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New Videos Coming to Business.g
As you may have heard, Google (who now owns YouTube) has signed an agreement with the General Services Administration that allows sites like Business.gov to serve their videos from YouTube. Although, we’ve only had a few videos accessible on Business.gov (mainly through our online gadget) we’ve been limited as to how we incorporate them into our pages. With the new YouTube capabilities, our goal is to seamlessly integrate relevant videos throughout the site and give small business owners another resource for good information.
Videos From Across the Government
As you know, there is an enormous amount of information that resides on federal, state and local government sites and Business.gov makes it easier for business owners to get that information. What you may not know is that many of these agencies also provide informational videos that help businesses. There are a surprising number of them from the IRS, the SBA, and the Department of Labor to name a few.
We are in the process of assembling some of the more suitable videos into one place: the new Business.gov YouTube channel. Even though you’ll be viewing the videos on the Business.gov site, as an added benefit, YouTube will actually be serving the videos. Consequently, there will be no added cost to Business.gov or to you, the taxpayer.
Federally Branded YouTube Channel
Google’s agreement with the federal government gives Business.gov several other benefits in addition to serving the videos. If you go to YouTube itself and view the Business.gov channel you’ll see that it’s branded as a “federal” channel. That means that the collection of videos will have been created for or endorsed by Business.gov. And this will give viewers the confidence to know that the material presented is high quality, relevant and substantiated.
Also, the channel will be free of advertisements. As you can imagine, the federal government cannot endorse randomly presented ads on its sites. Finally, we’ll be allowed to present videos that are longer than the 10-minute cap that YouTube requires of non-federal sites. We will of course choose carefully how long we make our videos so we don’t bore people to death!
One of the key requirements is that we make our video presentations 508 Compliant. We want to be sure that they are accessible by the widest audience possible. For instance, all of the videos will have closed captioning for the hearing impaired and each player will be controllable by keyboard commands. Additionally, careful use of color and graphics will be considered to assist those who are visually impaired.
Collaborate, Participate and Share
If you visit the channel today, you’ll note that it’s just in its infancy. However, one of the key videos is our entry on the White House Innovations Gallery. In May, we were asked by the White House Office of Science and Technology to demonstrate ways that Business.gov uses participation and collaboration to achieve its mission. We created this video to give viewers an overview of some of our key features including the Business.gov Community. It’s a great honor to be recognized as one of a few federal sites that is furthering the President’s vision of a more effective and open government.
As we develop the channel further, you’ll see more videos that cover topics of interest to small businesses. You may even find that you’d like to add these videos to your own site. If so, look for the “Embed This Channel” code on the left side of the page. Copy it, include it on your site or blog, and YouTube will provide access to our ever growing collection of videos. At Business.gov we strive to share knowledge with small business owners and we hope you’ll share them too.
Videos From Across the Government
As you know, there is an enormous amount of information that resides on federal, state and local government sites and Business.gov makes it easier for business owners to get that information. What you may not know is that many of these agencies also provide informational videos that help businesses. There are a surprising number of them from the IRS, the SBA, and the Department of Labor to name a few.
We are in the process of assembling some of the more suitable videos into one place: the new Business.gov YouTube channel. Even though you’ll be viewing the videos on the Business.gov site, as an added benefit, YouTube will actually be serving the videos. Consequently, there will be no added cost to Business.gov or to you, the taxpayer.
Federally Branded YouTube Channel
Google’s agreement with the federal government gives Business.gov several other benefits in addition to serving the videos. If you go to YouTube itself and view the Business.gov channel you’ll see that it’s branded as a “federal” channel. That means that the collection of videos will have been created for or endorsed by Business.gov. And this will give viewers the confidence to know that the material presented is high quality, relevant and substantiated.
Also, the channel will be free of advertisements. As you can imagine, the federal government cannot endorse randomly presented ads on its sites. Finally, we’ll be allowed to present videos that are longer than the 10-minute cap that YouTube requires of non-federal sites. We will of course choose carefully how long we make our videos so we don’t bore people to death!
One of the key requirements is that we make our video presentations 508 Compliant. We want to be sure that they are accessible by the widest audience possible. For instance, all of the videos will have closed captioning for the hearing impaired and each player will be controllable by keyboard commands. Additionally, careful use of color and graphics will be considered to assist those who are visually impaired.
Collaborate, Participate and Share
If you visit the channel today, you’ll note that it’s just in its infancy. However, one of the key videos is our entry on the White House Innovations Gallery. In May, we were asked by the White House Office of Science and Technology to demonstrate ways that Business.gov uses participation and collaboration to achieve its mission. We created this video to give viewers an overview of some of our key features including the Business.gov Community. It’s a great honor to be recognized as one of a few federal sites that is furthering the President’s vision of a more effective and open government.
As we develop the channel further, you’ll see more videos that cover topics of interest to small businesses. You may even find that you’d like to add these videos to your own site. If so, look for the “Embed This Channel” code on the left side of the page. Copy it, include it on your site or blog, and YouTube will provide access to our ever growing collection of videos. At Business.gov we strive to share knowledge with small business owners and we hope you’ll share them too.
Message Edited by StuartR on 06-11-2009 12:44 PM
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