I Am Blameless

This Photoshop is in extremely poor taste and I had nothing to do with it.

How to: Track Ambient Automatically While Using Manual Flash

Here's a cool tip that some of you might not know about. If you are using manual flash (for consistency) you can still work in a quasi-auto mode in an environment where the ambient light level may be moving around on you.

It works great for using manual flash against fast-dropping light after sunset, for instance. And you can control the flash and ambient very easily from your camera. Read more »

Thread

I often agree with Dave Roberts and I thought this was an interesting piece. I've heard similar assessments of the progressive/liberal coalition before, and I think it's based in truth. I don't think it's necessarily a failure of activists so much as the likely result of a disparate coalition trying to affect often disparate policy changes. It's basically more simple for conservatives; if it's regressive, repressive, or resentful they all support it.

Still, it's probably productive for liberal activists across the spectrum to keep what Dave is saying in mind.

Meanwhile in climate-land, John McCain continues to out-maverick even himself.

A Special Note for Multilingual Readers

UPDATE: Okay, it is not perfect. Not even close. But it is helping enough people so that I decided to leave it in. Use at your own risk, and I hope it helps!

-DH
__________


I have added a machine-driven Google translate module to the site, in the drop-down menus on the right. Alas, I have no way of judging how good it is, and it obviously will not be great. And my heavy use of colloquial English will not help matters.

Question is, is it serviceable or is it so bad as to be laughable? I would note that you can improve any translation by holding your mouse over it for a couple of seconds.

I will decide after one week, based on your comments below. It is an all-or-none thing -- we can't cherry pick the languages. But please help me decide by giving it a try and leaving a comment. It can be as simple as the language tested, and a rating from 1 (awful) to 10 (wonderful).

If you are one of the people who are reading this in email or RSS, please click through to the main site and give it a whirl.

Thank you!

-30-

Release Notes: Seven new languages, four new countries get partner program, and lots more...

Bits and bobs that’ve gone live since our last Release Notes...

YouTube is now available in...: Arabic, Bulgarian, Lithuanian, Romanian, Slovenian, Ukrainian and Vietnamese!

Four new countries get YouTube Partner Program: The Partner Program continued its expansion this quarter, with launches in Argentina, Sweden, New Zealand and the Czech Republic. That makes 21 countries in which people can make money from their videos. For more information about partnerships, click here.

Crossfades, wipes and slides: The video editor lets you combine and trim your videos right on YouTube.com, without installing any software. Now you can add transitions, like crossfades and wipes, between video clips. Just select the transitions tab in the media picker, drag the transition and drop it between any two videos in the storyboard.

MySpace Autoshare: Automatically share your YouTube activities on your MySpace account (you can already do this on your Facebook, Twitter, Buzz, Reader and Orkut accounts). To hook this up, go to Account > ActivitySharing and click “Connect accounts” next to the MySpace logo.

More filtering for charts: YouTube Charts can now be filtered by categories such as Comedy, Gaming and Pets & Animals, in addition to time and popularity "slices." We also show more results (20) per page.


Improved screen reader accessibility for YouTube player: One of our engineering interns spent part of his summer improving video accessibility for visually impaired people. If you use a screen reader that supports Flash, we hope you'll find it easier to enjoy videos on YouTube now. We've also added some more captioning features to the YouTube Data API. You can list tracks, request auto-timing, and download the speech recognition captions for videos that you own.

Shows in France: If you’re a YouTube viewer in France, now you can watch full-length TV shows, like BFMTV: Bourdin Direct and Britain’s Got Talent. Check out the page here.

HD and CC badges on search results page: When you search for a video on YouTube, the search results now show HD and CC (Closed Caption) badges, in addition to the NEW, CHANNEL and PLAYLIST badges that already exist. If you click on the badge, it will filter out results that don’t fall under that category.


“Add-to playlist” widget: The [+] button on video thumbnails in search results now includes a menu that allows you to add the video to any one of your playlists or start a new playlist. Additionally, the "save to" button below the video is being renamed "add to" and will have the same functionality.


Visited video styling on search results and video pages: Browsers help people remember links they have previously clicked on by giving them a different color, the standard generally being that links are in blue and visited links are in purple. Many sites, including YouTube, opt to make all links blue regardless of visited state to give a more consistent look to the site and better reflect its dynamic nature. However, having a visited state is specifically useful when exhaustively exploring search results or related videos, and so we are launching a new style for thumbnails and links to videos in related and search results: the thumbnail for visited videos is slightly grayed, and the link color has changed. This should help you explore the site deeper without going in circles.

The YouTube Team

Night

There is much rain. Not sure anyone in DC knows what they're doing.


Enjoy!

More Thread

Enjoy

Happy Hour Thread

Blogging really is incompatible with non-blogging activities.

In the YouTube lab, promotion works

Remember high school chemistry? Beakers, test tubes, Bunsen burners...aqueous solution dilutions? Alright, so maybe the recall isn’t as strong on the last one. Hypothetically speaking, our product teams have never left that lab. They’ve been hard at work, testing away to find what’s effective in getting your videos watched – whether you’re a partner or an advertiser.

This past spring, we looked closely at our promotion tools, including Promoted Videos, to see what would happen in the ‘petri dish of promotion.’ Our team selected 20 partner videos who upload fresh videos regularly and then we drove as many views to them as possible with a cost per view (CPV) of $0.03. Guess what they found?

Conclusion #1: Promotion at $0.03 per view increases views per day by 30x when compared to two weeks prior to promotion. Thirty times? That’s a steal at three pennies for each view.

Conclusion #2: Partners in the test got 46,000 subscriptions that were directly attributed to sessions with a Promoted Video click. The cost averaged out to be between $4-$6 a subscriber. In other words, promotion of content has a direct impact on growth of subscriptions.

Conclusion #3: Promotion of newer videos is far more successful than older videos. No ‘Aha Moment,' but the lesson here is to keep your content fresh.

Conclusion #4: Users are twice as likely to watch a second video by the partner when driven to the channel page rather than the watch page. Naturally, someone will want to watch more of your videos if you can get them where they can clearly select one. Getting that user to the channel page is half the battle. Investment in the channel once you have them there is the rest.

If our experiment had begun with the hypothesis that Promoted Videos drive views at scale at a low cost, we would have been proven correct. You make great content, so promote it. Big players on YouTube didn’t find success overnight, and we’re finding that - more than ever - promotion is key to getting your videos seen and shared.

Jay Akkad, Product Manager, recently watched “The Scientific Method.”

Afternoon Thread

Still plotting.

Very Good

Principles-based regulation should achieve better results, and also should require less costly compliance measures. Obviously anything which depends on regulators requires good regulators, but they should have power, within limits, to say "this isn't working right," instead of seeing if all the established checkboxes are checked.

Morning Thread

Plotting with some hippies.

Thursday Is New Jobless Day

453K new lucky duckies.

Still high.

Austerity

There's always more money for the banksters.

LONDON — In a sweeping action meant to regain the confidence of jittery investors, the Irish government said Thursday that it expected to inject as much as €40 billion into its two largest banks, underscoring the extent to which they continue to jeopardize the country’s fiscal condition.

Brian Lenihan, Ireland’s finance minister, said that Allied Irish Bank, the country’s second-largest, would come under control of the government via a state-guaranteed share offering worth €5 billion, or about $6.8 billion. He said the current market conditions would not allow for a private transaction.

Irish population is about 1/70th of ours, to give you a better idea of the scale...

Remember

Evan at Truth Wins Out reminds us that young gay Americans get horribly persecuted, with, all too often, tragic results.

Do what you can. But remember, just speaking up is important. If you have a homophobic friend, now is the time, now is the time, for your friendship to end.

MORE. Read.

Midnight Thread

Rock on

It's The Night Of One Of The Days Of The Week

Usually unsure which. Enjoy.

Boo

The same sex element was missing as this story was first developing. Don't secretly tape people having sex and put it on the internet, and please let's move to a world where we're grownup enough about a) sex and b) same sex relationships so that no one feels the need to kill themselves if it happens.

If I Ran The Zoo

Still thinking about the Amtrak NEC HSR proposal. As I said, it really is a trivial amount of money, the amount of one year in Afghanistan spread over 30 years. And after actually reading through some of the details from the actual proposal, it's clear that this isn't just about establishing HSR. It's recognizing that capacity needs to be increased, and there's plenty of maintenance which is going to have to happen anyway so that opportunity might as well leveraged.

Still on the simple question of "if I had $100 billion to spend on transit projects," with an eye to the projects themselves along with good economic stimulus, I'd actually favor funding 1) current intra-city transit projects that are slowing down because of lack of funds and 2) improved inter-city rail corridors elsewhere. Rail in the Northeast is pretty good! And improving it in plenty of places elsewhere is actually pretty cheap.

Maybe He Knew What He Was Doing

Don't much like beating up on Waxman because he's usually a good guy, but I was alarmed at his crappy non-neutrality bill. Excerpt from press release just now:

This legislative initiative was predicated on going forward only if we had full bipartisan support in our Committee. We included the Republican staff in our deliberations and made clear that we were prepared to introduce our compromise legislation if we received the backing of Ranking Member Barton and Ranking Member Stearns.

With great regret, I must report that Ranking Member Barton has informed me that support for this legislation will not be forthcoming at this time.

...

I do not close the door on moving legislation this Congress. Cooler heads may prevail after the elections. But I want my position to be clear: my goal is the best outcome for consumers. If our efforts to find bipartisan consensus fail, the FCC should move forward under Title II. The bottom line is that we must protect the open Internet. If Congress can’t act, the FCC must.

eMeg

Actually curious how this story will impact voters.

The California governor's race took on a circus-like atmosphere Wednesday as a former housekeeper for Meg Whitman alleged the Republican gubernatorial nominee employed her for nearly nine years, even though Whitman knew the housekeeper was in the country illegally.

Flanked by attorney Gloria Allred, former Whitman employee Nicandra Diaz made the accusations at a tearful Los Angeles press conference Wednesday. Diaz said she asked Whitman for help with her immigration status in 2009 and Whitman refused. "I felt like she was throwing me away like a piece of garbage," Diaz said.

Obviously lots of Latino voters in California, but a lot of hostility to immigration too.


...link fixed

Afternoon Thread

Time to leave the bus behind.

Buses Buses Everywhere

I'm on one so was pondering this very issue earlier. The quantity of inter-city bus trips emanating form my urban hellhole has increased dramatically over the past several. Seems like there is a steady stream of Boltbus, Megabus, branded Greyhound/Peter Pan, various "Chinatown" buses, etc.

Take The Fees And Run

As Mike says, it appears that once the mortgage services figured out that as long as they could streamline the foreclosure process to the point where they could just make things up and have a judge stamp it, their best plan became to foreclose upon as many people as fast as possible. There were always problems with the way the incentives were misaligned between investors/services/homeowners, but what's going on here is that not only are homeowners being screwed, but so are investors. Of course Uncle Sam's one of those investors.

Or Maybe They're Seriously Full Of Shit

I know it's farting in church to suggest that maybe some of the great and noble elites who run the planet are full of shit, but maybe their expression of nonsense reasons for not supporting the policies which obviously should be followed is because they identify with the interests of that small segment of the population for whom modest inflation is "bad."

Perfect For A Headline News Solo Gig?

I guess I have to link to something about O'Keefe today.

Capacity

One takeaway from this article on Amtrak's SUPERTRAIN plans is that the Northeast Corridor is just about at capacity in terms of its transportation infrastructure. A bit more population growth and the trains will be packed, much of 95 will be packed, and the airspace is already packed. Adding more capacity is going to be expensive, in part because of the cost and difficulty of expanding right of ways, no matter how we do it.

A new underground station in Philadelphia? That means a new tunnel. Crazy talk.

Fresh Thread

Stuff to do.

A Thousand Little Hoovers

The big problems have not been solved, the can was just kicked down the road in hopes that the economy would rebound and solve them automatically.

Fraud

Banksters are just stealing homes now.

Critical papers regarding his Orlando home were missing dates, and some signatures appeared to him to be forged. The mortgage had been sold so often - including once in the middle of the foreclosure process - that at times it was hard to tell which company was trying to seize the house. He challenged the foreclosure in court but failed.

Now, as Fernandez seeks to appeal his eviction and get his home back, he has learned that the law firm representing the banks is under investigation for fabricating foreclosure documents. And his file was signed by Jeffrey Stephan, a document processor who made headlines last week for approving what could be hundreds of thousands of cases without verifying whether the foreclosures were justified.

First Draft!

First Draft is a great blog with great writing & one of the finest blogs to come out of the Eschaton community. Support their fantastic work if you at all can, or at least just do yourself a favor and read them.

Monday More Tuesday Night

Have a video.

Tuesday Night

enjoy

ONE HUNRED AND SEVENTEEN BILLION DOLLARS

Whether or not it's worth it, it's hardly a lot of money over 30 years. But, coincidentally, it's almost exactly what Afghanistan is going to cost us in 2011.

Cutting Food Stamps

Aside from actually helping people who need it, it's also about the best stimulus there is. Quick transfer of near-cash to people who will spend it right away through already existing program.

Appreciating The Scale of Human Misery

It might be a good moment to contemplate how many people have lost their homes, and how many people probably still will in the near future.

That's the problem. Not liberal bloggers. And if they'd listened to me things would be better.

Happy Hour Thread

Starts at 4 at some of my local places.

Because We Care

Trying to resist temptation to meta, but what the hell. Categories two and three here basically don't matter for November. I could write a million furious blog posts and Maddow could have Greenwald on every night to talk about the hopey changeyness of presidential assassination orders and the impact on the November outcomes would be almost precisely zero.


The economy sucks, the policies didn't work well enough, and the "we'll get through this if we wait a little bit longer and cut small business taxes yet again because it worked so well the first time" rhetoric isn't working.*

*Some stuff in the small business bill is fine, but it's mostly more bank shot policies which cost quite a bit. Hire people. Put them to work.

Afternoon Thread

Enjoy

And The Reason Is

Income inequality continues to increase.

They Might

Actually people might live with their parents forever.

I think this expresses well the basic thinking from them about the economy. Give it some time and the ship will right itself.

In other words, we've learned nothing.

The Puppies And Apple Pie Act

The sad thing is that Democrats are just really bad at playing this game. Find an idea that's simple, popular, and easy to sell. Spend six weeks talking about nothing else on the teevee. Then dare the Republicans to vote against it. If it doesn't pass, a few more people actually know that Republicans don't like puppies and apple pie. Wasting time trying to pass small things most people have no clue about is pointless.

Bucking Up

Data is noisy, and so we get both good news and bad news. My expert analysis of all of the data is that it's screaming "meh." And meh isn't good enough, because meh means no job growth. No job growth means continuing mass unemployment.

And that's why people aren't bucking up.

Don't Know Nothing

This is the only thing that surprised me.

Forty-five percent of Catholics did not know that their church teaches that the consecrated bread and wine in holy communion are not merely symbols, but actually become the body and blood of Christ.

Morning thread

Here, this should wake you up:

Jane Austen's Fight Club

Signed,
Not Atrios

Nobody could have anticipated, especially the religious

Agnostics and atheists tend to know more about religion than religious people.

This is why I only worship Andy Partridge.

Monday Night Thread

Jake the Tapper says that Rahm's going.

And my local sports franchise has won their division.

Monday Night

Have a video.

Taliban Dan

Those perfectly true things you are saying about me are shamefully shameful.

Happy Hour Thread

A few minutes early today.

I Vote For Nothing

That Republicans would oppose any tax increases was 100% predictable, the only thing we don't know is just how craven the Dems are.

Stirring Up Racial Tension

Beck:

Not Gonna Do It

"We started with a pretty good bill, now let's make it better" would be a decent strategy. But it won't happen.

What's The Matter With Nebraska

It wasn't exactly housing bubble central and it has very low unemployment, but it has lots of eated banks.

Marker

A frustrating thing is that the administration doesn't say, "we'd like to do this but we got the best we can do," instead they say "what we did was awesome." The result is that they don't even come across as advocates for the more liberal (and quite often the more popular) position.

Incompetent Workers

I'm reminded again of the New York Times story about the poor company suffering from the effect of tragic structural unemployment because it couldn't find skilled workers at $13/hour.


Things are really wrong.

Morning Thread

What horrible thing will our rulers say or do today?

On Assignment: Radio Silence

Last Friday I went out just before sunset to set up and shoot a lit photo of the Wilkins-Rogers flour mill in Ellicott City, MD. It's a behemoth of a building (at least by our local industrial standards) and I was shooting a exterior for their new website.

My plan was to sculpt the building on the rear 45's with flash. And to balance everything (flash, ambient dusk and interior lighting) for a cool, mixed image. At least that was the plan going in.

Instead, this post is about what happens when things head south quickly. Read more »

JoeyL is on Ovation TV Tonight

UPDATE: The doc has aired, and Joey has posted a ton of pictures and background info on his blog. Neat stuff, and definitely worth a look.
__________


Just a quick heads-up to make sure to catch JoeyL's documentary tonight at 10pm on Ovation TV. I saw an early version, and it is definitely worth your time.

It's easy to want to poke fun at someone who is so successful at such a young age. And between you and me I try to every chance I get. But if you watch this thing tonight I think you will come away with a good impression of who he really is and what is motivating him to do such amazing stuff.

If you do not get Ovation TV, he has arranged for a DVD pressing and will have them available via his blog. No idea on pricing, etc. (And w/Joey, you really never know...)

But if you have access to Ovation TV, don't miss it. I am very much looking forward to it tonight.

-30-

Rage

I don't normally feel the need to fact check Krgthulu, but I did actually look this one up.

Now, the Minneapolis Fed is known for its conservative outlook, and claims that unemployment is mainly structural do tend to come from the right of the political spectrum. But some people on the other side of the aisle say similar things. For example, former President Bill Clinton recently told an interviewer that unemployment remained high because “people don’t have the job skills for the jobs that are open.

What he actually said is much worse.

How could this be? Because people don't have the job skills for the jobs that are open. So here's the most important thing. If we were hiring since last June when economists said the shrinkage stopped, between then and now, if we had been hiring people on the jobs where people are trying to hire, that is we could get those jobs this morning after this TV show is over, if we were doing that at the same rate were doing that in 93, 94, 95, there would be five million more people at work. This unemployment rate would be 6.9 (percent) not 9.6 (percent.) We would be in a different world, not just economically but emotionally as as country.

SYSTEM FAIL


...adding, realize this sort of implies I thought Krugman got something wrong, which he didn't, just that the full quote in context is even worse than the snippet.

Your Moment Of Zen

An occasional reminder of just who our rulers are.

Sunday Night

Monday's already almost here.

Your 60 seconds, on 60 Minutes

It's one of the most-watched hours of TV every week, and now it’s coming to YouTube. 60 Minutes, CBS's long-standing, Emmy-award winning Sunday night news program, has started a YouTube channel to post stories from the show. Now, if you miss 60 Minutes on a Sunday night, you can tune in Monday morning and watch the stories on YouTube at youtube.com/60minutes.

But that's not all. The 60 Minutes team wants to hear your feedback on the issues and the people their correspondents cover. So we’re partnering in a new program called, “Ask 60 Minutes,” where you can engage directly with their correspondents. This week, we’re featuring correspondent Lara Logan’s story from the Afghanistan/Pakistan border, where she spent weeks with the 101st Airborne undergoing relentless attacks. The commanding officers in the piece all point to Pakistan as the staging area for attacks from foreign fighters – not only the Taliban, but Uzbeks, Chechens, Arabs and Pakistanis as well. Lara Logan wants to know what you think about the story:



Go to the 60 Minutes YouTube channel to upload a 60-second video with your thoughts, as well as vote on others responses. If you don’t want to use video, you can submit your feedback in text. 60 Minutes producers may broadcast some of the top-voted responses on TV (that's a weekly audience of 13 million!) or respond to them directly on their website, 60minutes.com.

Steve Grove, Head of News and Politics, recently watched "Michael Jackson on 60 Minutes."

Our media - not theirs!

I'm delighted to say that tonight's guests on Virtually Speaking Sundays will be Avedon Carol of The Sideshow and Susie Madrak of Suburban Guerrilla and Crooks and Liars. You can listen live to the stream here at 5:00 PM Pacific, 8:00 Eastern, or listen to it later, or grab the podcast when it's posted.

Signed,
Not Atrios

Shoebox

As longtime readers know, I love reading the Inqy comments section where racist suburbanites wax philosophic on my urban hellhole. One common refrain is that Philly rowhouses are tiny "shoeboxes." And while it's true that they tend to be relatively narrow, and there are some truly tiny "trinity" rowhouses, many are actually quite large.

..adding, there's nothing wrong with small houses, but this is part of the general argument that urban living is incompatible with having a family.

Afternoon Thread

enjoy.

"peculiarly unadaptable and untrained"

Nothing ever changes.

My Life In The Urban Hellhole

This Inqy commenter describes it.

Center City and its cluster of yuppified neighborhoods, places that we've never heard called Bella Vista till some braying schmuck shilling marginal flats and lots talked it into being back in the year 1985, is still a ghetto. It may have a layer of gilt and gelt, it's still a ghetto. No one will respect your property or personal safety in the ghetto because it's still predominately the seething jungle, inhabited by various marginal species with no refinement, taste or sense of restraint. My niece started school at a location in the ghetto and we made sure she knew how to handle a bottle of mace and a Colt 45 before consigning her to the pricey dorm.

Sunday Bobbleheads

Meet the Press has Arne Duncan, Michelle Rhee, Randi Weingarten (AFT head), and Robert Bobb (Detroit schools).


Face the Nation is filled with Republicans and Tea Party weirdos.

This Week has Axelrod, McConnell, and Queen Rania.


I swear it gets weirder every week. Document the atrocities!

Morning Thread

Enjoy

50 years after Nixon v. Kennedy, a new kind of political debate

It was 50 years ago today that then-Senator from Massachusetts John F. Kennedy took on then-Vice President Richard Nixon in the first-ever general election presidential debate. The debate was a turning point not only for the 1960 election, but also for U.S. politics: an estimated 80 million people tuned in, and the debate set a new precedent for the use of television as a political communications tool. To celebrate the anniversary, we’ve partnered with the Kennedy Presidential Library to post the full, unabridged Nixon/Kennedy debate to YouTube.



The web, of course, is the latest communications platform to change the way debates are run. In the last presidential election cycle, we partnered with CNN on the CNN/YouTube debates -- which gave everyone a chance to ask a question of presidential candidates -- and we’ve since launched Google Moderator, which allows citizens to submit and vote on questions presented to public officials on YouTube. For the 2010 midterm elections, we’re partnering with news agencies across the country for a series of debates. Here are a few of them that we’re launching today:

• Nevada: we’re partnering with the Nevada Broadcasters Association for a Senate debate on October 14 between Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Republican challenger Sharron Angle. Submit your questions here.
• Iowa: we’re working with the Des Moines Register and Iowa Public Television for the October 21 gubernatorial debate between Governor Chet Culver and challenger Terry Branstad. Submit your questions here.
• Colorado: we’re partnering with KUSA 9 News and the Denver Post for a gubernatorial debate between Democrat John Hickenlooper, Republican Dan Maes and American Constution Party candidate Tom Tancredo on October 13. Submit your questions here.
• Connecticut: we're teaming up with WTNH and the Day of New London for a Senate debate between Republican Linda McMahon and Democrat Richard Blumenthal, as well as a Gubernatorial debate between Tom Foley and Dan Malloy. Submit your questions for the Senate race here, and the Gubernatorial here.
• 10questions: We’ve also partnered with 10Questions.com, who used the Google Moderator API to build a platform for a web debates series across the country, in which candidates will submit their answers to the top-voted questions via YouTube videos. You’ll also see this platform in action in TV debates in both California and Georgia in the coming weeks.

More open, engaging political debates benefit voters, candidates, news agencies, and the political process. If you're a broadcaster, blogger, campaign or citizen looking to hold a debate in your city or state, check out our debate landing page for easy instructions on how to use Google Moderator to solicit and broadcast questions from voters via YouTube.

Steve Grove, YouTube News and Politics, recently watched Hardball isn’t just played at Fenway Park

Need more thread?

Because you can never get too much Dean Baker.

Signed,
Not Atrios

More Thread

I love the trolls most of all.

Al Gore Is Still Fat

Hot September day.

Lunch Thread

Enjoy.

Those Wacky Uzbeks!

Torture! So wrong.

Fail Whale

Krgthulu:

Is it possible that there has been some rise in structural unemployment that’s swamped by a much larger rise in cyclical unemployment? Yes, conceivably. And let’s talk about that when unemployment gets below, say, 7 percent — which at current rates of progress will happen, well, never.

I really don’t think there’s any way to make sense of the fuss about structural unemployment unless you posit that a lot of influential people are looking for reasons not to act. Based on everything we know, this just shouldn’t be an issue. What the economy needs is more demand; provide that, and you’ll be amazed at how many willing, productive workers there are, currently sitting idle.

Reality Bites

The newly homeless are probably a bit less likely to vote.

Got thread?

Here, have some propaganda posters.

Signed,
Not Atrios

Friday Night

enjoy

Friday Cat Blogging

And More

3 credit unions get swallowed too...

BFF

Haven Trust Bank Florida, Ponte Vedra Beach, FL gets raptured.

Our Lovely Reality

I learned a lot the summer I temped at a collections agency.

Two days after being confronted by ABC News, Bank of America has fired a debt collection agency after several of its operators were caught using racist and obscene phone calls to collect debts from bank customers.

"What's up, you f---ing n---r?" said one of the collection agents in a message to 32-year old Allen Jones of Dallas, who owed $81 on his Bank of America credit card.

Afternoon Thread

Enjoy.

They Write Letters

                                            

September 24, 2010


Michael J. Williams
President and Chief Executive Officer
Fannie Mae
3900 Wisconsin Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20016

Dear Mr. Williams,

We are disturbed by the increasing reports of predatory 'foreclosure mills' in Florida working for Fannie Mae servicers.  Foreclosure mills are law firms representing lenders that specialize in speeding up the foreclosure process, often without regard to process, substance, or legal propriety.  According to the New York Times, four of these mills are both among the busiest of the firms and are under investigation by the Attorney General of Florida for fraud.  The firms have been accused of fabricating or backdating documents, as well as lying to conceal the true owner of a note.

Several of the busiest of these mills show up as members of Fannie Mae's Retained Attorney Network, a set of legal contractors on whom Fannie relies to represent its interests as a note-holder.  The network also serves as a pool of legal talent that represents Fannie in its pre-filing mediation program, a program designed to facilitate communication between borrowers and servicers prior to foreclosure. In other words, Fannie Mae seems to specifically delegate its foreclosure avoidance obligations out to lawyers who specialize in kicking people out of their homes.


The legal pressure to foreclose at all costs is leading to a situation where servicers are foreclosing on properties on which they do not even own the note.  This practice is blessed by a legal system overwhelmed with foreclosure cases and unable to sort out murky legal details, and a set of law firms who mass produce filings to move foreclosures as quickly as possible.  At the very least, we would encourage you to remove foreclosure mills under investigation for document fraud from the Fannie Mae's Retained Attorney Network. We also believe that Fannie should have guidelines allowing servicers to proceed on a foreclosure only when its legal entitlement to foreclose is clearly documented.  In addition, these charges raise a number of questions for us about the foreclosure process as it pertains to Fannie Mae's holdings.

Why is Fannie Mae using lawyers that are accused of regularly engaging in fraud to kick people out of their homes?  Given that Fannie Mae is at this point a government entity, and it is the policy of the government that foreclosures are a costly situation best avoided if there are any lower cost alternatives, what steps is Fannie Mae taking to avoid the use of foreclosure mills?  What additional steps is Fannie Mae going to take to ensure that foreclosures are done only when necessary and only in accordance with recognized law?  How do your servicer guidelines take into account the incentives for fraud in the fee structure of foreclosure attorneys and others engage in the foreclosure process?  What mechanisms do you employ to monitor legal outsourcing?

We look forward to your responses and to understanding more about these disturbing dynamics in future hearings.


                                               Sincerely,






Alan Grayson                            Barney Frank                            Corrine Brown
Member of Congress                      Member of Congress                      Member of Congress

Discussing innovation and democracy in 2010

Over the past few U.S. election cycles, Google and YouTube have have become catalysts for a more engaging, meaningful dialogue between citizens and government leaders. From asking questions of candidates to finding your polling place, our tools are helping to make elections and politics more personal and more democratic, and have opened up Washington, D.C. in exciting new ways.

With less than six weeks until the midterm elections, we wanted to hear from some of politics’ most creative minds about what innovation and democracy mean in 2010. So on Monday we’re joining forces with POLITICO to host an event at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., where we’ll discuss the increasing contributions of technology to democracy and the political process.

As part of the event, top strategists from both political parties—Democratic strategist David Axelrod and Republican strategist Ed Gillespie—will answer questions and offer thoughts and predictions about the upcoming elections. Arianna Huffington will then moderate a panel about innovation in media, and will be joined by Becki Donatelli, Stephen Hayes, Nate Silver and Amy Walter. We’ll also demonstrate tools built for citizens and government officials using YouTube and Google Maps, and will be joined by our friends on the politics team at Facebook.

The panelists want to hear from you, so if you’d like to submit a question for any of them, you can do so at youtube.com/citizentube. You’ll also be able to watch the entire event live on YouTube on Monday.



As we approach the election homestretch, we’ll continue to develop useful ways for voters and campaigns to engage one another around the important issues in 2010.

Ginny Hunt, Elections and Public Sector Programs, recently watched “ John Legend and The Roots.”

Lunch Thread

Enjoy

Who Are You Talking To

I get annoyed by this kind of thing. It isn't griping bloggers or, more importantly, their readers who might not vote in November. It's the people for whom politics is an optional activity.

Base Motivation

President Snowe has nothing to do with this.

SAN DIEGO — Attorneys for the Obama administration objected Thursday to a proposed worldwide injunction being considered by a California federal judge that would halt the military's ban on openly gay troops.

Calling the possible move "untenable," Department of Justice attorneys filed their objections in U.S. District Court in Riverside.

Morning

So the Dem agenda is?

Elmo answers your questions about housing prices on Sesame Street, Cookie’s veggie intake, and more

It’s not every day you get an all-access pass to one of the most famous neighborhoods in the world and one of it’s most celebrated residents. So when Elmo, Sesame Street’s lovable red monster, offered to answer questions from the YouTube community, you seized the opportunity.

Thousands of you asked questions, ranging from “What would you do if you suddenly woke up and were purple?” to whether he would consider a tap dance routine with Ricky Gervais (who recently made a Sesame Street appearance). The result? A very entertaining YouTube interview. Watch it for yourself here:



Elmo now also holds the title for answering the most number of questions in any YouTube interview. He may be small but he can talk fast, rolling through over 20 questions in just 20 minutes. And his good humor shines through: almost every one of his answers is punctuated with his signature giggle.

Are there other characters you’d like the chance to interact with? Let us know in the comments and we’ll pass the info on to our friends at Sesame Street.

Ramya Raghavan, News and Public Interest Manager, recently watched “Will.i.am’s Song: What I am.”

Thursday Night

enjoy

Base Motivation

I can ignore the hippie punching, but it should be accompanied with, say, a promise not to cut social security.

It really isn't hard.

Reality Bites

Finally pre-election monthly jobs report comes out on October. I haven't seen any data to suggest we should expect a significant drop in the unemployment rate or increased jobs growth, and in fact given the fluctuations in the labor participation rate, an increase in the unemployment rate is certainly possible.

Tips for partners: Betty's recipe for metadata

Our partners teach us something new everyday, whether it’s about science, art or cooking. Sometimes they even teach our team YouTube optimization tips and how to better promote a channel. In a series of monthly videos, we’re asking partners to talk about their top optimization tips for channels and are kicking this off with Betty from bettyskitchen. Betty joined the partner program last year and makes cooking videos with simple recipes ranging from cheddar jack whipped potatoes to healthy and natural granola bars, which all have one thing in common: they are incredibly delicious.

We asked Betty to show us how she uses metadata to increase her discoverability, choose her tags wisely, and come up with the perfect title. We hope you’ll find her recipe for metadata just as enjoyable as her steps to make buttercream frosting.

Let us know in the comments section of Betty’s video if you have great tips to share on using metadata or any other questions for Betty. We’d also love to hear how your videos have been impacted once you have used some of these tips to optimize your metadata.

Julie Kikla and Mahin Ibrahim, Account Managers, YouTube Partnerships recently watched “Baby Eating Watermelon.”

SUPERTROLLEY

We don't have any kind of newer light rail system here in the urban hellhole, we have trolleys. 5 lines run from Center City to West Philly, one line runs across the city a bit north of that and 2 lines operate entirely in the suburbs. Ridership appears to be going up quite a bit on these lines. Curious about why. There's a 3rd trolley-like suburban line which I think is officially classified as heavy rail.






....the route 15 is the only retro line, though the other five urban lines aren't exactly new.  Here's one in the tunnel.

Commanding Heights

Waiting for Superman sounds like an awesome movie.

Such A Strange Party

They can be goaded into doing the wrong thing every time.

Meet the New Neighbors

The area where I live has been overrun by Halyomorpha halys, AKA stink bugs. They are invasive (from Asia) have no predators in this region and are … everywhere. They even became an issue in coaching Ben's soccer game last sunday.

"If one lands on you and you have the ball or are closely defending someone, just let it crawl around on you. It won't hurt you. You can flick it off when the ball is in another part of the field…"

They are a little over 1/2" long, and mobile. I photographed one for a local photo project earlier this week, using a very simple light diffuser / bug restraint device that works well for anything very small -- moving or not. Read more »

Lunch Thread

enjoy

Tune in to John Legend and The Roots, live from NYC

Tonight, John Legend and The Roots take the stage at Terminal 5 in New York City, in their first concert together since the release of their new album, Wake Up. The performance will be live streamed on YouTube at 9 p.m. (ET) at www.youtube.com/johnlegendvevo and directed by award-winning director Spike Lee.

Here’s John and ?uestlove from The Roots to tell you what the night will bring...



The evening will feature songs from the album – covers of ‘60s and ‘70s funk, soul and reggae-tinged hits with socially-conscious themes -– some John Legend classics and a few set list surprises. Watch Legend and ?uestlove discuss their album inspirations and check out their favorite videos here from their YouTube homepage curation earlier this week.

And if John and The Roots weren’t enough, they will be joined on stage throughout the evening by several special guests, including Estelle, Common, Melanie Fiona and who knows...perhaps an American Idol-turned-Dreamgirl.

This concert is part of the new “Unstaged” series brought to you by YouTube, American Express and Vevo. It will feature a pre-show from Spike, John, and ?uestlove that includes answers to the questions you tweeted earlier this week, along with the ability to choose your own camera angle, vote on which song they should play, and share comments with other fans via Twitter and Facebook.

Tune in for a memorable evening of musical collaboration and surprise guests, with a legendary director at the helm – all live from New York City.

Not at your computer tonight? Check back on the same channel for the archived highlights.

Dana Vetter, Music Manager, Marketing Programs, recently watched “Dar karta su Justin'u Bieber'iu :D.”

And More

Not sure there's much new here, but WaPo has another article about the foreclosure process mess.

Foreclosure Mills

Banksters are just stealing homes now.

Don't Worry, I've Got This

Or not.

Thursday Is New Jobless Day

465k lucky duckies. That's, uh, still high.

Sunrise Thread

Enjoy

Conrad Ventur refracts YouTube videos at MoMA

Brooklyn-based Conrad Ventur makes installations from YouTube videos and currently has a show at MoMA PS1, running through October 18, 2010. Learn more about this video artiste...



1) How do you use video in your art?
I use video in my art in two different ways. First, I find older recordings that I incorporate into installation. I really love archive performances by singers and work with these as material in my art. Secondly, I also direct and shoot videos myself. In these works, I'm essentially re-filming or re-staging underground films from the ’60s using the same actors that appeared in them the first time around. Some of these are Jack Smith and Andy Warhol films. My upcoming projects use some of these actors in stories that are non-quotational.

2) How do you use YouTube in your art?
For the last few years, I've enjoyed browsing YouTube. A video will attract my attention if it's an old recording that may have originally been meant for live television broadcast -- I like LIVE recordings mainly. I'm drawn to recordings that might have the potential to appeal to the collective memory of a larger audience. I take those videos and then project them through new-age crystal prisms or onto mirror balls in order to change the way the video content affects the viewer. I like my art to be more of an experience for the audience. It's best to see it in person.

3) What are you trying to convey through the installation currently at MoMA PS1?
In the installation at MoMA PS1, the curators and I decided to show a three channel video piece that we situated in the lower level of the museum. It's in an unexpected, small room. It's a bit of a surprise for museum-goers when they encounter these three recordings of the singer Shirley Bassey. It's the same song, “This Is My Life,” that she performed in three different decades of her life. Each has its own projector, and the three play at the same time on a continuous loop: the young Shirley singing with the old Shirley, singing a song about her life. Rotating prisms are situated in front of each projector lens. The videos are projected directly through these prisms. Thus, the room becomes a kaleidoscope that you walk into. It's a swirling, refracted, multiplied space that came from the collective (and ever-changing) catalogue of YouTube.

4) If you were to create this installation in 100 years, based on the music icons of today, who/which videos would you include and why?
If in 100 years I could look back and see how the careers and lives of contemporary singers unfold, I would choose live recordings of Micheal Jackson to use in an installation. Most importantly, in 100 years, the varnish will rub off and we'll be able to see clearly how the march of time resonates with the myth of MJ. He was a tremendous talent and was extremely generous to his audiences as a performer. His untimely death is an unfortunate bookend to a life lived in the spotlight which we all are familiar with in some way. An installation would be an interesting format to tell his story in a way that appeals to the audience's senses on many levels.

5) What are your top 5 videos of all time on the site?
I'm always looking for new material to capture my imagination. Here are a few that I like:











You can subscribe to Conrad Ventur’s YouTube channel here.

Wednesday Night Thread

enjoy

Evening Thread

The 'C' bus up Broad St. is always pulling away right when I get there. DAMN YOU C BUS!!!

Also, Local Demand, And Such

One reason I look forward to the new Census data is because I'm curious if my urban hellhole has finally stopped its decades-long period of shrinkage and has either maintained population at its 2000 level or maybe even grown a bit. Growth would, hopefully, finally steer policymakers away from thinking mostly about how to lure outsiders into the city and get them to remember that while tourists and visitors are delightful and you can soak them in various ways (hotel taxes and whatnot), local residents also generate demand to support an active and lively city.

Also, they like clean streets.

Fantastic Fest curates the YouTube homepage

If you've ever been to the Alamo Drafthouse theaters in Texas (where you can order fried pickles and other delicacies directly to your seat!), you know the Alamo team has a unique knack for programming. In addition to bringing Texans major motion pictures, Alamo theaters play Mad Men on Sundays, host Glee sing-a-longs and coordinate other quirky community events (isn't it time someone brings the Alamo to San Francisco...hint, hint?). The Alamo team is also behind Fantastic Fest, the largest genre film festival in the U.S., which kicks off in Austin, Texas tomorrow. There, genre movie lovers can find horror, fantasy and sci-fi films from around the world.

To celebrate tomorrow's launch, Fantastic Fest programmers are curating the YouTube homepage with a collection of short films from filmmakers who have played at past festivals. Featuring incredible special effects and offbeat comedy, the line-up is as varied as the Fantastic Fest itself.

To learn more about the programming choices, check out this video from Alamo Drafthouse CEO Tim League:



Sara Pollack, Entertainment Marketing Manager, recently watched "Sesame Street: Katy Perry Song: Hot and Cold."

Street Cleaning

I know I'm repeating myself endlessly, but maybe eventually the world will make me dictator and I can implement my grand vision to save the universe. But my city, like many others, has a shortage of street cleaners. It's one of those things they cancel to save money and then never bring back. I think in Philly only areas that set up special neighborhood/business district taxation areas have regular street cleaning. Now a lack of street cleaning doesn't destroy the world, but it obviously makes the world a less desirable place. More seriously, as trash goes down the drain during storms it can cause problems with your storm drainage systems, especially if those systems are quite old. This can lead to basement flooding and significant damage.

There are a bunch of unemployed people around. Street cleaning isn't a highly skilled job, and I'm pretty sure for a reasonable wage you could find a lot of people willing to clean streets. This would turn unemployed people into employed people, reducing the current quantity of human misery, and provide the added benefits of healthier water systems and cleaner streets.

All of this is just an overly long way of making the obvious point that there are simple productive tasks that don't require that much in the way of planning that the federal government could spend money on. I'm not sure how well my street cleaning plan scales nationwide, but I'm sure we could think of other mostly productive things for people to do.

Stupid Or Lying

It's the eternal debate. I suppose they want him to say, "One more terrorist attack and it's all over."

Wanker of the Day

Saint John McCain.

Appointments

Trying not to think to much about White House staffing issues, but if David Gergen is hired as Chief of Staff I'm going to shoot myself in the face.

Lunch Thread

enjoy.

The Missing View

Here's how the WaPo writes up Summers exit:

Congressional Republicans - and some Democrats - have been more critical of Summers's tenure. House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) recently called on Obama to fire both Summers and Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, accusing the White House of pursuing misguided economic policies that ran up record deficits without creating jobs or significantly improving the economy.

Many prominent economists have rebutted that view, arguing that Obama's economic policies prevented last year's recession from turning into a depression. Still, with unemployment at 9.6 percent and Democrats getting battered in the polls, even some administration loyalists say they were surprised that it has taken so long for Obama to recast his message on the economy and reshape his economic team.

While it acknowledges that "some Democrats" have been critical, the implication is that their criticisms were similar to those of Congressional Republicans and Boehner. Missing is any suggestion that there is criticism from The Left.

Reality Bites

I've long thought "It's the Economy, Stupid" was a bit overblown in 1992, but I think right now our political class is utterly failing to recognize the reality. As Digby says, the professional left isn't causing problems for the administration and Democrats, the economy is. From what I've seen of campaigns, candidates are campaigning on positioning relative to symbols (Pelosi, HCR, tax cuts for rich!), instead of telling voters they're going to make their lives better. Tweaks around the edges, or plans to establish programs with tax credits to blah blah blah don't do it. The system is blinking red, and politicians are failing to recognize that.

We Could Be Here For A Very Long Time

I imagine that the people in charge figure that, well, the economy will eventually turn around. That isn't necessarily true.

Say What The Reporter Wants To Say

I've only had a few of nontrivial interactions with reporters for stories they were doing, but in every case it was clear the reporter already had a story they were trying to tell and were just fishing for the right quote so I could tell it for them.

I've long been puzzled why so many journalists really think journalism is about "working the phones" especially when mostly "working the phones" involves "dinging someone at some think tank to say what you want to tell the reader."

"Mistake"

I do not think that word means what the Washington Post is happy to have its readers think it means.

Some of the nation's largest mortgage companies used a single document processor who said he signed off on foreclosures without having read the paperwork - an admission that may open the door for homeowners across the country to challenge foreclosure proceedings.

Late Night

Rock on.

Booby

It is what it is.

Tuesday Night

This is the 50,514th post to this blog.

Decision Points

They screwed up first with a too small stimulus.

They screwed up second last December/January when they got skeered of zombie unicorns invisible bond vigilantes.

They screwed up the third time when they thought recovery summer was here and the jobs growth was coming, despite very little evidence of that.

SUPERTRAIN

Hey, London to Frankfurt.

Everthing's Terrible It's All Our Fault And We're Not Going To Change

The sociopaths at the Fed have spoken.

Bye Larry

Don't let the door...

And maybe one day you can explain to the world why an "insurance policy" was all that was needed.

Tips for partners: Words, Words, Words!!

As a partner, you have probably asked yourself, “How can I make my videos more discoverable?” “Is it kosher to ask for subscribers?” and “What’s the most effective way to use annotations?” Well, after almost three years since the Partner Program launched, we want to answer some of your questions and offer tips on how you can use YouTube’s arsenal of tools to become a truly great partner.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll feature a series of blog posts with advice and actionable suggestions regarding what has helped partners be successful on YouTube. You can search the 'tips for partners' label to find the full series. As always, we want your feedback. If there are things we are missing, or other optimization tips you want us to cover, let us know via the comments section in this post.

To kick off our series, we will be covering the first and most important step to increasing awareness of your videos: metadata, which is near and dear to all of our hearts. Find out what YouTube defines as metadata and read on for ways to come up with new tags and descriptions.

Words, Words, Words

YouTube is the second largest search engine, so don’t get lost in the mix, let people find you. Our algorithms are good, but they can only read, they can’t watch your videos. So in order to properly classify your video and index it for search, we need your help.

To do:

• Have a basic understanding of how we index our search results so you know how we crawl and index your video. Use our tools to your videos’ advantage. 
• Titles, tags and rich descriptions (all categorized as metadata) will help your discoverability and increase CPMs. Descriptions can include up to 5,000 characters, tags can be 120 characters. Make a goal to use every one of these limits for each of your videos.
• The more words you include in your description, the higher your chances of being discovered by searchers, which means the larger your audience can grow, and the more potential revenue you can earn.

What YouTube defines as metadata:

• Use our Keyword Tool to expand on or update your tags. It will give you good suggestions for related queries. You can also check out the Google Insights for Search tool built for online advertisers. 
• Don’t just include tags upon video upload. If you have a popular video that continues to get views over time, update your tags regularly to take advantage of new searches. Online search behavior is always changing, so your tags should change along with it. 
• If you have a transcript available, make sure to upload it and turn on captions. This can help your discoverability as it will give us more data points to index your video.

To avoid:

• Users hate spam. Google hates spam. Spammy tags and thumbnails may help increase views in the very short term, but our algorithm will catch on and punish you for spam. Long term, you want your users searching for videos to find what they are looking for and to associate your channel with accurate information.
• Don’t repeat words in your description or title, this will not help you. Rather use different words and variations that users might search on to find your video.

Now is a great time to log into your account and check out what your metadata looks like and add some more tags. Tune in this Thursday to hear from one of our partners who’ll discuss first-hand how she uses metadata to increase views. 

Julie Kikla and Mahin Ibrahim, Account Managers, YouTube Partnerships recently watched “Triple Backflip - 60 foot Rope Swing!”

And Speaking Of Sucky Elites

The Fed has, once again, chosen to do nothing despite having ongoing mass unemployment and failing to meet their too small unofficial inflation target.

You Suck

I know Chris Hayes is writing a big book on this subject, but I work in a different medium so I can crank it out in 90 seconds or less. I'm someone who used to have a bit of respect and deference for The People In Charge. You know, Senators and such. Now I think most of them truly suck and worry that elites are going to destroy the country.

Your questions on the future of Iraq

There is perhaps no other country in the world that has undergone more change or been under more scrutiny in the past decade than Iraq. The draw-down of U.S. troops and a recent election that has yet to produce a formal government have left Iraq in a state of flux. The country’s destiny has implications not just for the Arab world, but for the world at large.

That’s why, in partnership with the Arabic-language television network, Al Arabiya, we’re launching “Iraq Looks Forward,” a series of interviews on YouTube in which Iraqi leaders answer your questions about the future of the country. This is your chance to engage directly with top Iraqi officials, so visit youtube.com/alarabiya to submit your questions and vote on which you think should be asked.





A selection of the top-voted questions will be posted to sitting Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, the Prime Minister of the Kurdistan region of Iraq, Barham Salih, and others.

The deadline for submitting questions is Monday, September 27.

Olivia Ma, News Manager, recently watched “Tony Blair on Iraq and Iran - The View”

Update: Former sitting Prime Minister Ayad Allawi has also confirmed his participation in this interview series.

Mysteries

I'm always mystified when high income people get DUI charges, and double that in New York City. Hire a driver, take a cab. You can afford it.

I Want That Data Now

I'm still a bit of a data nerd, so I'm really looking forward to the release of census data.

Anyone Wanna Blame The People In Charge?

I admit to not following education reform debates very closely, not because I don't think it's important but because, well, limited time and all that. But I gather the basic narrative that is out there is that well-meaning school administrators are thwarted at every step due to the overwhelming power of teachers unions. Now I'm sure there are bad teachers who are difficult to fire, but when I follow school news locally it seems to me that it's the administration who are incompetent at best and corrupt at worst.

And, no, of course not saying that about all people in school administration, just that it's remarkable that the people who run the show, and can more freely speak to the media, are blameless.

Rage

I'm informed by Igor Volsky that the very serious and moderate Senator Collins thinks that it is more important for her party to be allowed to offer the precise number of amendments they want to offer and tie up the Senate for a very long time than it is to extend equality by repealing DADT.

We are ruled by very bad people.


Call her office and complain if you are so inclined (202) 224-2523.

A Development Which Will Ensure Their Continued Relevance And Profitability

Newsweek actually hired Mickey Kaus.

TERRORIST

Think idiots running out on field of sporting events are, well, idiots,but I just loved this comment to the story.

I am afraid this nonsense will encourage a terrorist to run on the field and attack one of the players.

Your ideas on human rights and free expression on YouTube

About a month ago, as part of our series of blogs about human rights and video with WITNESS.org, we asked for your thoughts and ideas on some of the key topics on the future of video activism. Now we're responding to some of your top-voted questions and comments within the Moderator series we set up to facilitate the discussion. We've picked out some of the top-rated responses below, and to see the full discussion on privacy, impact, and classification of human rights videos online, click here.

But the conversation only grows from here. This week, we've gathered with around 300 activists, nonprofits, and thought leaders in Budapest for Internet at Liberty 2010, a conference that Google is sponsoring in conjunction with the Central Europeon University to examine key issues in online free expression. We've been collecting your thoughts on how to keep the Internet safe for online free expression in another Moderator series; many of your ideas will be discussed in the panels and discussions that take place in Hungary. The conference will be live streamed, and we'll post videos of the session to a special YouTube channel dedicated to the discussions that take place.

People everywhere use platforms like YouTube to share their stories with the world every day. Sometimes those stories are as simple as an idea, a thought or a diary of life through your eyes; other times, those stories expose abuses of power or human rights violations in ways that are changing how justice is served around the world. Whatever you decide to use the web for, we believe it's vital to a free society to keep the Internet open, and it's through discussions like these that we can continue to teach each other how to do so.

Steve Grove, Head of News & Politics, YouTube, and Sameer Padania for WITNESS


"Human Rights issues are always political and legal issues. If a special status should be given to this kind of content, the servers where this content would be stored must be located in a "safe" location, thus protecting them from governments."
Acetal, Mexico City, Mex

SG: Agreed. Google's servers are protected and have the highest standards of security. Other organizations work to protect servers and use software such as Tor (mentioned by Zoasterboy, above) to keep content safe by relaying it to several different nodes on the network.

SP: It's crucial that important human rights content is kept safe, secure and free from interference or the likelihood of takedown. For that reason, we always advise people we work with to try - where possible - to upload their content to at least a couple of different trusted sites, so that there is always a backup somewhere.

"When uploading a video to YouTube the user should be given the option to blur all faces in the video (as detected by face detection software) and preview the video to verify before making public."
Zoasterboy, Washington State

SG: I like this idea. Not currently on our product roadmap, but it's something we've discussed.
SP: Likewise - great idea, and would help activists enormously. WITNESS and other activists are looking at issues like these at the Open Video Conference in NYC from October 1-3, which includes workshops and a hackday.

"More stories the better - desensitization will wear off and be overpowered by the awareness of the plights of people. Provide background context for people who wish to drill down and communication avenues for people to make leaders aware."
xicubed, Boise, ID

"There should be a system that displays human rights issues that are in need of help built into social networking sites, perhaps through an API, via some sort of dynamic node based distribution system, like Tor."
Zoasterboy, Washington State

SG: Interesting idea - would love to hear more about your thinking. Currently, it's not possible to publicly track where someone uploaded a YouTube video from, unless they choose to geo-tag their video. But protecting distribution pipes to push the video out is smart, and we're big fans of what Tor can do. One of the benefits of YouTube is that your username can be anything you like - so you can keep your identity anonymous. For more information on privacy at Google, click here: http://www.google.com/intl/en/privacy.html

SP: It's becoming more important, the more content there is available, to find ways to get important human rights content to the eyes that need to see it - and to get it into new and diverse contexts so that more people can engage with it and act on it. It would be great to make it easy to feed human rights video and its related background information to people using different social networks around the world, without making it intrusive or insensitive, and in a way that maximises security.

"Threats to humans rights are urgency issues and they have different importance to different groups. Government murdering = International. Government inaction = National. Missing child = Regional. Missing pet = Local. Only examples."
Daniel de Souza Telles, Baixo Guandu, Brasil

SG: So true. All politics is local, as they say. And context is so important: in each of these cases, surfacing useful contextual videos around each story gives the audience a broader understanding of the conflict and why it matters to them. On YouTube, we've been looking more deeply into our curator community -- people who are great at discovering good videos, or grouping content into very useful playlists, channels, etc. -- to see if we can better harness this data to serve more robust sets of content in our search results.

SP: What the internet has shown about human rights is that issues in the past that we thought were only relevant to local people actually sometimes resonate with people around the world in surprising ways, and video makes these connections even more powerfully.

"Does YouTube offer any translation support? It seems like one of the main barriers to some videos' uptake would be linguistic, and perhaps in the submission process users could request basic assistance via a third-party partner like WITNESS."
Kirstin, Brooklyn


SG: We do offer some automated translation support... if your video is in English, you can use the auto-captions feature to pull a text caption set for the video, and then use our auto-translate service to translate to other languages. It's not perfect, but it's pretty good. As for auto-captions for other languages, we're not there yet -- but hope to be soon.

SP: One other way I think it might be possible to do this is to use Google Sidewiki - you can add information about the page you are viewing, and that could be, in the case of a video, a synopsis or even a transcript in another language. It's becoming more and more important to translate cultural contexts for each other - what someone in Iran takes from a human rights video from Tehran might be very different from what someone in China or Colombia or California would take - so using tools like Sidewiki could help provide more detailed context or explanation in other languages that the uploader might not include themselves.

"Desensitization is inevitable as it increases with the number of views of violence. Also, the number of views a video has will (probably) decrease the likelihood that a person will help (bystander effect). Limit views per user, don't display total."
Zoasterboy, Washington State

"Images, soundbytes, and video clips of disaster and human tragedy cycle repeatedly. Some get repeated to the point that they lose their meaning. Allow viewers to deprioritize such media and replace it with something new, but contextual."
Robert, USA

SG: I agree context matters... the "related videos" section helps users get beyond just the clip itself to contextualize -- but good curators of human rights videos are the best sources of relevant content on particular human rights issues.

SP: This is all about providing context, both when you upload videos, and when you share them - whether that's by forwarding, tweeting, or blogging - and as ever, have an audience in mind. I'm intrigued by the idea of replacing the video with something else contextual rather than being able to filter it out - this could mean being able to drill deeper, into eyewitness footage or interviews, or expert analysis, for example. Also, it's not a magic bullet, but it often helps if the video is linked to some way to take action or help - for example by contacting your representative, signing a petition, or translating the video into a language you speak. And on the violence issue, it's good to bear in mind that not all human rights videos depict violence or disaster directly - the majority of those we encounter at WITNESS are of testimonies about abuses, or campaign demands from activists themselves.

"Already at the upload process: a checkbox labelled "human rights content", and if checked, it will ask the poster e.g. if it could be important to blur faces and gives hints how to do it, or if in general it can be dangerous for others to post this."
Bernie, Berlin

SP: It's a great idea, similar to what Zoasterboy suggests above - and it would be a great asset for activists everywhere to be able to mark their videos as human rights videos, and to be able to protect the identities of those they filmed, not just on YouTube, but on any video platform. The only concern I'd have is that once human rights is an official category, although it might be easier to protect, it might also be easier to block it out.

"Put HRA videos on one channel. Require any URL posting to the channel to sign off on a "terms of use" type-statement that details possible harm that could be caused by posting videos before each posting. Delete HRA videos found outside the channel."
Pagecrafter, Eugene, OR

SP: I think creating a human rights channel is definitely a good idea and would provide much-needed visibility to a lot of human rights issues - but I think you should still be able to find the content in other places and in other ways outside of that channel. Good curation is key. As for the idea of signalling the possibility of harm, it makes a lot of sense to make sure uploaders understand the potential harm they can do by uploading videos into the public domain without getting consent, and protecting identities where necessary, and viewers need to understand the nature of what they're watching and what, if anything, they can do.

"Think mobile under censorship: In countries like mine, Cuba; people can't practically surf the web, but they shared info phone to phone using Bluetooth. So including a downloadable share-ready version for mobile to mobile will be great."
PolO, Corpus Christi, TX

A comment from calabarboy.com on the blog post:

"I think Human Rights Video deserves a special status globally. To think that this is about restoring the dignity of the human person and fight against all forms of oppression. I cannot begin to assume what that status should be, but the technical persons can come up with the appropriate terms. For every human rights footage, to ensure that we don't get desensitized, there must be an ensuing lively discussion that follows and a consequent broadcast on reliable global media, where policy makers can be confronted with the need to take action."

SP: These are great points - discussion and action doesn't just happen online, and finding creative ways of getting videos from online spaces to people who can't access the internet easily is more important than ever - especially in repressive environments. As for the media, now that videos from YouTube and elsewhere are more and more part of mainstream news reporting, media have an important role to play in providing context [DELETED] on human rights footage and pursuing accountability. That said, it would be pretty eye-opening to see policy-makers' responses to important human rights videos directly on YouTube too, as well as on the television.

The Wank

Verbatim Mark Halperin:

FROM: Mark Halperin

TO: Coastal Elites, the Media and Establishment Politicians of Both Parties

RE: Sarah Heath Palin

Right.

FROM: Thers

TO: Mark Halperin

RE: Your "memo" addressed to "Coastal Elites, the Media and Establishment Politicians of Both Parties"

Dear Mark:

Your lack of self-awareness is frightening. Get help.

Love,

Thers