Citizentube

Choose Your Own Issue-Based Adventure on YouTube

2009-07-17T15:33:00.000-07:00

Recently, we've seen a spike in the number of nonprofit organizations using YouTube's social features, like annotations, to drive interest and interaction with their causes. A few months ago, the Ad Council launched an extremely creative campaign called "Two-Sided Stories," which leveraged YouTube annotations to guide citizens through choose-your-own-adventure scenarios about the importance of online privacy. See an example here:

And just this week, noting the knife crime problems in the United Kingdom, droptheweapons.org released this interesting annotations-based "adventure" about the ramifications of carrying or using a knife:

Judging by the number of views these videos have received, these organizations are on the right track. A more interactive approach might be the best way to go when trying to raise the volume on important issues, especially when you're targeting a teenage demographic. Want to use annotations in your next video? Learn how here.

New YouTube feature: "As Seen On"

2009-07-17T13:06:00.001-07:00

Check it out on our youtube.com/news page, and watch the video below to learn more.

Keeping the Revolution Alive: 1979 revolution song remixed, denouncing China, and cries for freedom

2009-07-17T12:27:00.000-07:00

A few more videos of note from today:

Protesters signing a song that was used during the 1979 revolution and has been modified to declare their defiance against Ahmadinejad:

People chanting "Down with China" in protest of the Chinese government's congratulatory remarks about Ahmadinejad's re-election:

Protesters chanting in support of Mousavi and calling for the release of political prisoners apprehended by riot police during recent riots:

Protesters outside of the Iranian State Department building:

Footage of Rafsanjani's speech - calling for the release of prisoners

2009-07-17T11:47:00.000-07:00

This video was taken during Rafsanjani's speech today. According to an Iranian colleague, in this clip, "Rafsanjani is talking about releasing the prisoners who were arrested during the recent protests. Some people then approve of his words by shouting "God is great!" and "political prisoner must be released!" slogans. Some others ask them to be quiet so they can hear the rest of Rafsanjani's speech."

Citizen curators - places to find Iran videos

2009-07-17T11:25:00.000-07:00

We've noticed a number of users who are using their YouTube channels as a repository for videos from Iran. It's not clear if any of these users are actually in Iran, or exactly how they are getting these clips -- but since the Iran election and the protests that followed, they have been aggregating as much protest footage as possible on their channels, hoping to spread the word and raise awareness around the world about what's happening on the ground.

Here are a few of these citizen curator's YouTube channels:

Each of these channels has been uploading dozens of -- and in some cases, more than one hundred -- videos from today's protests.

More protests in Iran, new videos on YouTube

2009-07-17T10:53:00.000-07:00

A new round of protests erupted in Iran earlier today after a Friday prayer sermon by cleric Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rajsanjani, who supports the opposition and denounced Ahmadinejad's supporters. Footage has been streaming in as violence breaks out yet again.

This video shows the size of the crowd gathered:

This video documents protesters getting tear-gassed by riot police:

Here's a playlist of some of the videos uploaded today:

Covering the President on the road: The White House travel videos

2009-07-17T10:38:00.000-07:00

When you think of the White House YouTube channel, the first thing that comes to mind is probably the President's weekly address. But recently, the video team has developed a new style of video clips that capture the essence of the President's trips abroad. Using local music as a soundtrack, a speech clip from the President, and b-roll from the President's visits, they're creating some nice, short, punchy musical montages. They're almost reminiscent of the travel videos you'd expect to see on the Travel Channel on YouTube.

See below two such videos from the President's trip abroad, to Russia and Ghana.

What's it like to see for the first time?

2009-07-17T08:04:00.000-07:00

Cross-posted on the YouTube Blog

Picture this: you've spent your whole life being legally blind. At the age of 24 you get a pair of glasses that brings the world into focus for the very first time -- first you can see the eye chart in the doctor's office; then you turn to your grandmother's smiling face, which you'd never really seen before. Tears are shed, and from then on you just can't drink in your surroundings fast enough.

This happened to Michael Davis, aka volunteerforvision, who's using YouTube to show people what the transformation was like from the inside. His video allows you to see, quite literally, what the world looked like to him before the glasses and after, with things like street signs, stars, blades of grass and book covers sharpening before your eyes:

Recently, Davis ran in his first race, "Journey for Sight," where he placed first among visually impaired runners. Buoyed by this success, he enlisted in a second run, for which he raised $1,000 for the children's hospital where he had 23 surgeries before the age of 13. Naturally, he made a video about the experience.

By using social sites like YouTube to try to find a community of people with similar experiences and to inspire others with his story, Davis is building toward his ultimate goal: to earn a masters degree in accounting and to start a nonprofit organization devoted to informing the visually impaired about the services available to them and how technology can enrich a life.

YouTube Culture and the Politics of Authenticity

2009-07-17T07:52:00.000-07:00

One of the most talked-about sessions at the Personal Democracy Forum conference we attended a few weeks back in New York was Professor Michael Wesch's speech, "The Machine is (Changing) Us: YouTube Culture and the Politics of Authenticity." Michael teaches cultural anthropology at Kansas State University, and has most recently focused on the impact of social media and digital culture on society.

Working alongside his students as digital explorers, Michael set out to learn about the YouTube phenomenon through experimentation. Just like a team of anthropologists living with tribes in the rain forest to learn about their culture, Michael and his students went "native" into the YouTube ecosystem, uploading videos, sharing them, talking with other YouTubers, and recording their thoughts along the way.

In essence, Michael and his students are exploring how our media shapes us. If the revolution of TV created a society where mindless suburbanites fixated on one-way conversations being blasted at them through their television sets, then the Internet has brought new opportunities for 2-way communication and community building through our computer screens. Yet the web also creates infinite opportunities to amplify the inane, and allows a new kind of anonymity that can lead to malaise and lack of responsibility. YouTube - which allows for both personalization and anonymity - represents this phenomenon in unique ways, and what Michael and his students discover in their research is thought-provoking. So much so that National Geographic recently named Michael an "Emerging Explorer." Not bad for a guy whose research involves watching a lot of YouTube videos.

This 30-minute speech he gave at the Personal Democracy Forum is well worth watching for anyone who's interested in YouTube and modern culture.

Hello, Michigan: This is your chance to weigh in on the healthcare debate

2009-07-15T18:11:00.000-07:00

Following in the footsteps of Senator Dick Durbin, Congressman Sandy Levin is taking questions on the healthcare debate from the constituents of the 12th district of Michigan using Google Moderator and YouTube.

Here's the introduction video to his online town hall:

Check out his website, where you can participate by submitting and voting on questions.

Congressman Levin will be answering some of the top questions, so if you live in his district, then hop over there and join the conversation. And as always, if you're interested in using Google Moderator yourself, check it out at google.com/moderator.

Posted by Matt Klainer, Google Moderator Team

All-star cast stars in All-Star game promotion for serve.gov

2009-07-15T13:11:00.000-07:00

It's not every day you see five U.S. presidents in one YouTube video. Debuted at the All-Star game last night, this piece profiles Americans who are volunteering in their communities, in and effort to drive people to serve.gov and find volunteer opportunities to engage in. Narrated by Presidents Obama, Geroge W. Bush, Clinton, George H.W. Bush, and Carter, it's posted to the Corporation for National and Community Service's YouTube channel.

In partnership with Serve.gov and that platform that powers it, All for Good, we launched Video Volunteers a few weeks ago - to connect YouTubers with volunteer opportunities at nonprofits who need help created videos for their causes. Learn how you can get involved by going to youtube.com/videovolunteers.

Azeri bloggers under fire for making "ass" of government

2009-07-15T08:15:00.000-07:00

Today's New York Times reports that a YouTube video, posted by Azeri bloggers, is creating quite the political stir in Azerbaijan. In the video (below), blogger Adnan Hajizada, dressed in a donkey suit, waxes poetic about the life that donkeys lead in Azerbaijan, a jab at the government who has reportedly paid astronomical fees for the import of donkeys:

Hajizada, 26, and his colleague Emin Milli, 30, were arrested last week. Though authorities claim otherwise, many suspect that the arrest is in relation to this video and could symbolize a larger move to suppress online media.

InvisiblePeople.tv: Giving voice to America's homeless through video

2009-07-14T11:08:00.001-07:00

Fourteen years ago, Mark Horvath found himself homeless and living on Hollywood Boulevard. Today, Horvath is off the streets but hasn't forgotten what it felt like to be homeless. That's why he recently launched InvisiblePeople.tv -- a video project that empowers those without a home to share their stories on camera.

This summer, Horvath is turning up the volume with Road Trip U.S.A. -- he's traveling across America to document the real, unedited stories of people living on the streets, in tent communes, and in cars. Already, he has over 41 videos uploaded to the InvisiblePeople YouTube channel, including this one, which features James, a member of one of Seattle's tent cities:

During the road trip, InvisiblePeople.tv hopes to stop in about 20 cities (tentative itinerary here). If you have a suggestion of a shelter or tent city they should visit along the way, you can email Horvath at roadtrip(at)invisiblepeople(dot)tv.

This ain't your grandfather's Supreme Court confirmation hearing

2009-07-14T07:32:00.000-07:00

There are plenty of places to follow the most-discussed news story of the week on YouTube. Every major YouTube news partner is uploading videos on the Sotomayor confirmation hearing, but one news organization is taking a unique new direction. The Associated Press is uploading clips of the hearing every day, but they're also live-blogging the hearing with a new Twitter account set up just the hearing - ap_courtside (one wonders if they'll use this for future high-profile court cases as well). And, they're keeping a more extensive live-blog going on their Yahoo News blog, here.

But perhaps most interestingly, the AP is asking for citizen feedback on the hearing on the site Mixed Ink. There, you can login to the AP's thread to make your own case for or against Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court, and you can use the collaborative editing tools to work with others on your "case".

The AP is YouTube's most prolific news partner, uploading hundreds of videos per week. Let's see if they can direct their hundreds of thousands of YouTube viewers to these new methods of coverage.

Following the Sotomayor Hearings on YouTube

2009-07-13T13:04:00.000-07:00

If you're looking to follow the Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Judge Sonia Sotomayor, look no further than the Senate Democrats' YouTube channel. They've posted continuous coverage from today's hearings -- for example, you can watch Sotomayor's opening statement here:

Today's proceedings are over, but you can still catch up on YouTube, and tune in tomorrow for more.

Don't get mad, get even - on YouTube

2009-07-13T09:28:00.000-07:00

When customer service won't answer the call - go public with your complaint:

Footage of young Iranian protester injured during riots

2009-07-10T16:03:00.000-07:00

This video was just uploaded an hour ago, though it was shot during yesterday's protests:

Protesters making barricades in the streets

2009-07-10T10:59:00.001-07:00

Vivid footage of protesters making flaming barricades in the streets during yesterday's demonstrations:

Member of the Basij goes after the camera man

2009-07-10T10:35:00.000-07:00

More footage from yesterday's protests in Tehran is surfacing on YouTube today. You can see the Basij policing the crowded streets as cars and people pass by - but then, at the very end of the video, one riot police spots the camera man shooting the video from across the street and charges right at him. The picture goes out of focus and you can hear the sounds of a scuffle between the policeman and the camera man, while others shout in the background.

Kyle across America: citizen reporter tracks the recession on $25/day

2009-07-10T08:06:00.000-07:00

The Uptake, one of YouTube's finest citizen reporting organizations who helped us launch the YouTube Reporters' Center last week with this great video, has started a new project with a University of Minnesota grad student named Kyle Potter. The concept is simple: Kyle hits the road to track how people are coping with the economic recession, using just his iPhone and $25/day for food, lodging, and transportation. Learn more in this promo video from the Uptake (hats off to Chuck Olsen for the excellent voice-over):

An here's a look at Kyle's first episode, from Chicago:

New RNC YouTube ad hits Obama on the stimulus

2009-07-10T07:18:00.000-07:00

The latest YouTube video coming out of the RNC, entitled "Nothing", hits President Obama on the stimulus package. Using clips of Vice President Biden claiming that, "all of us got it wrong", juxtaposed against a repetitive loop of the President claiming, "there's nothing we would have done differently", the ad is a classic of the "gotcha genre" on YouTube and has already racked up thousands of views in a few short hours.

Wounded protestors surface on YouTube

2009-07-09T18:43:00.001-07:00

From the looks of this video, the protests today did turn violent today at points. Here you see a man who has suffered a wound on the back of his head. His friends wash away the blood with a bottle of water and appear to continue on with the protest. According to the video's description, the man was told not to go to the hospital because members of the Basij have allegedly been identifying people participating in the protests.

Tehran at Night

2009-07-09T18:35:00.000-07:00

Here's a video showing what the atmosphere is like in Tehran tonight after a day of protests.

Capturing the Action from Inside a Bus

2009-07-09T18:31:00.000-07:00

This is an interesting video, just posted about an hour ago, shot by someone sitting inside of a bus in Tehran, likely earlier today. He is filming through the window, documenting people running down the street - though it's unclear why they're running or what they're running from.

More Tear Gas Thrown at Iranian Protesters

2009-07-09T18:11:00.000-07:00

This video shows protesters walking through the streets when someone -- allegedly a riot policeman -- throws a canister of tear gas through the air. It looks like the protesters are prepared as many of them are already donning face masks to protect them from the chemicals and seem somewhat undeterred afterwards.