Vlogbrothers and Nerdfighteria

2007

Date: 1 January 2007 · Place: YouTube, broadcast from Indianapolis and Missoula · Figures: John Green, novelist · Hank Green, musician and educator · Tags: Vlog, Community, Earnest 01. Brotherhood 2.0 On 1 January 2007 the novelist John Green and his brother Hank Green begin a year-long project called Brotherhood 2.0. Every weekday one brother posts a video to the other, with no textual communication allowed. The format outlasts the year and continues as Vlogbrothers, now nearly two decades on. The audience self-identifies as Nerdfighters and the imagined community as Nerdfighteria. Its rallying slogan is to decrease worldsuck. 02. The Earnest Counterprogramming Vlogbrothers establishes a model of YouTube creator culture explicitly opposed to ironic detachment: high-information, dense-edit, civic-minded. It spawns VidCon (founded 2010), the Crash Course education channel (2011), and the Project for Awesome charity fundraiser (annual from 2007). The channel is the proof that the platform can sustain long-form intellectual community, not only viral comedy. Most of the early YouTube education economy descends from it. Sources • Vlogbrothers YouTube channel archive (2007-present) • The New Yorker, 'The Reluctant Mr. Green' (12 June 2014) • VidCon press materials (2010 founding announcement)