Site works with UCLA to organize, share content
By Sarah Ravani
Feb. 7, 2010 10:32 p.m.
Students no longer have to resort to illegally watching episodes of their favorite television shows or scouring the Web for sites that often require registration.
Videos of UCLA life and a wide variety of shows and movies will be featured on MyUCLA through Clicker, which is similar to a search engine.
“Clicker is literally the only directory of online programming that is truly comprehensive and unbiased. That’s why we are called the TV Guide of the Web,” said Jim Lanzone, CEO and founder of Clicker and a UCLA alumnus.
Clicker is also providing video content from UCLA sporting events, lectures, student life and even programs that aren’t shown on cable, such as the New York Times show: “The Minimalist.”
Most Clicker videos can be accessed for free, although videos that are posted through Netflix or Amazon Video On Demand require a subscription or fee to rent or buy.
Clicker has a team of editors that research the different sources of online content and organize the content by title, category or network.
The videos available through Clicker are official videos that have been put up professionally, and don’t run the risk of spreading viruses to computers, Lanzone said.
The service was not paid for by student or registration fees, but was built by Clicker to provide good quality online content, said Jonathan Curtiss, manager of technology development for UCLA student and campus life.
UCLA is the first public university that has collaborated with Clicker, but Lanzone said he hopes to have more collaborations with other universities.
“I had a soft spot for UCLA, and it’s the perfect audience,” Lanzone said. “We saw that UCLA had a need to organize much of its video content; There’s incredible archives of sporting events and lectures that are important to UCLA and Clicker has the resources to organize that.”
In addition, Lanzone said students form habits early on and sometimes have to resort to piracy to be able to access online content. Clicker will allow students to watch videos legally.
“I grew up at UCLA, and I think UCLA helped foster my love of media, which is true of a lot of students that go there,” Lanzone said.
According to Curtiss, Clicker has the ability to capture much of what the UCLA campus is about, and he said he hopes to reach out to campus and see how many videos, especially academic, the university can include through Clicker. Future students may also be able to access their UCLA course materials on Clicker.
“(Clicker is) beneficial since it has things related to on-campus happenings or even things related to academics. It’s just another way of keeping people more informed or getting people on the same page,” said Saman Samandary, a fourth-year history student.
Making an account isn’t required to access the content, and the Web site allows students to make a playlist and have certain videos sent to them when the videos are posted online.
“UCLA kids are extremely media-savvy. I see UCLA as a new form of a network or cable station because now all viewers are going to have access and enjoy UCLA content,” he said.
