Earlier this semester, I spent three days in 24/7: A DIY Video Summit conference in school of Multimedia Literacy at University of South California in Los Angeles on behalf of project NML to shoot a documentary about fan vidding. I spent most of this time interviewing the community of fan vidder, which mostly consisted of women from all around the nation. Artists, audiences, technology providers, academics, policy makers and industry executives were invited all together to talk about the moment of change in sharing and viewing visual media.

Unlike what many people might think, fan vidding didn't start with You Tube. It existed even thirty years ago when the vidders had to use moviola to remix the videos. But what You Tube did was to help the fan vidders find each other easier. This helped fan vidders form many communities across the nation to share videos and exchange content.

You Tube also clarified many of the legal questions for people. One of the fan vidders told me, that You Tube phenomenon helped her understand, that the worst that could happen to her, if she published her material online, was a You Tube warning. So she didn't have to be scared of heavy penalties that she could not afford.

You Tube introduced fan videos to the public. Most of us didn't know about this on going trend of remixing videos. There is not a day that a friend has not forwarded me a You Tube link. Today, most of us consume visual media online. I even watch TV-shows on my computer. With the advent of digital technologies many people spend hours at home creating and sharing media content. What is the role of a good global citizen in the age that media travels with the speed of light?