Chile uses YouTube to Expand and Engage on the 2010 Government Achievements

This post was written by Pedro Less Andrade, Public Policy and Government Relations, Google Latin America.

With a view to public transparency, the Government of Chile has made a series of public presentations, in which President Sebastián Piñera and his 22 ministers spoke of the achievements of 2010 and goals for 2011.

All of these presentations were made between Monday, December 20, 2010 and January 13, 2011 in La Moneda Palace and are live at youtube.com/LaMoneda as well as the official website of the Chilean government.

This is the first time that an initiative with this level of public participation and proximity has been undertaken in Chile. Each public account was attended by an audience consisting of members of the public, social organizations, experts in sectoral issues, congressmen, leaders of opinion and the media.

The videos of these events were posted entirety on the official Youtube channel of the Government of Chile (www.youtube.com/LAMONEDA) where they can be viewed by anyone who wishes to see and comment on them.

These methods were used with a view to making the activities accessible to as many people as possible.

Video Posted from Protests in Bahrain

This week, through partnership with Storyful -- we're curating video from demonstrations in Iran, Bahrain, Yemen, and Algeria. In the past week, we've seen over 2,000 videos associated with the term "Bahrain" (in English or Arabic) appear, with around 700 in the past 24 hours.

New footage surfaced today of clashes and large gatherings of protesters in the streets of the island nation, which has an estimated population of just 738,000. Posted below are some dramatic video from Bahrain included in the CitizenTube curation:

This post is cross-posted from YouTube Trends.

At 100, “The Great Communicator” lives on via YouTube

This is cross-posted from the official YouTube blog

This Sunday marks what would have been the 100th birthday of Ronald Reagan, America’s 40th President. Although his Presidency ended 20 years ago, his legacy as a transformational politician has lived on, with Democrats and Republicans alike trying to adopt his mantle of change and openness.

President Reagan, widely referred to as “The Great Communicator,” is also a particularly interesting study of the President as Orator-in-Chief. It would have been interesting to witness President Reagan, a former actor and spokesman, campaign and govern during the YouTube-era. Many of his iconic speeches, such as his message to Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev (below), can be found on YouTube today.



To celebrate President Reagan’s 100th birthday the Ronald Reagan Foundation has created a host of retrospective videos paying tribute to the former President which will be featured on the YouTube homepage today. The first video, a tribute narrated by former Senator Fred Thompson, shows speech clips that showcase Reagan’s wit, storytelling abilities and impeccable timing.



For more information on the series of events surrounding Reagan’s 100th birthday celebrations, please visit the Reagan Centennial website.

YouTube interviews YouTube

Well, not exactly, but in the interesting clip below Shira Lazar, from the Partners Project, a popular YouTube interview show, interviews a bonafide YouTube star, Cenk Uygar, host of The Young Turks. Cenk speaks about how The Young Turks came to be the biggest online news show in the world, what his ambitions are now that he's working at MSNBC, and his take on future innovations in news.

Movements.Org - Empowering Citizen Activism

Recent events across the Middle East have once again showcased the tremendous power of engaged citizen activists to leverage social media to affect positive change. We've already written on this blog about the wealth of informative and poignant footage posted on YouTube from Egyptian protests, but we also wanted to let you know about a great new site that helps empower citizen activists.

Movements.Org, launched officially yesterday, is a hub for politically-engaged citizens to connect as well as a place to learn all of the tools in the activist toolkit. Check out the great video explaining the organization's mission below, and visit the site to learn more.

Egyptian Protest Footage on YouTube

This is cross-posted from the official YouTube blog

It’s been hard to open a laptop or turn on the television over the last week without hearing news of the unrest in Egypt. On YouTube, thousands of videos of the protests have poured in, whether as unfiltered footage from the demonstrations themselves, or as news reports from our media partners around the globe.

We understand how closely the world is following these events, and want to help people access and share this information quickly and easily on YouTube. We’re helping people do this in three ways:

• Highlighting the latest footage on CitizenTube, our news and politics channel, and inviting people to submit video they’ve come across.
• Pointing our users directly to these videos through banners at the top of YouTube pages, and through links alongside YouTube videos.
• Streaming live coverage of Al Jazeera’s broadcasts about the unfolding events, on both their Arabic and English YouTube channels.

And our Google colleagues have also turned on a speak-to-tweet service to help people in Egypt stay connected at this difficult time.

Here’s a playlist of videos that have come in:



YouTube has used similar tools and live streaming technologies in the past to give our users access to information on major world news events, such as the Haiti earthquake and the protests in Iran. We hope this footage provides a unique window into the events unfolding in the streets of Cairo, Alexandria and many other cities across Egypt.

Olivia Ma, YouTube News and Politics, recently watched “28th Jan. 2011 - Storyful - Kasr Al Nile Bridge clashes.”

Behind the scenes at the White House: YouTube Interview with President Obama

We put together a short reel of some behind the scenes footage from the White House last week, before and after our YouTube Interview with President Obama. To see the full interview, click here.



(thanks to Arun Chaudhary for the footage from inside the White House Diplomatic Room)

Pawlenty - inching towards an official declaration?

Last week, we brought you a few musical tributes to possible Republican presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

Today, Governor Tim Pawlenty's Freedom First PAC released "Courage to Stand," an extremely well-produced video...err, cinematographic experiment? Watch it here:



While Pawlenty has not officially declared his candidacy for the Republican nomination, with videos like this, we wouldn't be surprised if he did announce something in the near future. We'll certainly be keeping an eye on his YouTube channel though...

Your questions, your State of the Union

[cross-posted from the YouTube Blog]

It’s the biggest speech of the year, and next Tuesday night at 9 p.m. ET, people across the country and around the world will sit down to watch. But as President Obama delivers the 2011 State of the Union Address, which will be streamed live on YouTube along with the Republican response, you can do more than just watch the speech: you can also submit your questions for the President for an exclusive YouTube Interview that will take place just two days later, on January 27.

In fact, you can get started today. Health care. Education. Foreign policy. What would you like to ask the President about the most important issues our country faces? Go to youtube.com/askobama to submit your question now, or watch the speech on Tuesday night with your webcam or video camera nearby so that you can record and submit your question as soon as it strikes you. This year, you'll also be able to ask your question via Twitter: just include the hashtag #askobama in your Tweet. And be sure to have your say in what should be asked by voting on questions submitted by others, too.

A few suggestions before submitting your questions:

1. Video questions are highly preferred (though we also accept text). Videos should be about 20 seconds long and be sure to ask the question directly.
2. Speak clearly and try to film in a place with minimal background noise. Keep the camera as still as possible.
3. Feel free to be creative (use props, charts, etc.) to help your question stand out. If you have time, find an interesting backdrop that may help reinforce your message.
4. Submit your question early. The final deadline is Wednesday January 25 at midnight ET.

President Obama’s responses to a selection of your top-voted questions will be streamed live from the White House on youtube.com/askobama at 2:30 p.m. ET on Thursday January 27.

This interview is the first in a series of world leader interviews coming to YouTube in 2011 as part of YouTube World View. These interviews will give people around the world the chance to engage in conversation with their elected officials and other influential people from the world of business, philanthropy, technology, media and the arts. Check back on the channel in the next few months for more opportunities to participate.

You have until Wednesday January 25 at midnight ET to submit your question for President Obama. The YouTube community made history last year when the President answered your questions in the first ever citizen-powered interview of a United States president. If you didn’t get an opportunity to ask the President a question last year, make sure you don’t miss out this time -- get your submission in early.

Remember, after the President’s address you’ll have the opportunity to watch Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI) deliver the GOP response to the State of the Union as well. And within the month, we’ll be holding a similar YouTube Interview with a prominent Republican leader - more details soon.

Posted by Olivia Ma, YouTube News and Politics, recently watched “Submit your question for President Obama”

Footage from the Ground: Brazil Mudslide, Aftermath

Cross posted from the YouTube Trends blog

It's been a week since mudslides in Rio De Janairo left over a reported 700 dead and 14,000 homeless in what's being described as "one of the worst natural disasters in Brazilian history."

In addition to the kind of dramatic news footage that's made its way to YouTube and drawn a lot of attention, we've also seen a lot of amateur footage documenting conditions in the region. Over the past seven days, "enchente" (flood) has been one of the top rising search terms among YouTube users in Brazil.

We've pulled together this playlist, which begins with footage from the disaster itself and progresses to show some of where the recovery stands today:

50th Anniversary of John F. Kennedy's Inauguration

John F Kennedy’s inaugural address, delivered 50 years ago today, is widely considered to be one of the best speeches in American history. Throughout the speech JFK touched on themes both timeless, such as the importance of freedom and public service, and timely, like manned space exploration and cooperation in Latin America. JFK’s iconic exclamation of “ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what you can do for your country” became the calling card for a generation committed to service.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary Harvard’s Kennedy School released a video in which present-day luminaries like Congressman John Lewis, journalist Christiane Amanpour, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, Gen. Colin Powell, former FL governor Jeb Bush, activist Marian Wright Edelman, and UN Sec. Gen. Ban Ki-moon, recite passages from Kennedy’s speech.

The video brings the historic speech to a new generation that didn’t witness JFK’s words live. Watch it here:



Also in honor of the 50th Anniversary, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum is sharing for the first time previously unreleased footage from the Pre-Inaugural Gala. The gala, produced by Frank Sinatra and Peter Lawford (with Sinatra as the MC), includes short speeches by VP-elect Lyndon Johnson and President-elect John F. Kennedy, as well as performances by the leading stars of the time, such as Ella Fitzgerald, Harry Belafonte, Milton Berle, Nat King Cole, Gene Kelly, Ethel Merman and more.



Finally, in case you haven’t visited the Google homepage yet today, the logo also pays homage to the inaugural address with a special JFK-themed ‘Doodle’.

Battle Hymn of the Republican: Odes to Sarah Palin

Nothing says "impending primary season" like a good campaign tribute song. In 2008, Obama Girl shared her breathy pledge of allegiance to Barack on YouTube, while an unlikely trio of middle-aged women informed America that it was "raining McCain."

This year, there's only one potential Republican primary candidate who is already inspiring dozens of ditties...Sarah Palin. This song, set to the tune of the American classic "Battle Hymn of the Republic," was uploaded in October but is only now finding its footing on the interwebs - it has close to 50,000 views and this count is rising. Potentially troubling, however, is the fact that the video has 1,722 "dislikes" and only 226 "likes":



But wait! A quick search yielded quite a few more Sarah songs, like this one, posted just six days ago, and whose description reads "Written for Governor Sarah Palin's 2008 vice-presidential campaign, the words I wrote to "All American Woman" are as true and meaningful today as they were then. She still represents the freedom loving and conscience guided Americans who are quite concerned with the direction this country is headed; which is to put it bluntly - down the tubes! Understandably, she is despised by extreme leftists and not without good reason, for Sarah Palin exposes them for what they are - people who hate America. Rich and remastered the vocals and rhythm tracks to kick it up a notch!"



This video from Zachary Stockdale is perhaps the most "professional" of the lot but also reeks of a possible parody:




Seen any other tribute songs we should know about? Perhaps a Romney rap or a Thune tune? Let us know in the comments.