User:David A. Victor/YOBI.tv

YOBI.tv is an online talent contest network. The site was launched in April 2008 by its founder Dianne Victor. The site is based in Michigan but has had a global reach from its start.

YOBI.tv combines social networks, user-generated videos, and reality talent contests. YOBI.tv primarily uses talent-based user-generated videos. In its first two seasons, the site ran contests in four areas: comedy, photography, short film and original song. YOBI.tv showcases talent, funds charities - Retrieved on 2009-06-11 In its season (2010-11) season, the site added a fifth contest for acting. The site also maintains a link to charitable giving called YOBIWorld.

Name
YOBI.tv takes its name from the computing term Yobibyte. The prefix yobi represents the largest binary prefix.

The site uses domain name .tv, which is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the Pacific nation of Tuvalu. YOBI.tv, however, as with most users of the domain name, has no ties to Tuvalu.

Beginning in 2000, the government of Tuvalu began leasing its Internet domain name ".tv" to the VeriSign company dotTV for $50 million in royalties over a 12-year period. In return, the government of Tuvalu government receives a quarterly payment of US$1 million. While the Tuvalu government owns twenty percent of the dotTV company, Tuvalu has no stake in companies that use the .tv domain name.

Contests
YOBI.tv has five contest areas:


 * YOBISing - Vocal Talent Contest,  vocal performances of original songs or of songs that are in the public domain.


 * YOBIFilm - Filmmaking Contest, for short films


 * YOBILaugh - Comedy Contest, for original short comedy skits or stand-up routines


 * YOBIPics - Photography Contest, for original photography


 * YOBIAct - Acting Contest, for acting

Selection Process
The winners for all five contests are entirely member decided, with YOBI.tv members alone acting as the contest judges. This group-driven judging process is based in part of the theories of James Surowiecki laid out in his 2004 book The Wisdom of Crowds. Surowiecki suggests that the aggregation of information results in decisions that are often better than any single member of the group (including those of experts) would likely make.

For all but the YOBIAct contest, the competitions are divided into 40 weekly rounds, organized into five sets of seven semifinal weeks and an eighth final week in each. Vote counts are reset each week before and during the semifinals. YOBI.tv members decide who the winners will be and how large their prizes will be. Cash awards are given to the entries with the top five highest votes. The prize funds start at $10,000 in each contest.

The acting contest YOBIAct was added only in the 2010-11 season. The other four have existed since the sites beginning season in 2008-09. As the YOBIAct contest centers around specific web series with different needs, the contest differs from the other four contests in length and format. The winners of the YOBIAct compete to costar with celebrities in a YOBI.tv web series. In the first season, the celebrities for the first two web series are Audrina Patridge, Audrina Patridge, best-known for her primary role in the MTV reality series The Hills and Michael Sorrentino best known for his role as “The Situation” on the MTV reality show Jersey Shore.

Contestant Eligibility
The current eligible age range for all contests at the time of registration are 18 years of age or older. Additionally, YOBISing, YOBIFilm, YOBILaugh and YOBIPics may also include contestants who are between the ages of 13 and 17 and have obtained the consent of their parent or legal guardian to participate. There is no nationality limitation, and contestants have, from the beginning of the site, participated from around the world. The four first-place winners of the first season, for example, came from four different countries. However, because the site is based in the United States, the contestants may not come from countries without diplomatic relations with the United States (currently Bhutan, Cuba, Iran, Myanmar and North Korea).

YOBI.tv Network Hosts
For Season 1, 2009-2010, the YOBI.tv Network hosts was Danielle Ryan. Ryan was joined during the presentation of the final winners by actor Jeremy Sumpter, best-known for the lead role in 2003's Peter Pan film and the television series Friday Night Lights.

From 2010-11, Audrina Patridge, best known for her primary role in the MTV reality series The Hills, began hosting of the YOBI.tv Network Scene. The YOBI.tv Network Scene is a weekly series of videos that act as the official source for YOBI.tv news and updates located on the website's homepage.

In 2011, Patridge stepped down as host to star in the YOBI.tv webisode productions with the winners of the YOBIAct contest. Danielle Ryan, who had acted periodically as Patridge’s co-host on the network, became the full-time Network Scene host.

Membership and Activities
YOBI.tv has two membership classes: regular and premium. Members of both classes can view and comment on all entries, interact with other members and enter any of the contests with videos or photos they have created.

Regular membership on the site is free. Regular membership allows the member to vote, enter contests, post profiles and interact with other YOBI.tv members.

Premium membership makes members eligible for gift cards and various prizes in weekly “Member Appreciation” drawings based on a series of “entry-earning” activities such as voting, entering submissions and posting comments. A portion of each premium membership also goes toward a donation to support a charity partner under the sites YOBIWorld page.

Both regular and premium members have the opportunity to post individual member profiles. The profile page acts as a social networking site, where users upload a photograph themselves with a biographical statement. Each profile page also links to that user's contest entries, interests, blog posts, and vlogs.

YOBIWorld
YOBIWorld is intended to be the philanthropy section of YOBI.tv. It is the area for charity organizations and groups to be heard. Organizations can create profiles and blogs. Victor founded a nonprofit organization, One Village One World, to support economic development in impoverished African villages. Five percent of YOBI’s profits will go to support this organization.

Yoko Ono expressed interest in YOBI World after corresponding with YOBI.tv, LLC owner Dianne Victor. Ono created a profile on YOBI World and added a YOBI World link to her Imagine Peace website.

Season 1 (2008-2009) Semifinals/Finals
Semifinalists were chosen for 30 weeks. There were a total of 120 semifinalists, 30 in each contest. Semifinals voting lasted for 5 weeks. Each week 5 semifinalists from each contest were voted off which left 5 finalists in each contest for the finals. The finals were by hosted Danielle Ryan and actor Jeremy Sumpter. All 2nd--5th five place winners in each category won cash prizes. Grand winners won cash and other VIP prizes as listed.

Season 1 Grand Prizes

 * YOBI Sing - Premium tickets and VIP passes to the official afterparty of the 2010 Grammy Awards plus cash prize of US$17,500
 * YOBI Film - All-access passes to the 2010 Sundance Film Festival plus cash prize of US$12,500
 * YOBI Laugh - Tickets to the premiere and official afterparty of The Informant in New York City plus cash prize of US$10,000
 * YOBI Pics - Tickets to an opening at the Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles plus cash prize of US$10,000

Season 2 (2009-2010) Semifinals/Finals
The YOBI.tv second season began June 1, 2009. Semifinalists were chosen for 40 weeks. The semifinals lasted for 4 weeks and 8 contestants from each contest moved on to the finals. The finals were hosted by Danielle Ryan and Audrina Patridge.

All 2nd--5th five place winners in each category won cash prizes. Grand winners won cash and other VIP prizes as listed.

Season 2 Grand Prizes

 * YOBISing - Premium tickets and VIP passes to the official afterparty for the 2011 Grammy Awards plus cash prize of US $18,000
 * YOBIFilm - VIP Tickets to the Toronto International Film Festival plus cash prize of US $12,000
 * YOBILaugh - VIP Tickets to the San Diego Comic-Con International plus cash prize of US $10,500
 * YOBIPics - VIP tickets to Late Night with David Letterman show and tickets to the New York photography museum of choice plus cash prize of US $12,000

Season 3
In Season 3, YOBI.tv took a different approach to its prizes to fulfill its original goal of signing contest winners to be featured in original productions of web series. Depending on category, winners will become part of either the cast or the crew of the web series to showcase their specific talents.

The site indicated that it will announce the winners of the YOBISing, YOBIFilm, YOBIPics and YOBILaugh contests for these new showcase prizes on or before April 25, 2011.