YouTube

The French woman who sang her CV, and then posted it on YouTube

Sophie Team Observers — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 09:57:25 +0200

Unemployed 48-year-old communications worker Isabelle Moreau is so desperate to find a new job that she's posted a video of herself singing her CV on YouTube. If she was trying to get attention, it worked. But is the kind of attention she was looking for?

The tune she's singing to is from the 1963 classic "Dominique" by Soeur Sourire (Sister Smile) - also known in the English-speaking world as the Singing Nun.

Kutiman makes music by stealing from YouTube

Sophie Team Observers — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 11:20:25 +0200

Kutiman makes music by stealing amateur musical extracts posted on YouTube and mixing them up with others. The result? Despite being unknown to the world just a month ago, the Israeli musician has just been labelled "YouTube's most famous DJ" by Time.

Piano lessons, drunken guitar strumming; post it on YouTube and you've got a chance of ending up in one of the internet's most popular sites - ThruYOU. Launched on March 7, 2009 by Ophir Kutiel (Kutiman's real name), the most listened to song on the album has already got almost 650,000 hits.

Israel justifies deadly UN school attack on YouTube

Sophie Team Observers — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 18:29:28 +0100

Following huge criticism over their deadly shelling of a UN school yesterday, the Israeli army has posted a video justifying the attack on YouTube, insisting that the army was targeted by militants from the school premises. They also highlight a previously posted video which they say shows aerial view images of Hamas firing from a UN school in 2007.

For Palestinians in the Gaza strip, Tuesday was the most deadly day since Israel launched its offensive against Hamas almost a fortnight ago. In response to what they say was mortar shelling from militants, the Israeli military attacked a UN-run school in the northern town of Jebaliya, killing 42. The incident caused outrage in the international community, but the IMF were quick to defend their actions with a video (see below), which they posted on their YouTube channel just hours after the attack. They also highlighted footage posted beforehand, of aerial views of what they say is Gazan militants firing mortar shells into the air from school grounds in October 2007 (not the same school). But despite the response, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which runs the schools, has said that they are "99.9 percent certain there were no militants or military activity in its school."

The death count in Gaza is now 680 - 215 of which are children - according to Palestinian medical sources. At least 2,950 have been wounded.

The Israeli Army shows off its target skills on YouTube

Sophie Team Observers — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 16:58:32 +0100

Israel's war against Hamas is being drawn out on the internet as well as on the ground. The Israeli Army has just launched a YouTube channel to house videos of its aerial attacks - which happen to be perfectly targeted.

The "IDF Spokesperson's Unit" channel is the Israeli Army's official YouTube page, planned to "help bring our message to the world". Launched on Monday, each video has already received tens of thousands of hits in just two days. A day after its launch, some of the videos posted were removed - due to YouTube's flagging system - nonetheless provoking outrage from supporters of the site. While some bloggers are describing the concept as "a propaganda campaign, pure and simple", others have called it a "a brilliant strategy (...) to counter the typically anti-Israeli sentiment prevalent throughout the international media". And then there are those who feel the PR idea will "fall flat" because you can't see anything on the videos. What is sure is that the channel has provoked an immense reaction from the blogosphere and new media audiences - something that the IDF Foreign Press Branch head Maj. Avital Leibovich recently called "another war zone" itself...

The air force strikes what the IDF claims are rockets being transported by Hamas. Posted 29 Dec. 08.

Israeli Navy attack. Posted 29 Dec. 08.

Banned from YouTube, soldiers get homemade Pentagon version

Sophie Team Observers — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 14:02:48 +0100

A year and a half after US soldiers were banned from using YouTube and MySpace, the army has come up with an alternative. Forget the all-singing all-dancing mindless, amusing rubbish - this one's loaded with pep talks and shout-outs. Not convinced? Neither are our Observers, former soldiers in Iraq.

"TroopTube is the new online video site designed to help military families connect and keep in touch while miles apart." Nothing new... so what was wrong with YouTube and LiveLeak? When they were banned last year, along with several other social network sites, the military blamed it on bandwidth congestion. Now they say it was to prevent soldiers from leaking sensitive information to insurgents. Whatever the reason, the Pentagon was well aware of deployed soldiers' video-streaming needs and desires. In mid-November, they launched their answer to the problem - TroopTube. Take away the music videos and their DIY responses, the self-important rants, the entertaining, the unusual, the downright weird, and there you have it - TroopTube.

The video sharing site does answer the needs of homesick soldiers and left-at-home spouses, but with the content restricted to carefully censored messages of support, it lacks the fun and mindlessness that other video sharing websites offer. And it shows. The highest number of hits reaches only 20,000 - and that's a message from a US Army commander. Despair not for the video-hungry troops though - as one of our Observers tells us, they've had 18 months to scout out their best neighbourhood cybercafés.

Obama’s 'Never Gonna Give You Up'

Julien — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 16:59:34 +0200

Barack Obama "rickrolled".

A video of Barack Obama singing Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” isn’t just funny, it’s part of an Internet prank phenomenon that’s sweeping the online world.

If you don’t already know what "rickrolling" is, then you’ve obviously never fallen victim to it.

The prank is simple. You click on a link you think is something else, but instead you get the video clip of Astley’s 1987 hit. It’s called a “bait and switch” prank, the first of which led unsuspecting surfers to a picture of a duck with wheels.

Rickrolling began on the 4chan site, and it’s estimated that now over 18 million people have fallen victim to the prank.

Various spin-offs have emerged and a quick YouTube search will bring up videos like “I rickrolled my entire school,” “Nazis get rickrolled,” and “Church gets rickrolled.”

But the best yet emerged on Saturday, with a video of carefully edited Obama recordings in which the presidential candidate appears to be singing along to the song.

Five days later, it’s number one on the viral chart, with already 1,091,020 views.

Pranksters sentenced to apologise on YouTube

Sophie Team Observers — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 17:52:44 +0200

Two Florida teenagers who threw a drink in a drive-thru worker's face have been forced by a judge to post an apology on YouTube. But will the punishment work?

The 15 and 16-year-olds drove up to a Taco Bell fast-food restaurant last summer and threw a cold drink onto their drive-thru waitress. They then posted a video of the assault on YouTube, which became a massive hit online, adding to a collection of similar clips. Last October they were charged for battery and criminal mischief, and sentenced to 100 hours of community service and a fine of $30 (€20) each. But the judge also asked them to post an apology on YouTube, which they did, along with a reconstruction of the event. While their original video received millions of hits, the apology has so far only been watched 24,000, in over a month. Our Observer assesses the new-fangled punishment.

YouTubers will be let down by the Queen of Jordan

Julien — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 16:05:29 +0200

The latest member of the YouTube community is none other than Queen Rania of Jordan. In an effort to challenge western stereotypes about the Arab world, the net-surfing monarch decided to launch an online debate. Yet, after attracting almost 5000 responses, she seems to have lost interest in the scheme.