The Battle of Video Sharing Sites pt. I

We have a bit of a conundrum at KHGN. We want to produce videos on our Web site, but we don't want to eat up server space.

At the same time, we want to be mobile ready and have our videos be viewable on HCISD computers behind the districts firewall. The best way to have a mobile-ready video is to utilize a video-sharing site, like the two featured with the following logos:

Here's the basic problem. Neither of these sites are accessible behind the district's firewall. So we will continue to post videos saved as .wmv, a format that takes up the minimal amount of our server space but is not applicable on mobile devices. On top of that, we want to post videos to one of these two sites because they offer an amount of user-friendliness we cannot compete with.

Because a lot of the readers may also be looking into video sharing applications, I will write about my trials and tribulations with YouTube and Vimeo (and a possible third contender) as I decide what to use.

So first, here's my preliminary pros and cons to the two sites:

Vimeo
check out our Vimeo page
Pros: I can store videos of any size and organize them into channels. They have a mobile application for all phones and can easily be embedded into a Web page. Vimeo is also not as much of a "free-for-all" of content like other sites.

This site is like that guy who won't go to a sporting event if his tickets are spectacular, even if they're free. Sure, he's not going to a belligerent fan at the game, but he's going to be a stick in the mud when his friends score free nose-bleed tickets.

Cons: The free version has a limited amount of storage space, 500 MB each week. For the first video I uploaded, it took at least 90 minutes to publish online. So I can't embed that video until the time is up.

YouTube
check out our YouTube Channel
Pros: I can store an unlimited supply of videos onto this site and organize them through channels and playlists. This is the most mobile friendly site out there. It's the king of video sharing. It's easy to embed these videos into a site. Many Web sites have embed applications specifically geared for YouTube.

Also, YouTube is completely free and runs with Google Video, so they are easily findable.

Cons: I can only post videos that are 10 minutes in length or shorter. Although we try to keep our content under 10 minutes, it would be nice to have the flexibility to post our lengthier videos on our video sharing site.

Like Vimeo, HCISD employees can not view YouTube behind the firewall.

Unlike Vimeo, YouTube is a free for all. It's like the chest-painting, obnoxious guy who will take any ticket he can get to go to the sporting event. He'll be the life of the game once he gets there, but will slowly turn inappropriate as the game goes on.

So a person viewing KHGN content via YouTube could easily stray onto some content that HCISD would not like to be associated with.