Gov. Tim Kaine, the new chairman of the DNC, has answered your questions on YouTube. After President-elect Obama announced Kaine's appointment, the Governor accepted questions on the DNC's website - this YouTube video is the Governor's response.
The DNC should consider using Google Moderator next time, so that users can vote up the most important questions they think bear asking. That's what the Transition team did with Open for Questions.
If you're planning on heading to Washington DC for the Inauguration next week, we suspect (and encourage) you to bring a camera along to document this historic event. But it's critical that you know and understand the heightened security measures being taken on the National Mall so that a) you can film what you want, and b) you don't get your camera taken away from you.
The Citizen Media Law Project has put together a useful guide to covering the Inauguration, and we recommend a read-through. It provides basic information about the weekend's festivities and proceedings, as well as a list of where you can go, what you can bring, and what you're allowed to do. Not to mention what you should do if you run into trouble.
Read the guide here: http://www.citmedialaw.org/legal-guide/documenting-2009-presidential-inauguration
Today, just three days after the House and Senate announced their official presence on YouTube, Mayor Bloomberg launched his YouTube channel for the New York City Mayor's office. Mayor Bloomberg's channel, which can be found at youtube.com/mayorbloomberg, features a personal welcome to the YouTube channel from Bloomberg himself, as well as a 7 minute profile of New York City that serves as the introduction to the forthcoming "State of the City" video address.
In Bloomberg's "welcome" video, he explains that before taking office, he built a business designed to "provide as much information to the consumer as quickly as possible," and that he feels "government should be no different." The only difference is that now, he says, the consumer is you, the tax-payer.
The Mayor promises to work hard to make government more open, transparent and accountable, and aims to use his YouTube channel to this end. Welcome Mayor Bloomberg to YouTube and check out his new channel!
With her most recent upload to her YouTube channel, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has demonstrated a deep understanding of how to race to the top of YouTube. Namely, she created a video starring cats and eighties pop star Rick Astley:
This video shows that Pelosi is not only cleverly picking up on trends that resonate with the YouTube community to drive traffic to the serious content on her channel, but also using the site to show her constituents a more personal, less serious side of herself.
Last week, President-elect Obama and General Colin Powell called on all Americans to devote next Monday, Martin Luther King Day, to community service and volunteerism through the Renew America Together campaign. Now, the campaign is teaming up with YouTube to sponsor a video competition encouraging citizens to document how they are making a difference in their communities on MLK Day:
All you have to do to enter the contest is post your video as a video response to the above video. The winner of the single best video will receive a personal phone call from First Lady Michelle Obama.
Still don't know where to go to volunteer on the 19th? Visit www.usaservice.org to find a community service opportunity near you.
Congress has come to YouTube!
See our post in the YouTube blog, cross-posted here:
Have you ever wondered what your elected representatives actually do in Washington, D.C.? Ever pondered what day-to-day life on Capitol Hill consists of? Do you want to connect with your Senator or Congressman, but don't feel like sitting down to write a letter?
Starting today you can do all these things via YouTube. As the 111th Congress kicks into gear, many of your elected leaders are starting their own YouTube channels. They're posting videos direct from their Washington offices, as well as clips of floor speeches and committee hearings alongside additional behind-the-scenes footage from Capitol Hill. And in conjunction with both the House and Senate, we're launching two new platforms that will help you access your Senator and Representatives' YouTube channels: The Senate Hub (youtube.com/senatehub) and The House Hub (youtube.com/househub).
Learn more from the leadership of the House and Senate, here:
So, why are your elected leaders coming to YouTube? The short answer is: you. Your use of YouTube and other online platforms to speak up on political issues and hold your leaders accountable has shown just how powerful this medium can be. You've shown your elected officials that in order to be in contact with you, they need to come to the platforms you use most, and engage with you directly.
These YouTube channels have the potential to make Congress more transparent and accessible than ever before - but only if you continue to connect and engage with your government on the site. The House Hub and Senate Hub are the digital equivalents of a backstage pass to your government. Find your Senator and Representative on YouTube and make a connection... and if your elected representative doesn't have a YouTube channel yet, give them a call or an email and encourage them to get started.
-Steve Grove
Robert Gibbs, President-elect Barack Obama's Press Secretary, has posted a YouTube video answering the questions citizens submitted on "Open for Questions". This is the second series of "Open for Questions" that the transition team has done, and this time 103,512 people submitted 76,031 questions and cast 4,713,083 votes. The transition team, in their blog, called this, "just a hint of the willingness of the public to permanently change the way they interact with their government."
See below the video from Gibbs.
We're headed to DC this Sunday for a screening of our finalists' videos in YouTube's first journalism contest, Project: Report. Come check is out - detail below and in the video.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
An evening of films from Project: Report Telling the Untold Stories:
YouTube's first-ever reporting contest for aspiring journalists.
7 p.m.- 9 p.m. (doors open at 6:30 p.m.)
Reception to follow
American University's Harold and Sylvia Greenberg Theatre
4200 Wisconsin Avenue NW
Washington, DC
(nearest Metro Red Line/Tenleytown)
Free and open to the public
RSVP appreciated: rsvp@pulitzercenter.org
Ed O'Keefe, who writes the Federal Eye blog on washingtonpost.com, started a project several weeks ago called "Ask Your Government" in which he uses the new Google Moderator tool to gather questions from everyday citizens about how the government is run. Ed asked the YouTube community for their questions, and many of you responded.
In this first installment of "Ask Your Government," hundreds submitted questions about how exactly the new administration will institute new policies and enact real change. The community voted on which questions they wanted answered, and Ed took the top ranked question to the experts on Capitol Hill.
The top question this go-round came in from Katie JS of Los Altos, California. Katie asked: "Which agencies do you think we should eliminate?"
Ed answers the question in the following video, in which he interviews Rep. Darrel Issa (R-California) and Chris Edwards, the Director of Tax Policy at the Cato Institute.
Have a question for YOUR government? Visit the Federal Eye's Google Moderator page to submit a question for Ed to answer.
See below a great find by Reuters (blogged at the NYT's, "The Lede") - a rap written by former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto's daughter Bakhtawar, expressing grief over her slain mother, on YouTube. The video only has 4,300 views... but definitely worth a look. It's in English.
The Israeli Defense Force has wasted no time in using YouTube to fight the war of public opinion over the fighting in Gaza - their YouTube channel has been one of the highest-ranked channels during the past 10 days of the conflict. Venture Beat has an interesting look at how the IFD has been using YouTube and other internet mediums to bypass the media and gain support for their mission. Palestinian groups have also been posting, though on YouTube their support seems to be more user-generated than official.
Of course this isn't the first time an Army has used YouTube to show citizens the boots on the ground perspective - the Multi-National force in Iraq has been active on YouTube for almost two years, and the U.S. Military has several YouTube channels.
Terry McAulliffe - the chair of Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign and former chair of the Democratic National Committee - announced his candidacy for Virginia's Governor seat on YouTube today.
McAuliffe started his exploratory committee back on November 10th, and will face a strong primary field on the left, including State Senator Creigh Deeds and State delegate Brian Moran, for the chance to take on the presumptive Republican candidate for the office, state Attorney General Bob McDonnell.
See the video here, and embedded below.
