Animal Wise Expands to Video
    Animal Wise leverages YouTube and Google to provide online animal-friendly video venues - allows others to add videos to their web sites

    November, 2006 - Animal Wise leverages YouTube and Google Video services to provide online, animal-friendly venues. In doing so, they also make it easy for others to add animal videos to their own web sites.

    Each Sunday at Noon, Animal Wise Radio broadcasts a live, 2-hour radio show that celebrates animals and all of the human connections to them. In the Twin Cities area, the show airs on KTNF, AM 950, and on KDWA, AM 1460 in Hastings. The program is then distributed nationally via Animal Radio Network.

    "The purpose of Animal Wise is to help people think of themselves differently in relationship to the world around them," said Mike Fry, one of the hosts of Animal Wise Radio, who is also the Executive Director of Animal Ark no-kill shelter. "People in our culture - and in many other cultures - like to walk around with many assumptions in their heads about animals and nature. At Animal Wise we like to challenge those assumptions."

    With the growing popularity of Internet-based video on demand, it seemed a natural fit for this small group of animal welfare advocates to use this new medium as a way of spreading the Animal Wise message to a broader audience. They have leveraged technology successfully in the past, being one of the first radio shows in the state to deliver their program to iPods and cell phones. So, the jump to web-based video on demand was probably a natural fit for them.

    The weekly radio program is a dynamic mix of lively banter between Fry and co-host Beth Nelson on a wide range of topics. Any subject is fair game for the show from global issues, including avian flu or global warming, to more down to Earth subjects, like how to house train your cat. They even take on subjects that - at first - may not seem like animal issues, like the war in the Middle East. Each show is like a symphony of well-played emotional chords. There are light, fast-paced news segments, in-depth discussions with expert guests and animal trivia that is just plain fun. Additionally, one, special six-minute segment each week is produced to strike a very special note. Covering important topics like pet overpopulation, factory farming or America's disposable culture, this weekly segment delves deep into areas few in the media dare to go.

    These segments have provided the base from which the first Animal Wise videos have been produced. However, Fry says that if the videos are popular, they may look into converting some of their other segments into video as well.

    In addition to being able to view the Animal Wise videos on YouTube and Google Video, Animal Wise is leveraging a sharing feature offered by YouTube so that other people can easily add the videos to their sites as well.

    "By adding a few lines of html code to your web site," said Fry, "you can display a playlist of Animal Wise videos."

    Fry says the playlists added to other sites will update automatically whenever Animal Wise adds another video.

    The Animal Wise Video playlist looks like this:


    To embed Animal Wise Videos in your web site, copy and paste the following HTML code into a web page on your site:

    <object width="530" height="370"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/p/7F882C5D2FC9A06C"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/p/7F882C5D2FC9A06C" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="530" height="370"></embed></object>

    The videos will update automatically as Animal Wise adds new videos to the YouTube site.

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