News & Documentaries in a YouTube Era: LinkTV Launches World ...

This was a good point -- it also made me laugh -- so let's start off with Michael Gowan's lede for his TechNewsDaily piece today:

Web surfers have instant access to more news videos than ever before, but quantity doesn't equal quality -- especially when it comes to finding informed sources of world news. Maybe that's why people spend so much time watching cat videos.

I love cat videos, too (especially this looped GIF), but there's only so much I can take before I'm bored and seeking something more substantive. That's why it's great to be working at KCET, where I sit near the minds that create the in-depth videos behind "SoCal Connected" and Artbound, to name a couple.

Now that KCET has announced its merger with LinkTV, there's even more to be excited about in this regard. Today LinkTV announced the release of a major project a long time in the making: the LinkTV World News App. It's a free iPad app that brings together the best of broadcast world news reporting from over 125 news outlets.

It also features raw video taken by the public as events unfold, a very important and recent development in news, as highlighted by this Link video:

In addition to videos and their descriptions, the app uses semantic technology to surface short, relevant encyclopedic entries (marked as Topics) and related articles from over 50,000 international news sources.

Then there's the documentary tab for longer-form looks at issues. I just opened the app up and the first one is the 102-minute "Barack Obama: Great Expectations" about his first term in office. Next to that is Vice's hour-long giude to the Balkans (54 minutes) and next to that is the half-hour documentary that explores whether Miss Tibet actually highlights the country's issues or not.

And lastly, my favorite: the My Link tab. On any video you watch in the app, click the "Follow this topic" in any encyclopedic entry under a video and it becomes part of your own curated page. I'm currently following California, Anonymous, Hurricane Sandy, and the U.S. Presidential Election.

So, all that said, this is worth a download. And, hey, it's free! Give it a whirl here and let us know what you think (also, if you have Google TV, there's a basic version of the app that can be downloaded here).

Source: http://www.kcet.org/shows/tvtalk/tv-news/linktv-launches-world-news-app.html

chuck colson death meteor showers 2012 ufc 145 jones vs evans marian hossa philip humber red sox