Europe Blog
Our views on the Internet and society
NextUp Europe: meet the next generation of YouTube stars
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Over the last couple of months some of Europe’s most exciting creative talents have sent us their entries for
NextUp Europe
, a video contest that aims to unearth the YouTube stars of tomorrow across the UK, France, Netherlands, Germany, Russia, Poland, Italy and Spain.
NextUp is a development program designed exclusively for YouTube partners with bags of potential. Many talented creators are already using the platform to reach a worldwide audience and make money from their videos by allowing YouTube to run ads alongside them and sharing the revenue. Thousands of partner channels are now making
six-figure sums
annually.
We’d love to see even more partners using the site as a launchpad to career success, so we’re supporting them through training, education and promotions via NextUp. By helping them invest in new equipment and training, our NextUp winners are going to develop whole new genres and online experiences for audiences around the world -
ironing skydiving
anyone?
We’ve been busy watching all the entry videos and we’ve selected a list of
25 winners
from across the continent. Winners included UK creator RageNineteen and Spain’s Iker Plan, and you can see their entries below.
Things You Should Know, by RageNineteen
Next Up 2012, by Iker Plan
Each winning creator will receive an all-expenses-paid to trip to London, where they’ll attend a week of hands-on training and mentorship in our brand new creator space. In addition, winners will get a €4,000 video equipment package and €3,000 in cash to help boost the quality of their content.
We’re delighted that we received so many high-quality entries that highlight the passion and talent of the YouTube community. Check out some of the above entries and click ‘Subscribe’ to get regular updates from their channels.
Posted by Kinzie Kramer, YouTube Partner Marketing
Bringing the US election to Berlin
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Last night, the US election came to Berlin in a big way. More than 2000 people from the worlds of politics, media and business convened in Deutsche Telekom’s historic Telegraph Building to follow the action and debate the election live - in person, on air, and
online
.
German public broadcaster
ZDF
anchored its election reporting from the event - one of the largest held anywhere outside the US. For our part, we teamed up with ZDF and the
American Academy
in Berlin, who used Google+ technology to host two live “Transatlantic Election Hangouts”.
The Hangouts featured Bundestag President
Norbert Lammert
, Die Zeit editor
Josef Joffe
, former German Ambassador to the US
Wolfgang Ischinger
and President of the Brookings Institution,
Strobe Talbott
. The discussions were broadcast live to the web as "Hangouts on Air" for politically interested European citizens and people around the world on Google+ and YouTube. ZDF also integrated Hangouts on Air with bloggers in the US into their live programming.
Alongside ZDF, Deutsche Telekom, Google and the American Academy, the event was co-hosted by organisations including the US Embassy in Berlin, the American Chamber of Commerce, Tagesspiegel and the German Newspaper Association (VDZ) among others - each of whom welcomed guests to their own booths.
On the Google stand, guests were able to access a wide range of information via the
Google elections
page, including results displayed state by state on a Google Map in real time, live reporting on YouTube by US broadcasters and newspapers, and the volume of search queries by state for each candidate. Prominent guests including US-ambassador Philip D. Murphy and the Head of the SPD fraction in the German Bundestag
Frank-Walter Steinmeier
dropped by to take a look. Every two hours our guests were able to chat with Google’s election team in Washington DC via Hangout to get the freshest insights into how the race was playing out online.
When the event kicked off at 7pm last night, we knew it was going to be an exciting night. Thanks to the Internet, we - and citizens across Germany and around the world - were able to follow the action in real time, see the results come in and discuss and debate with people on the ground in the US. When we left the building at 7am, bleary-eyed and exhausted, we knew just how close a race it had been.
Posted by Ralf Bremer, Senior Manager Communications and Public Affairs, Google Germany
Watch the Hajj from the Grand Mosque of Mecca
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Cross-posted with the Official Google Blog
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Tomorrow marks the start of the observance of Eid El Adha, celebrated by the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims. As part of this holiday, nearly 2.5 million Muslims will participate in the world’s largest pilgrimage to perform the ritual of
Hajj
. This year, millions more from around the world will be able to experience the ritual via the Saudi Ministry of Culture and Information's Y
ouTube channel’s live stream
from
Mecca, Saudi Arabia
.
The Hajj represents one of the five pillars of Islam; it requires all Muslims around the world who are able-bodied and can afford it to perform the pilgrimage once in their lifetime. The pilgrimage occurs from the 8th to 12th day of
Dhu al-Hijjah
, the 12th and last month of the
Islamic calendar
.
This live stream was made possible by our cooperation with the Saudi Ministry of Culture and Information, which also
broadcast Islamic prayers live
from the
Grand Mosque in Mecca
during this year’s Ramadan.
Watch on
www.youtube.com/makkahlive
.
Posted by Abdulrahman Tarabzouni, Head of Emerging Arabia, Google
Google TechTalk: social activism and YouTube
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Every month, YouTube viewers watch four billion hours of video, allowing bloggers, campaigners, vloggers and entertainers ways to reach their audience on an unprecedented scale. Many of the most popular challenge conventional wisdom and shine a spotlight on otherwise forgotten issues. Perhaps the best example is
Kony2012
, shown below, which highlighted the plight of child soldiers in Central Africa. It has recorded more than 93 million views and pressured governments to take action.
Hunter Walk, one of YouTube’s most senior executives, will speak in Brussels this coming Tuesday about YouTube’s emergence as a platform for social good, activism and free expression.
When:
Tuesday, October 16th 2012 @ 18.00
Where:
Google Brussels
, Chaussée D'Etterbeek 180 | 1040 Brussels
Registration:
Please register
here
Need another reason to come?:
Enjoy some Googley refreshments!
About our Tech Talks: Ever wondered how exactly Google is tackling the big technology problems that the online world faces? Want to take a look behind the curtain of our engineering operations and learn from the people who actually work on the Google products and services day-in, day-out? Here's your chance: The Google Brussels TechTalks.
Posted by Angela Steen, Senior Policy Analyst
Ask President Barroso your question on the State of the Union
Friday, September 7, 2012
How will Europe get out of the economic crisis? Will the European Union - and its currency - remain intact? What’s the plan to get young people out of unemployment? These are some of the key questions that
José Manuel Barroso
, President of the European Commission, is likely to address in his State of the Union speech on 12th September.
But if you had the chance, what would you ask him?
On Wednesday 19th September at 19:00 CET, you’ll have that chance. President Barroso will answer your questions in a special, live Euronews / Google+ Hangout interview. Starting today and up to Tuesday 18th September at midday, you can submit your video and text questions - and vote for your favourites - via
youtube.com/eutube
. Euronews will select several top-voted questioners to join President Barroso in the Google+ Hangout and ask him their questions in person.
Video questions are preferred (though text questions are fine too) and they should be about 20 seconds long - further tips on how to make and submit questions are available
here
.
If you need ideas, you can also watch President Barroso’s State of the Union address live on Wednesday 12th September at 9am CET via the
Commission’s website
or you could join the discussion on
Google+
.
The interview will be broadcast live on 19th September on the Euronews cable network and
website
,
on EUtube
, on the Commission’s
Google+ page
, on
Europe by Satellite
, and the
President's website
.
Posted by Al Verney, Communications Manager, Google Brussels
Enjoy our summer of music on YouTube
Monday, August 13, 2012
Summer means music, particularly here in Europe, and that is especially true this summer on YouTube. Last weekend, YouTube hosted a livestream of
Sziget 2012
, winner of “Best European Major Festival award” from Budapest and this coming weekend Lowlands 2012 will be streamed live from the Netherlands, featuring acts like Bloc Party, The Black Keys and Two Door Cinema Club.
In addition to Sziget and Lowlands, music fans on YouTube have been able to watch some of the world’s best and biggest music festivals this summer, including
Tomorrowland
,
San Miguel Primavera Sound
,
Sónar
,
Rock in Rio
,
EXIT
,
INmusic
,
Heineken Open’er Festival
,
Bonnaroo
and
Lollapalooza
.
Music represents a key component of YouTube’s success. Musicians and bands are no longer restricted by the number of people they can get through the turnstiles, but can play to a global audience.
In tough economic times, many people can’t always afford to attend festivals in person. YouTube helps them experience the event - for free (and without queues or mud). We know viewers enjoy them -- festivals like Lollapalooza have seen viewers spend an average 44 minutes watching the show. Tomorrowland had over 600,000 comments posted on the channel through a custom conversation gadget, highlighting just how engaged fans were during the stream.
Much more is scheduled for the rest of the summer and beyond - so tune in and enjoy!
Posted by Patrick Walker, Senior Director, YouTube Music Partnerships
Journey to Venice: finalists named for YouTube contest
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Today, we are one step closer to finding the world’s next great storyteller. Ten finalists remain from more than 15,000 filmmakers who entered
Your Film Festival
. Each hopes to win $500,000 to produce new content with actor
Michael Fassbender
and director
Ridley Scott
.
During the past month, three million people watched, shared and voted for their favorite film on Your Film Festival. Among the ten finalists is Spain's David Victori Blaya for his short "The Guilt."
Two finalists come from the Middle East, Ramy El-Gabry's "The Time" and Lebanon's Niam's Itani's "Super.Full."
Find all the finalists below:
88:88
, Joey Ciccoline & Sean Wilson (USA)
Bat Eyes
, Damien Power (Australia)
Cine Rincao
, Fernando Grostein Andrade & Fernanda Fernandes (Brazil)
The Drought
, Kevin Slack (USA)
El General
, Diego Pino Zamora (Bolivia)
The Guilt
, David Victori Blaya (Spain)
North Atlantic
, Bernardo Nascimento (United Kingdom)
Super.Full
., Niam Itani (Lebanon)
Scruples
, Adrian Powers (Australia)
This Time
, Ramy EL-Gabry (Egypt)
The finalists will soon travel to Italy where to screen their short films at the historic
Venice Film Festival
. A jury led by director Scott and actor Fassbinder will pick the grand prize winner at a special ceremony on September 2. He or she will be able to pitch a new project idea to Scott’s production team. As part of their journey to Venice, Emirates has invited the filmmakers to stopover in Dubai for a series of events celebrating their achievement.
Join these filmmakers as they travel to Venice and stay tuned to the
Your Film Festival channel
where we’ll take you behind the scenes, tell you more about the finalists, provide special edition
movie posters
, and of course, unveil the winner.
Posted by Gareth Evans, YouTube, Europe, Middle East and Africa
A new way of talking politics in Italy
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Traditionally, politics is conducted top down, with politicians speaking to the people. The Internet can help break this mould, allowing the people to question politicians. We have developed a series of tools on
Google+
and
YouTube
to help connect citizens with their leaders.
In Italy, we worked with
La Stampa
, one of Italy’s most prestigious daily newspapers, to enable citizens to question three senior Italian politicians in a
Google+ Hangout
. Under the headline
A New Relation Between Citizens and Politicians
, La Stampa elicited interview questions from Google+ users on how the web can be used to “rebuild the relationships between citizens and politicians and overcome the populism which is damaging our confidence in our members of parliament.”
Citizens submitted their questions via La Stampa’s Google+ page.
Maurizio Lupi
, Vice President of the Italian Parliament and member of the centre-right PDL Party;
Enrico Letta
, Vice-Secretary General of the centre-left Democratic Party; and
Roberto Rao
, Member of Parliament for the centrist UDC party, answered. Topics focused on the economic crisis and youth employment.
“Most MPs use the web only as a showcase,” acknowledged Mr. Rao. “Just a few of us understand the potential of the web to interact with citizens.”
Politicians using the web “is an important experiment,” said Mr. Letta. “If it succeeds it can be used much more as a way to engage citizens,”
We hope that this inaugural Hangout encourages other politicians to engage with voters online in the run up to the Italian elections in spring 2013. Stay tuned.
Posted by Diego Ciulli, Policy Analyst Google Italy
Face blurring: when footage requires anonymity
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
YouTube is proud to be a place where citizens and activists come to tell their stories -- stories that may otherwise go unnoticed. A
study
released this week by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism found that YouTube is a top destination for news and that “citizens play a substantial role in supplying and producing footage.”
But this level of exposure can mean risk to the citizens shooting the footage and the people who appear in their videos.
Today, we announced a new face blurring tool
that represents a first step toward providing visual anonymity within
our video enhancement tool
.
Of course, anonymity is never a guarantee, and people who capture sensitive video footage should consider taking other precautions to keep themselves and their subjects safe. Here are three suggestions:
Assess your risk. You and the people you film may face risk in every step of filming an advocacy video. You may face risks to your own safety and that of your subjects while filming sensitive footage, during the editing process after you have captured the film, and when you distribute your film online. After assessing the risks you and your subjects face you can make more informed decisions about when to film, whether to distribute your footage, and how widely you want to share it.
Consider other information which may give away identity. Video footage of your face is not the only way someone can detect your identity. Other factors that may be caught on video can also identify you or your subjects. Watch out for vocal identifiers, like the sound of your voice or saying someone’s name on camera. Other visual footage can give away identity like a license plate, a name tag, or even the background scenery. Make sure that the imagery in your videos does not give away information about your location or identity.
Understand local laws. Given the global scope of YouTube, we comply with different sets of laws in the various countries in which we're launched (to see where we're launched, go to the YouTube.com footer and click "Worldwide"). If the content in your video is illegal in one of these countries, we must comply with the local formal legal processes. For instance, that means that in Germany we don't stream videos that are sympathetic to Nazism. Know your local laws before you upload.
Over the past seven years, YouTube has evolved into a destination for citizen reporting. Along with efforts like the
Human Rights Channel
and
Citizentube
that curate these voices, we hope that the new technologies we’re rolling out will facilitate the sharing of even more stories on our platform.
Posted by Amanda Conway, YouTube Policy Associate
Italy’s rich film heritage comes to the Internet
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Italy is home to a rich cinema tradition. The first Italian movie was filmed only a few months after the
Lumiere Brothers
patented their cinematographe - when
Pope Leo XIII
was shown for a few seconds in the act of blessing the camera. From the futurists to the neorealists, Italian movies always have been at the cutting edge.
Today, at the Rome headquarters of Italy’s Ministry of Culture, we’re proud to announce a partnership with
Istituto Luce-Cinecittà
aimed at preserving much of this valuable heritage. More than 30,000 clips from the Istituto Luce-Cinecittà’s archive are being put online on a special
YouTube channel
. These include historical newsreels shown in Italian cinemas over 40 years. Many feature Italy’s great film stars, including
Sophia Loren
and
Gina Lollobrigida
. YouTube viewers will be able to search and surf through the immense amount of film thanks to themed playlists,
This announcement represents an important step in our efforts to safeguard Italy’s rich culture and allow global public access to it. Over the past few years, Google has, among other efforts, featured Italy’s national monuments in our
World Wonders project
, and partnered with leading
Italian museums
for the Google Art project. When imagery of the famed
Pompei ruins
went online on Street View, the number of visitors to the site soared.
The Istituto Luce-Cinecittà partnership not only preserves and spreads Italian culture, but also serves as a powerful tool to give a second commercial life to this vast archival treasure. Istituto Luce-Cinecittà will use our Content ID, a free technological solution designed to protect copyright on YouTube. We already have more than 30,000 Content ID partners in the world and more than a hundred in Italy. At the same time, cinephiles from all over the globe will be able to enjoy this archive without paying any entry fee. Instituto Luce-Cinecittà will benefit from advertising sold alongside its clips on YouTube.
The deal demonstrates how Italy is moving to embrace the web. Although recent
studies
show that the digital economy accounts for only 2% of GDP - compared to 7% in the UK - the net’s contribution is set to double over the next two years. ECommerce expanded by 20% last year over 2010, according to
NetComm
. In a country suffering from high unemployment, and particularly high youth unemployment, the net is creating jobs: for every 10% of increased Internet use, London School of Economics professors estimated in a recent
report
that youth employment grew by almost 1.5%. This online boom is coming during a period of financial crisis, without requiring any additional government spending.
Our project with Istituto Luce-Cinecittà is one of the first partnerships to bring back to life a film archive anywhere in the world. Instead of fearing the net, one of Italy’s most venerable names in culture is seizing a giant opportunity to both preserve - and profit - from its rich artistic heritage. We look forward to working with the Italian movie industry to achieve both of these laudable goals.
Posted by Federica Tremolada, YouTube Partnerships Manager for Italy
A victory for the web in France
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Today is an important day for the Web. A French court rejected claims from France’s largest television broadcaster
TF1
that
YouTube
has violated its copyright.
The case reaches back to March 2008 when TF1 sued YouTube over copyright infringement by making available of several of their TV programs on YouTube: TF1 claimed more than EUR140 million in damages.
The overall decision is a victory for everyone who uses the Web. Every day, hundreds of millions of people use computers and mobile devices, tablets and televisions to freely exchange ideas and information. After this decision, these creators can be secure to post their materials on YouTube and other platforms and we can host their content without fearing a giant liability. The end result will be more videos posted on the Net, more revenue generated for creative artists, and more exposure to a global audience for these artists. Already, we have deals in place with 3,000 media groups around the world, including important French partners such as
BFM
,
Arte
and
AFP.
The verdict demonstrates how the Internet is enriching French culture. Over the past year, we have signed contracts with five French collecting societies to pay royalties to French writers, musicians, and other artists. More generally, we have a major investment plan for the French economy and culture, demonstrating how committed we are to France.
By embracing the Web, this verdict moves France a step forward to further benefit from Internet’s massive economic and cultural opportunity. We hope this judgement will allow us to build
constructive partnerships
and bring more French language content online. Watch this space!
Posted by Christophe Muller, Head of YouTube partnerships, Southern Europe, Middle East and Africa
Debating drugs on YouTube and Google+
Friday, March 16, 2012
Whether enabling voters to
interview their President
, or
connect underwater
to photograph the ocean floor,
Google+ Hangouts
are being used in amazing ways. Hangouts not only have the ability to connect people on opposite sides of the planet - they can also connect people on opposing sides of the social and political spectrum.
This week, we partnered with
Intelligence2
to launch
Versus
- our first in a new series of global policy debates using Google Hangouts and live streamed on YouTube. Our inaugural discussion asked whether
“It’s time to end the War on Drugs.”
Entrepreneur
+Richard Branson
, comedian
+Russell Brand
, Wikileaks founder
+Julian Assange
and the President of Columbia, participated. BBC newsreader and presenter
+Emily Maitlis
chaired.
Branson began by speaking on behalf of the motion “If my brother, or sister or children have a drug problem, I do not want them to go to prison. I want them to be helped.” Via Google+ Hangout, Brand agreed, saying that we need to “stop treating [addiction] as a crime as opposed to treating it as an illness.” He rejected the opposition argument that legalisation would increase drug consumption.
On the other side, former-New York Governor Eliot Spitzer wished former U.S. President Richard Nixon had never used the confusing term “war on drugs”. Spitzer called instead for a “nuanced” drug control policy, based on the range of tools already being used, that “evolves over time.” The former head of London’s police force, Lord Ian Blair, rubbished his opponents’ decriminalisation argument. “What they are proposing is probably an irreversible experiment, where the result could be complete catastrophe,” he said.
This Versus debate is just the first of many to be hosted on Google+ and streamed on YouTube in the coming months. We encourage all of you to visit the Versus Google+ page and have your say.
Posted by Anna Bateson, Director of Youtube Marketing, EMEA
Magic moments in Egypt’s parliamentary elections, thanks to the web
Monday, November 28, 2011
Cross-posted on the
Official Google Blog
Today more than 50 million Egyptians started heading to the polls to cast their votes for an independent Parliament, many for the first time in their lives. The revolution in Egypt, which captured the attention of the world beginning in Tahrir Square on January 25, 2011, made this possible by opening the floodgates of political participation.
With the free flow of information online, people can connect and engage in a open dialogue about the future of Egypt. The web is enabling many new voters to become better informed on their choice of candidates, and letting politicians reach electors in new and exciting ways.
Getting information about the new rules and the new players is no small feat for Egyptians: there are nearly 11,000 candidates vying for 498 seats across 27 governorates nationwide during a multi-stage election that started today and lasts until March 2012. We’re doing our best to organize information to make it easier for voters to find everything they need in one place. For example, millions of Egyptians have learned where they can vote through our landing page,
www.google.com.eg/elections
.
We’ve also worked to give a voice to thousands of candidates to reach voters through interactive video. The
YouTube Townhall
includes nearly 400 videos posted by candidates and political parties explaining where they stand on issues from education and the economy to health care and political reform, sparking vibrant conversations in cafés from
Alexandria
to
Aswan
.
We’re helping voters and politicians connect not just in Egypt, but throughout the entire Middle East and the world. For
Tunisia’s recent parliamentary elections
, we partnered with startup news portal
Tunisia Live
to offer a training workshop in Tunis on Google tools and social media for politicians. In France, we set up a special
YouTube site
for the upcoming parliamentary elections.
The Internet is playing an increasingly significant role in Egypt. It’s bolstering civic engagement and becoming a powerful mechanism for information sharing—crucial to helping the nation make the tough transition to democracy.
Posted by Samir ElBahaie, Head of Public Policy and Government Affairs for Google Middle East North Africa
A new YouTube melody for European musicians
Thursday, November 17, 2011
If you are of my generation and love Jacques Brel, it's a great day. For my kids, who adore
Selah Sue
and fantasy character
Mega Mindy
, it's also a great day. From now on, videos of these Belgian artists will become easier to find on YouTube. For the first time, these Belgian artists and their estates will receive payments for allowing music lovers to listen to their music on YouTube.
This breakthrough stems from the licensing agreement signed today between collecting society
SABAM
and YouTube. SABAM was founded in 1922; it represents 36,000 composers, lyricists, publishers, and music video makers.
Throughout Europe over the past two years, YouTube has secured similar agreements with associations representing artists and authors in countries shown in blue: the
UK
, France (
SACEM
,
SACD
,
SCAM
,
ADAGP
),
Netherlands
,
Spain
,
Italy
,
Ireland
, the
Czech Republic
, and
Poland
.
These agreements end old arguments about copyright, replacing them with win-win arrangements. For Europe’s musicians, YouTube has become an indispensable tool in reaching audiences. Artists are compensated when advertisements are displayed against YouTube partner’s videos.
The deals demonstrate our commitment to to promoting local European cultural creation. YouTube is innovating to help artists protect and manage their rights. Our state-of-the-art
Content ID
technologies let rights owners identify user-uploaded videos that contain their work and choose, in advance, what they want to happen when those videos are found. They can block them from YouTube altogether, or keep them up. The vast majority of right owners agree to keep their material online - and share in the revenue generated by advertising displayed against it.
Until now, when Belgians visited YouTube, they were taken to our global site. The launch of YouTube in Belgium means Belgians will see a home page featuring a wealth of content from their home country. Partners are welcome to join us and we’re happy to learn that large Belgian media companies such as broadcaster
RTBF
are interested in having parts of their archives appear. For my part, I plan to catch up on Jacques Brel videos.
Posted by Julien Blanchez, Marketing Manager, Belgium
Bringing German history online
Thursday, October 6, 2011
It’s a new way of writing history. Today, we are joining with Germany’s public TV broadcaster, ZDF, German weekly magazine "Stern", and other leading German brands such as Bertelsmann, Robert Bosch, Daimler and Gruner+Jahr, to launch “Memory of the Nation” (“
Gedächtnis der Nation
”) - a video platform dedicated to presenting the “collective memories” of German people throughout the 20th and the beginning of the 21st Century.
The project takes inspiration from the Shoah Foundation in Jerusalem, which records the experiences of Holocaust survivors. Similarly, "Memory of the Nation" provides more than a traditional historical archive. Thousands of prominent and ordinary people are being interviewed, and their personal accounts turn abstract history into real, emotional experiences.
This project is special, not just because of its content, but also because it is universally accessible via the Internet. Viewers would be unable to peruse their personal histories via traditional media in their own time, and on their own terms. Here, viewers choose what they want to watch - and are able to add personal details and observations to the stories.
Both young and old are invited to contribute. A ZDF team criss-crossing Germany in a "century bus” already has recorded more than 8000 hours of video interviews with eyewitnesses of historical events. Viewers are encouraged to upload their own videos through a second YouTube channel “Our History” (“
Unsere Geschichte
”). This interactivity ensures the platform will become a living resource for disseminating and learning about German history.
Google Germany and YouTube are excited to support this unique project. We have created a special interface for this channel that allows users to view the videos on a timeline, as well as search by topic, eyewitness or personality as well as specific keywords.
A non-profit group called "The Memory of the Nation" is spearheading the project. Germany’s Federal President Christian Wulff is patron. The Board of Trustees includes personalities such as the Federal Government Comissioner for Cultural and Media Affairs Bernd Neumann, former Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher and literary critic icon Marcel Reich-Ranicki. We’re delighted that so many prominent players in German society have come together and embraced the Internet to increase understanding of German history and culture.
Posted by Kay Oberbeck, Director of Communications and Public Affairs Germany, Austria, Switzerland
European Commission President Barroso takes your questions on YouTube World View
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Cross-posted from
The Official Google Blog
.
Tomorrow, September 28, European Commission President
José Manuel Barroso
will deliver his annual
State of the Union Address
. In these turbulent times, we wanted to give people a chance to make their voices heard and ask their questions about the EU. So we teamed up with broadcaster
Euronews
and invited President Barroso to answer your questions in a special, live
YouTube World View
interview that will take place on Thursday, October 6 at 10:00am Central European Time.
Starting today, we invite you to submit your questions for President Barroso via
youtube.com/worldview
. Questions can be on any topic, from the Euro crisis and austerity measures to growth and jobs, from foreign policy and immigration to ethnic minority issues, human rights and the environment. You can ask written or video questions—and view and vote on other people’s questions—in any of the European Union’s languages, thanks to
Google Translate
.
During the interview on October 6, hosted by Euronews anchor Alex Taylor, the President will answer a selection of the most popular questions, as determined by your votes. The interview will be streamed and broadcast in multiple languages on both YouTube and Euronews.
President Barroso’s interview will be the first multi-lingual livecast in the
World View
series, which gives anyone with an Internet connection the ability to pose questions, vote on what’s most important to them and get answers directly from senior politicians and world leaders. President Barroso’s interview follows interviews with U.S. President Obama, President Kagame of Rwanda, U.K. Prime Minister Cameron, Spanish Prime Minister Zapatero and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu.
Whatever your question, President Barroso wants to hear from you. Be sure to submit your question via the
World View
channel before midnight CET on Wednesday October 5.
Posted by Al Verney, Head of Communications, Google Brussels
Un soutien solide a la culture française
Friday, November 26, 2010
(English follows)
Hier, dans un hôtel particulier somptueusement décoré au coeur de Paris, siège de la Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques, j’ai pris part à un évènement qui illustre parfaitement l’engagement de Google pour la promotion et le soutien de la culture française et de ses traditions.
YouTube, la
SACD
, la
SCAM
and
l’ADAGP
- trois sociétés de gestion collectives représentant un large spectre d’auteurs français, créateurs, compositeurs et artistes - ont signé un accord de soutien aux auteurs français. Ce partenariat vise a encourager une diffusion plus large d'émissions et de films français sur la plateforme YouTube en France.
En permettant aux auteurs de bénéficier d'une juste rémunération pour l'exploitation de leurs œuvres, cet accord encourage la création de programmes originaux français et leur diffusion sur Internet.
Pour l’occasion, les signataires ont tenu une conférence de presse sous l'égide du dramaturge
Beaumarchais
, premier défenseur des droits d’auteurs en France et représenté ce jour-la par un buste majestueux ornant la pièce qui accueillait cet événement. « C’est un accord qui permet de concilier le droit d’auteur tel qu’il a été imaginé par Beaumarchais avec le développement et l’utilisation des nouvelles technologies », déclare le cinéaste
Bertrand Tavernier
.
Le jour-même, le Ministre de la Culture Frédéric Mitterrand a salué l'accord annoncé entre YouTube, la SACD, la SCAM et l’ADAGP lors de
son discours
de clôture des Assises du Numérique organisées hier à Paris-Dauphine: « Je ne peux que saluer la démarche entreprise par certains de ces acteurs majeurs, qui intègrent progressivement les principes du droit d’auteur dans leur stratégie, en passant notamment des accords avec les sociétés d’auteurs françaises. Je veux parler bien sûr de l’accord qui vient d’être signé entre YouTube, la SACD, la SCAM et l’ADAGP.»,
Pour Jean-Marc Tassetto, récemment nommé Directeur Général de Google France, les partenariats conclus ces derniers mois avec les artistes, auteurs et éditeurs soulignent l’engagement réel de Google pour la culture française.
Il fait ainsi référence à l’accord stratégique annoncé la semaine dernière avec Hachette pour la numérisation des œuvres en langue française dont les droits sont contrôlés par
Hachette Livres
mais aussi à celui passé le mois dernier avec la
Société des auteurs, compositeurs et éditeurs de musique
afin de proposer plus de contenus français sur la plateforme YouTube.
Beaumarchais aurait sans doute esquissé un sourire complice hier matin.
Par Christophe Muller, directeur des partenariats YouTube Europe du Sud, de l’Est, Moyen-Orient et Afrique
---------------------
Supporting French culture
Yesterday, in a lavishly decorated former palace in central Paris, the home of the Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques, I took part in an event that offered a perfect picture of just how serious Google is about supporting French culture and traditions in the internet age.
YouTube and
SACD
,
SCAM
and
ADAGP
- three associations representing French screenwriters, composers and other creative artists - signed an agreement to put more TV shows and movies online in France. The deal improves YouTube’s access to French content - and allows French creators to profit.
Appropriately, the signatories gave a press conference sitting below a gilded mirror and in front of a bust of the 18th-century Ancien Regime dramatist
Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais
- someone who also fought hard in the courts to protect his copyright. Well known French movie director
Betrand Tavernier
described the agreement as “allowing us to reconcile copyright as Beaumarchais defined it with the development and use of new technologies.”
It was great to hear support too from French Culture Minister Frédéric Mitterrand, who saluted the accord in a
speech
. “I can only welcome the approach taken by some of these major players, who are gradually incorporating the principles of copyright law into their agreements with French authors' societies. I refer of course to the agreement signed between YouTube and the SACD, SCAM and ADAGP. "
For Jean-Marc Tassetto, Google’s recently appointed managing director for France, the event represented another important step forward in the partnerships we are signing with artists, authors and publishers in France. Last week, we announced a breakthrough deal with France’s largest publisher
Hachette
and last month we signed a deal with
SACEM
, a French musicians association to bring more French music videos to YouTube.
Without a doubt, Beaumarchais would be smiling.
Posted by Christophe Muller, Director of Partnerships for YouTube in Southern and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa
Worrying restrictions on Internet access in Russia
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Online freedom of expression is a global issue and threats to it come from all over the world. Just last
week, we faced a challenge from far-off Siberia. A district court in a city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur in the Russian Far East, ordered Internet access provider Rosnet to block access to all content on YouTube.com
because one user had uploaded a video deemed problematic on grounds of ultra-nationalism.
As a result, some
Russian Internet users will no longer have access to the myriad of legitimate online content and video available on services such as YouTube, including, ironically, the Russian President’s own
YouTube Channel
. YouTube users upload more than 24 hours of video every minute.
Encouragingly, many influential Russian commentators have called for the ban to be lifted. The well-known Russian blogger Anton Nossik denounced “the verdict’s ignorance,” saying it “is typical to the whole Russian legal proceedings of Internet-related cases.”
The court order draws attention to an important broader issue. No provisions in the Russian legal system protect neutral online hosting platforms from being held directly liable for the content uploaded by third parties. In the European Union countries, a strong e-commerce directive offers such “intermediary liability protection.” The U.S. offers similar legal protection to hosting platforms.
YouTube is a responsible online platform. We have global community guidelines
to what is and isn’t acceptable. On the site YouTube, our millions of users flag content they deem to be potentially breaching these terms. Flagged videos are reviewed 24x7. If deemed to violate the guidelines, videos are removed from the site.
We look forward to working with the Russian authorities, the legal community and fellow web services to establish a similar environment in Russia. A single potentially inappropriate video should not lead to the blocking of a legitimate online service offering millions of legitimate, useful, commercial and entertaining videos.
Posted by Marina Zhunich, Russia Policy Manager
Social Campaigning on YouTube
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
I had the pleasure last week to represent Google and YouTube at an
award ceremony
in the Italian Parliament in Rome to celebrate the winning short films in a competition titled
Action for Women
. This initiative was jointly organised by the Parliament and the Council of Europe to raise awareness of human rights and, in this case, specifically of women’s rights and violence against women.
YouTube served as the platform for the competition and aspiring film directors competed by uploading their short-film entries to Action for Women’s YouTube channel. A prestigious panel of judges, including the Venice Film Festival’s Enrico Magrelli and film directors such as Francesca Comencini and Jaco Van Dormael then shortlisted the entries, with YouTube viewers voting online to select the final three. The powerful winning films, shown during the ceremony, were:
First-prize winner, Corrado Ceron, has been awarded a screening during the forthcoming Venice Film Festival in September. But just as important, all the eligible videos remain available through the Action for Women YouTube Channel, and therefore go on raising public awareness about the personal and societal damage caused by violence and aggression against women.
During the ceremony, I spoke about how the Internet can help underpin fundamental human rights and raise awareness for social campaigns. Action for Women is a great example of this - a creative initiative that reached out to a global audience, mobilised public participation, engaged proactively with the wider community and which can now incorporate user feedback to inform future similar campaigns.
As Gianfranco Fini, President of the Italian Lower House, underlined during the ceremony, the Internet is a fundamental tool for enabling democratic participation. Deborah Bergamini MP - behind the original idea for Action for Women - added that the Internet is an important space for women in particular to express themselves freely. Giorgia Meloni, Italian Youth Minister, called on political institutions to look at how they can take advantage of the Internet’s great communication opportunities rather than just focusing on its challenges.
For our part, we were of course delighted to partner with this initiative - which brought together 516 films and generated more than six million channel views. We look forward to seeing more individuals and organisations make use of internet platforms such as YouTube to promote good causes and advance respect for human rights.
Posted by Susan Pointer, Director, Public Policy & Government Relations, Southern & Eastern Europe, Middle East & Africa
Campaigning on the net
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Global politics will never be the same since U.S. President Barack Obama leveraged the Internet to sweep to victory. Speaker after speaker at this past week's
Personal Democracy Forum Europe Conference
pointed to Obama's campaign as a watershed, introducing a new era of digital politics. Held in Barcelona, the forum brought together 400 mainly European and American political activists, consultants, journalists, academics and bloggers who shared a strong common interest in capturing the power and potential of Internet to reinforce democracy. In my own presentation, I showed this YouTube video:
"It's safe to say that Obama would not be President today if it had not been for the Internet,'' said Scott Heifferman, co-founder of hugely successful U.S.-based Meetup Internet platform, which enables people to organize in local community groups.
Founder Andrew Rasiej
said technology "is giving power to ordinary people who can organize themselves using new tools like
Facebook
,
Twitter
and
YouTube
in order to have an impact on the political process and to petition governments to be more responsive to their everyday needs,'' he said.
Google of course strongly believes in the enabling power of information. Greater transparency and availability of information to the public and the ability for citizens to engage directly in the conversation leads in our view to greater knowledge, democratic accountability & better-informed decision-making. Many of our products - blogger, Gmail, search, YouTube, our translation technologies are designed to allow citizens to do just that - get involved and have their say. We were proud to select 20 innovators as
Google Fellows
and pay for their travel and participation at the Barcelona conference.
At the Forum, we also took the opportunity to remind delegates of just what makes the Internet such a unique platform - its openness, low barriers to entry, and a decentralised structure that allows innovation and great ideas to come from any place at any time and for any user to discover these. Fantastic examples of great grassroots projects came from all corners of the Internet globe. One, dubbed mobile micro-volunteering, encouraged computers to spend the empty hours in transit using a smart phone to sending text and images to support small NGO projects. The Personal Democracy Forum just has posted its own interesting
post-mortem
. We look forward to learning about more success stories at the next Forum meeting in Europe.
Posted by Susan Pointer, Director, Public Policy & Government Relations,
Southern & Eastern Europe, Middle East & Africa
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