http://www.nclaonline.org/NCL/ncl/NCL_63_3-4_Fall-Winter2005.pdf 90 — Fall/Winter 2005 North Carolina Libraries C C ired to the orld by Ralph Lee Scott Veoh Veoh is a new video hosting technology that is designed to transmit TV quality video over the Internet. !e Veoh network is a peer-casting network for video similar to peer-casting networks used for audio such as Kaaza, Morpheus, and various other podcasting software. It is especially useful with video iPods-type devices although it works just fine on laptops and desktops. Veoh is available in both Windows- and Macintosh-supported versions. Librarians will soon have patrons who will want to use this Veoh technology to view television content in the library. You can download the Veoh software free from the Veoh web site !e download is fairly fast and no prob- lems were encountered with installing the software. !ere are some problems however with the Macintosh version running versions of Quicktime earlier than 7.0. If you upgrade to Quicktime 7.0 there will be no problem. Sometimes locally-installed firewalls will prevent Veoh content from being downloaded however. Veoh differs from RSS (really simple syndication) in that Veoh provides actual content while RSS only sends you notice of an item of interest. You can think of Veoh as an Internet tele- vision broadcasting system. !rough Veoh you can upload video you have created and download and view video others have made. Most programs can also be downloaded to iPod-type video devices. Veoh allows the person uploading the video to provide the content free or to charge a fee-for viewing. !e current beta ver- sion of the software however, only allows free viewing, later versions of the software will incorporate the for fee function. Veoh does not however charge a fee for the use of their service. In addition you can add meta-tags (such as keywords) to help users locate your video. Unlike other peer-to-peer networks such as BitTorrent, you do not have to be online for your content to be viewed. !e video is stored on the Veoh load-sharing servers for retrieval. !e video does go through a sort of review process by Veoh that is designed to prevent the promotion of “misleading or incorrect information,” ensure that the rating is correct (i.e. the target audience is appropriate), and that the codex and quality of the video are appropriate. Veoh reserves the right to make “constructive edits to descriptions or information.” Veoh also allows you subscribe to a video series much in same way that you would subscribe to a magazine or listserv. Subscrib- ers are then notified when new videos in the series are uploaded. !e person submitting the video retains the copyright to the video. Veoh does not allow you to upload video that you have not produced or own the copyright to. !e videos available for viewing vary as one might expect. Some feature the family dog at Christmas, poetry recitations, while others are amateur pro- ductions such as: “!e Mermaids Invade the Men’s Toilet” which features two women at the Coney Island subway station who got tired of waiting in the line at the women’s room, and “Monty Python and the Holy Grail in Lego.” Also featured are news clips and music videos. Especially funny are the macTV shows which spoof Steve Jobs introducing the latest iWhatever. !e episode with the invisible iPod is a real gem! Most of the downloads are fairly fast and the video quality excellent. !e viewer can at times be small and re-sizing in Windows produces a significantly lower-quality video. !e files downloaded are fairly small but remain on your hard drive unless you delete them. Librarians will want to keep this in mind should patrons start watching large numbers of Veoh videos on library computers. Most files are stored in the main drive in a Veoh directory such as C:\Program Files\Veoh. To uninstall completely the Windows version of Veoh there is an uninstall program the Veoh directory (uninst.exe). To uninstall the Mac version you must go into the Mac Terminal mode and enter the Unix command: sudo/Applications/Veoh.app/Contents/Resources/clean- installation.sh. To just delete the video downloads on the Mac you use the Unix command: sudo/Applications/Veoh.app/Con- tents/Resources/cleaninstallation.sh mediafiles. Veoh is an example of new file sharing technology such as RSS and BitTorrent that allows users to exchange files over the Internet. Veoh will provide libraries with interesting possibilities such as storage space for bibliographic instruction videos and virtual library tours.