Live, and Taking Your Questions: Health Care Summit on YouTube

[Cross-posted to the YouTube Blog]

While some people are calling it the most important political event of the year and others deem it political theater, one thing is clear: today's health care summit, featuring President Obama and top legislators from both bodies of Congress, will be a fascinating look into the inner workings of Washington. Democratic and Republican party leaders will engage in direct dialogue on an issue that has consumed the political landscape for the past year, and we'll be streaming the summit live on CitizenTube (youtube.com/citizentube), so you'll be able to watch the conversation unfold in its entirety.

What's more, top legislators have agreed to address your questions and ideas on health care after the summit, exclusively on YouTube. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Minority LeaderJohn Boehner, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have all agreed to answer a selection of your top-voted questions about health care, the summit, and current legislation, which you can submit via our Google Moderator platform on CitizenTube during the event. The three lawmakers will upload video responses to your questions, and we'll feature those videos on the YouTube homepage on Friday.

The summit starts at 10 a.m ET today at the Blair House (located just across the street from the White House), so head to CitizenTube to submit your questions as you watch the proceedings. Be sure to ask your questions and vote during the event, since we'll close down the Moderator platform at the conclusion of the summit, which is slated to end around 4 p.m. ET.

This promises to be one of the most transparent moments in recent Washington history, so get your health care questions ready.


Steve Grove, Head of News and Politics, recently watched "Stage Set for Obama's Health Care Summit."

Year One Review: The U.S. Government on YouTube

It's been one year since the U.S. government came to YouTube with the launch of the official White House YouTube channel and President Obama's inaugural address. Soon after, we launched our Senate and House Hubs with the U.S. Congress, and then we brought the entire federal government to the site on YouTube.com/usgovernment. On the heels of a presidential election in which YouTube became a key tool for most political campaigns, politicians took their lessons from 2008 and started applying them to governing. The results were interesting and, at times, quite surprising.

Here are some of the highlights, statistics, and milestones of year one of the U.S. government on YouTube:

The White House:

• The White House ended it's first year on YouTube with 21 million video views and close to 100,000 subscribers.
• President Obama's first YouTube Weekly Address brought FDR's fireside chats into the 21st Century.
• The White House's July health care townhall, brought in 300 citizen-submitted video questions for the President to answer in a live townhall.
• Some of the most talked-about videos from the President focused on international diplomacy, including his Nowruz message directed Iranian citizens and government, his speech to the Muslim world in Cairo, his video addressing Turkish Parliament, and his Ramadan and Diwali holiday greetings.

The U.S. Congress

• A total of 430 Members of Congress have started YouTube channels to inform and engage with their constituents.
• Capitol Hill caught up with YouTube trends, learning the power of the viral hit, the mash-up, and even cat videos.
• Though the Democrats captured the majority of the seats in Congress, 89% of Republicans have channels, compared to just 74% of Democrats. In yesterday's big win for the GOP in Massachusetts, Scott Brown's campaign had an undoubtedly superior YouTube channel to his opponent Martha Coakley.
  
• Eight of the top 10 most-viewed and most-subscribed YouTube channels in Congress are from the GOP.
• The House seems to be using YouTube more effectively than the Senate - only one Senator makes the list of most-viewed and most-subscribed channels.
  

Top 10 most-subscribed YouTube channels (in order):

• Representative Alan Grayson (D-FL)
  
• Representative Ron Paul (R-TX)
  
• Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
  
• Representative John Boehner (R-OH)
  
• Representative Randy Forbes (R-VA)
  
• Representative Mike Rogers (R-MI)
• Representative Michele Bachmann (R-MN)
  
• Representative Eric Cantor (R-VA)
  
• Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC)
  
• Representative Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI)
  

Top 10 most-viewed

• Representative Mike Rogers (R-MI)
  
• Representative Alan Grayson (D-FL)
  
• Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
• Representative Randy Forbes (R-VA)
• Representative Eric Cantor (R-VA)
  
• Representative John Boehner (R-OH)
• Representative Tom Price (R-GA)
  
• Representative Don Manzullo (R-IL)
  
• Representative Don Young (R-AL)
  
• Representative Ron Paul (R-TX)

The Federal Government

• Over 150 federal agencies have started YouTube channels since our agreement went into place on May 22.
• The State Department continues to use YouTube in innovative ways, such as the Democracy Video Challenge, the Alliance of Youth Movements, and videos like this one from Secretary Clinton about 21st Secretary Statecraft.
  
• In summer 2009, HHS launched an H1N1 Flu PSA contest on YouTube - the first-ever effort by the government to get citizens to create PSAs. The winning video as voted by the YouTube community was from a doctor whose H1N1 rap made him an Internet celebrity for a few months.
• The IRS Channel on YouTube features dozens of videos informing people about new credits and deductions and other changes in the tax law.
• NASA's Astronauts used YouTube and Twitter to take questions from space, the Library of Congress started uploading it's archives (check out this video of a sneeze from 1894), and the CDC uploaded emergency preparedness clips.

- Steve Grove, Head of News and Politics

The White House Launches Health Care "Reality Check" on YouTube

Last week, Linda Douglass of the White House Office of Health Reform created a video with the goal of setting the facts straight about whether citizens would get to keep their own insurance under Obama's health care plan. That video has already received over 200,000 views.

Today, the White House released a whole series of videos aimed at combating false information about Obama's plan. The videos cover everything from veterans' health care to how reform will affect small businesses.

For more information, visit http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck.

Where in the world are people watching Obama's YouTube videos?

Today, YouTube announced that users now have the ability to make statistical information about their videos (collected in YouTube Insight) available publicly to anyone watching their videos on YouTube.

The White House quickly seized this opportunity to share information about how their video content is being consumed, and by who. And on the White House blog today, they shared some particularly intriguing information about which of their YouTube videos are popular in which areas of the world. According the White House, "President Obama's video message to the Iranian people on the Nowruz holiday was our third most viewed video overall and most viewed in Iran."

In addition, they note, "the President's speech to the Muslim World in Cairo was also widely viewed and was especially popular in the US, Egypt, Nigeria, and Tanzania."



The White House has posted several other examples on their blog that are worth checking out. And you can always stay up-to-date on who is watching the White House channel by visiting the official White House channel on YouTube, clicking on the video you'd like to learn more about, clicking "View comments, related videos, and more" and finally choosing the "Statistics & Data" link.

The U.S. Government Comes to YouTube

Spacemen floating through the international space station. World leaders sending messages across borders. A life-sized slice of pizza explaining how to apply for a passport. Sound like outtakes from the latest Hollywood movies? Actually, these videos are part of the new U.S. Government portal on YouTube.

That's right, your federal government has come to YouTube. You may have noticed that President Obama has been posting weekly addresses to the White House YouTube channel since inauguration. Now, there are dozens of official federal YouTube channels where you can access footage from NASA, the State Department, the FBI, the CDC, and more. It's all part of making Washington, D.C., more transparent and accessible than ever before -- and helping you easily navigate government information that's relevant to your life.

The U.S. Government channel is located at youtube.com/usgovernment, a nifty hub that links off to dozens of federal government channels on YouTube, from the Social Security Administration to the Environmental Protection Agency, with others to be added in the coming months. Learn more in this video from the White House New Media office, and take a spin through this playlist to see some highlights so far:



Our federal leaders and civil servants aren't just on YouTube to distribute video; they're here to engage with you in a way that only YouTube makes possible. So leave your comments, rankings, and ideas for these agencies on any of their videos to ensure that your voice is heard on the issues you care about. Reach out to your local government as well and encourage local officials to start posting footage to YouTube. By exposing everything from committee hearings to planning meetings, we can make our civic lives more open than ever before. Ultimately, it will help us hold public servants accountable for the jobs we've hired them to do.

Yours,
Steve Grove
YouTube News & Politics

Bo Knows YouTube

The new first pup has taken the country, and YouTube, by storm. Yesterday, the White House posted this video of Bo prancing on the lawn of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and already, it has received over 40,000 views:



But Bo's breeding has come under speculation and not just by by shelter-dog lovers who wanted Obama to keep his promise. For example, the guys at Red State Update posted this video joking that the choice of a Portuguese water dog is a disgrace to America, while others are tackling important questions like, "how well can a water dog really swim?"

The jury is still out as to whether Bo will launch his own YouTube channel soon, featuring content from a White House puppy cam.