Project For Awesome Charity Video Makers Webjack YouTube

By Karen Bliss 12/17/10 | www.samaritanmag.com

YouTube is not just for wasting hours and hours of time or making videos of your cat snoring or buddy falling flat on his face. Today at noon (EST), some dedicated YouTube users are taking over the online video site and using it to make the world more awesome.  Participants in Project For Awesome (P4A) have been asked to make a video about their favourite charity, upload it to the site and then encourage YouTubers to comment on and rate the videos. Check out the submissions here.

“As these videos climb the most-discussed and top-rated pages, the videos slowly start to take over the entire site,” says copy on the P4A web site. “Last year, we caught the staff of YouTube completely off guard, and they couldn’t believe we’d duped them and, in a way, hacked their site. We’re hoping to do them one better this year.

“So on this one day out of 365, we’re all making videos with the same screenshot, the same titles, and the same theme: We want to make the world a better place, and so we’re thanking people who have dedicated their lives to do that, and promoting their cause with our time and our money.”

P4A has been going for three years, conceived by Americans Hank and John Green (Brotherhood 2.0), whose Vlogbrothers channel — self-described "nerdy brothers" who make videos about anything — is currently YouTube’s 87th most subscribed, with more than 430,000 subscribers, 10 million channel views, and total upload views of close to 110 million.  Calling on their followers to join this two-day movement, they hope to make P4A even more awesome.

“Throughout the day this December 17, we will be liveblogging the transformation that YouTube is undergoing, as P4A videos go live throughout the site, and the community promotes those videos, and people give money to the biggest and best charities of the year,” it says on the web site.

YouTube will be hosting a four-hour live stream on December 18 with special guests, and raffles to raise money for the charities, and will be using their vlogger expertise to draw attention to the best Project for Awesome videos."

Watch Hank Green's PSA for P4A here: 

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* Samaritanmag.com is an online magazine covering the good deeds of individuals, charities and businesses.