Welcome to the iGEM Video Universe
by Nemanja Stijepovic and Fabio Maschi
on behalf of the iGEM Video & Remote Technology Committee
In 1820, electromagnetism was discovered, paving the way for applications such as cell phones, TVs, data storage devices, and more. In 1920, mass media was born, enabling people to see and hear about happenings all across the globe. And in 2020, the iGEM Video Universe was created, making iGEM accessible from everywhere in the world, free of ads, and open to everyone.
The iGEM Video Universe is a decisive milestone in creating the future iGEM. For the first time, it is possible to watch (or even binge-watch) the Project Promotion Videos and Presentation Videos from every team participating in the iGEM competition, as well as Keynotes, Workshops, and Interviews from the iGEM 2020 season and Virtual Giant Jamboree. Transitioning to this new video and virtual-style of competition has enabled us to improve and advance a new kind of iGEM experience by providing faster and easier access to team presentations, more outreach potential, and a more inclusive and accessible source of information. The new platform provides for solid, reliable and long-term storage of the video material, just like the wikis.
More than 5000 students participate in iGEM every year, yet only half of these students are able to attend the Giant Jamboree in person to see the work of the other teams. By showcasing team projects on the iGEM Video Universe, iGEM becomes accessible to everyone, everywhere. We can celebrate the true international spirit of iGEM with multilingual video presentations and captions, so that everyone is able to join and participate equally.
Videos allow us to improve the experience at future Giant Jamborees by transitioning to an inverted learning style. The best learning environments are ones where participants can interact directly with the topics and gain insight from the experiences. With the iGEM Video Universe, we can see presentations in advance, re-watch them, and not have to miss out on anything. This creates time at the Jamboree to focus on collaboration, connecting projects and people, and working on future goals.
The iGEM Video Universe opens new communication and outreach potential for iGEM teams, enabling them to reach out to bigger audiences, promote their projects, and capture attention faster. iGEM is more than a competition and we want to invite other groups from governments, education, academia, industry, entrepreneurship, and local communities to participate, see the work iGEM teams have done and support them in shaping synthetic biology.
All iGEM 2020 teams embraced video production as a core part of their project. Whereas many teams produced excellent videos in previous years, a much larger number of teams produced high-quality videos this year – 595 videos were scripted, recorded, edited, dubbed and transcribed by the teams, with 82 of the videos produced in a language other than English. Truly fabulous and inclusive work!
Are you passionate about videos or virtual events? We are always looking for new members to join the Video and Remote Technology committee. We are all iGEM Alumni with previous experience as student members, instructors, advisors, or judges. Email us at video [AT] igem [DOT] org.
