!

Well, since then, geriatric1927 and I gradually became friends on YouTube. Much has happened over the time: Good things, interesting things and funny things - and the YouTube "nomes de plume" were enhanced by exchanging real word names. And so, Michael Eckstorm, aka me, met Peter Oakley, aka him :-)!

Peter and I communicated often, by video comments and messages on YouTube, and finally also via Skype. Lots of hours were spent in the following years talking there, which we still do, and it's always a tremendous pleasure. I produced a few video responses for videos of his, and we even made a few video collaborations, on my key topic "Bullying" as well as on Peter's most important issue: To help elderly people learn how to use the benefits of the computer and the multiple possibilities of the online world.

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Well, and now, Peter has broadened the spectrum of his online activities again:

Apart from his work on YouTube (which just saw the upload of his 300th video!), his personal website askgeriatric, and numerous other activities online and on location in various countries (you'd be surprised how busy and eventful his daily schedule is!), Peter now established a blog website that will complement his presence on the Internet.

So this indeed is the step "From Vlogging to Blogging" - but this is by no means a step back, on the contrary. By using this modern and versatile medium, Peter expands his online communication portfolio once more, and will become present in the blogger community, too.

And so, I want to take the opportunity and say:

Welcome, Peter, to the world of bloggers! I look very much forward to what you'll have to say there ... "Writing it all" :-)!

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Books on the subject of Blogging:

Susannah Gardner + Shan Birley, "Blogging For Dummies"
(no pun intended!)

Tara Frey, "Blogging For Bliss: Crafting Your Own Online Journal"


Books on the subject of YouTube:

Doug Salin + Chris Botello, "YouTube for Dummies"
(see above, haha!)

Jean Burgess + Joshua Green, "YouTube: Online Video and Participatory Culture"


Video editing software, to make videos yourself:

Adobe Premiere Elements
(Windows + Mac)

Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 10 Suite
(Windows)

Final Cut Express
(Mac)

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