YouTube Channel

Nature London has a YouTube Channel, Nature London YouTube Channel. The channel contains videos taken by Nature London members that can be shared from our website, in The Cardinal, at indoor meetings, and in E-Newsletter. No account is needed to view the videos, but please consider creating a Google account, subscribing to the channel and enabling notifications. Subscribers will receive a notification every time a new video is uploaded.

If you have a video that you would like to share, please submit it to the Nature London YouTube Coordinator at videos@naturelondon.com. A few guidelines to consider for video submissions follow:

1. All submitted videos must be owned by Nature London members.
2. Contributing videos to the database grants permission for their use in Nature London publications, both print and electronic. For any other uses, authorization would be requested from the contributor.
3. Videos should be provided in their native, raw format. For example, MP3, MP4, MOV, AVI, etc. They can be transferred using Microsoft OneDrive, Google Drive, DropBox, Apple iCloud, etc., but there may be a size limitation. If the limitation is exceeded, they will have to be transferred using physical media, such as a thumb drive.
4. The following information should be included with the videos, if available:
   • Subject
   • Author
   • Date/time taken
   • Location taken
   • Any timestamps of interest within the video

From the Annual Report

This role was originally under the umbrella of the Webmaster, Chris Baldock when he created the Nature London YouTube Channel in September 2020. Through Chris’ persuasiveness and patient coaching, a new volunteer was recruited! I took over the administration of the Channel in December 2021. During that time until August 31/2022, the following steps were taken:

• Cleanup of all listed videos.
  • This required deleting content that was uploaded for viewing during a specific timeline, as was designated by the Content Creator (or presenter).
  • This required “scrubbing” (removing) content which had music tracks that were flagged for copyright claims on YouTube. Disputed music tracks were removed.
• Submission of an article to The Cardinal to provide video content guidelines to assist members who make videos to share on this platform. Those guidelines appear below.

• Uploading of videos to the Channel as follows:
  • Eight member contributions**
  • Three Birding Wing Presentations*
  • Four Indoor Meeting Presentations*
• Removal of the unlisted videos by their specified end date (*). Virtually presented content (by Zoom) which had been made available by speakers to NL and where permission has been granted, was uploaded to the YouTube Channel in “unlisted” mode. This “unlisted” content could only be accessed by using a link. Its link was sent out in 2 consecutive E-Newsletters to permit viewing by those who were unable to attend the presentation. It was typical that each unlisted video was viewed about 25 times on the Channel over one month. Each presentation was then removed after one month, fulfilling our agreement with each presenter.
• Member video contributions (**) are listed publicly for the viewing pleasure of NL members and beyond. Using a term from YouTube, these contributors are called Content Creators. It is only those videos which are publicly listed that YouTube tracks for the overall success of the Channel. These publicly listed videos when submitted with key words (identifying the content) in the title or description become searchable across YouTube. That can make this NL YouTube Channel a locally important one when used as a resource by others.

Guidelines

Videos should be:

Two minutes or shorter in duration.

Nature sightings that have been recorded by you (therefore avoiding any copyright issues).

Recorded by a current Nature London member.

Sightings from the London area or at least of flora and fauna found within the province of Ontario.

Limited to one favourite video a year (I realize that this may become popular and we want everyone to have the opportunity to share their content with our members).

Ready for public consumption. All our member videos are uploaded for the public to enjoy, as well as our members.

Accompanied by a title, thumbnail, description, and your name. A thumbnail is a photo that people will see which represents your video. For example, if your video subject is about a robin on its nest, take a photo of the robin or a screen grab of the robin from your video. A description should be one or two lines that highlight the content of your video. You will be given credit for providing the video.

Tips

Avoid using/adding music tracks because the risk is that YouTube may flag them for a copyright claim. And the music track will have to be removed.

Edit your video to showcase your highlights

Thank you to those who’ve offered to liaise with presenters and forward their content to me, including but not limited to Gordon Neish, Garth Casbourn, Stacey Jaczko, Ruth Dickau, Glenn Berry and of course, many thanks to Chris Baldock. Also, a big thank-you to members (Content Creators) who have submitted their own videos to the Channel. For those Content Creators who have their own YouTube Channel, a link to their Channel is added in the description of their video submission. This allows NL members and members of the public who are interested, another way to find more content by a Content Creator. It helps to put our members on the YouTube map! Together, may we all grow our Channels with exciting nature content!

Kathleen Holland
@Hiking With Kathleen YouTube Channel