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For a character as soaked in pathos as David Brent, only the most depressing of hobbies would have been fitting for the Slough middle-manager 10 years down the road, and fortunately Ricky Gervais found it in the world of the YouTube guitar

Once it became simple to record, upload, and share digital video
over the internet, gamers quickly became interested in
recording themselves playing games — especially with
humorous or profane commentary. The phenomenon of creating and
sharing so-called “Let’s Play” videos took off around 2006 and
today has its own channel on YouTube. Practitioners of this
self-recording art sometimes refer to themselves as LPers for
short.

Now, it looks like Let’s Play videos are one more piece of
content that’s being caught up in YouTube’s Content ID system. It’s
an automated copyright-enforcement system that’s been glitchy from
the start and often criticised for taking down legitimate
content. Remixes of cultural icons have been taken down
with no good explanation, as well as Nasa content that
should be in the public domain. Political satire didn’t
stand a chance either. Until October 2012, there wasn’t even a
meaningful appeal system for owners of wrongly removed
videos.

By: Joe Mullin, Edited by: Kadhim

For what may be the cutest, passion-born-of-youth presentation to a Silicon Valley venture capital company on record, the teenage Rachel Sequoia, microphone in hand and with nothing short of bare feet below, spoke to an audience of serious-looking members of a VC group as she pitched them for $500,000 in order to bottle air from different parts of the world which would allow for a much more fluid cultural exchange and an increased flourishing of pleasure, health and good will across the globe.
The Wall Street Journal decided that this was sufficiently noteworthy to tweet it within hours of its gaining viral momentum on YouTube and the VC group in question is apparently taking the notion seriously enough to opening a round to its funders. Whether this is just the smoke and mirrors of the viral phenomenon or not does remains to be seen.
Whatever happens with this will be yet another story. But what we have now is a young girl who is passionate about health and the importance of air in health. She is excited about the importance of travel to foster cultural exchange and invites us to inhale the joy of the air of different cultures and geographical locations by bottling the air from different places on the

Nike is hanging its swoosh in shame after jumping the gun — and the shark — by making a high-end TV commercial celebrating the English team’s anticipated Grand Slam win in rugby’s Six Nations Championship. On Planet Earth, however, Ireland would actually crush England 24-8 last Saturday to deny them the coveted Grand Slam.
The striking thirty-second clip would likely have been shown first on massive video displays at key London transit hubs the moment the final whistle blew in Dublin, with thousands of celebratory “Grand Slam Champions 2011″ T-shirts ready for sale at those spots as well.

read full news from www.huffingtonpost.com

It seems like a great time to be a bully. When I was a kid, even the most productive bullies could only manage a handful of victims at a time. What used to take a lot of effort can now be handled with a couple thumbs and some wifi. A hateful rumor can spread a lot faster on Facebook than it could on the school bathroom wall.
And while it used to require a certain set of characteristics to thrive as a bully, the internet makes it simple for almost anyone to graduate from cowering weakling to kicking virtual sand in the face of friends and strangers in no

In the midst of creating our 50 Most Important Inventions (and Discoveries) in Food and Drink, and the 10 Food and Drink Inventions We Didn’t Need, we were reminded of the iconic infomercials that accompany many of the products on our list. From Mr. T’s incredible enthusiasm while poaching fish in his Flavorwave Oven to Ginsu Knives — with blades so sharp that not even a tree branch or rubber tubing could dull them.

read full news from www.huffingtonpost.com

They called it the Snowpocalypse. When the East Coast was slammed by a massive storm this past winter, Newark Mayor Cory Booker hit the streets, coming to the aid of stranded residents and literally shoveling out a transit bus. But tales of his derring-do weren’t just transmitted by the media or word of mouth. The tech-savvy mayor also blasted out news of his exploits and engaged directly with constituents via Twitter, earning widespread

Last Thursday, a YouTube video called “Rebecca Black – Friday” had 3,000 views. On Friday, it had more than 7 million. When I passed out listening to it last night it had 9 million. As I listen to it today, it has 12

A revolution in Egypt: 18 days of tumultuous freedom fighting and a dictator is shamefully evicted. Seems straightforward, doesn’t it? It’s not. Egyptians have been working toward this outcome for years, yet the manner in which they achieved their revolution is clear-cut. Risking everything, far too often by dying, Egyptians pushed against the regime to gain the freedom to define democracy for

Hi there, business or important person! I couldn’t help but notice that your social media sucks! Here are six reasons why:
1. You Still Think It’s a Novelty
Hey, cool! Your coffee shop is on Twitter! Facebook! And YouTube!
And… that’s it. Sorry, but your mere presence on these platforms doesn’t put you ahead of the

Libyan officials have been so angered by Arab media coverage of the revolution in their country they’ve resorted to jamming satellite TV channel transmissions from a location in Tripoli and have accused foreign reporters of fomenting unrest.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) this week said security forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi continued to detain journalists and jam broadcast frequencies.
“It is beyond irony that the authorities in Tripoli are inviting in foreign reporters for guided tours of the capital while they round up Libyan journalists who dare talk to foreign broadcasters,” said CPJ Deputy Director Robert Mahoney.
Libya’s shenanigans caused Lebanon on the eastern Mediterranean to lodge an official complaint with the Arab satellite regulatory body since several Lebanese channels were adversely affected by the jamming.
Earlier this week, official Libyan TV misled viewers by airing footage of crowds in different cities that it claimed eagerly awaited Gaddafi’s appearance.
But the deception was uncovered, according to Lebanon’s Assafir daily, when it became clear the video was of the Palestinian uprising, accompanied by a background track of a song entitled “We’re Steadfast Here” by Lebanese composer/vocalist Marcel Khalifa.
The camera later showed Tripoli’s Green Square when someone realized the mistake.
Gaddafi’s son Saif Al Islam, in a recent media appearance, called for “dialogue (with the rebels) before we resort to arms,” and urged the convening of a “masses conference” to pass legislation ensuring press freedom.
In an interview with pan-Arab daily Asharq Al-Awsat, Saif Al Islam blasted the Egyptian-controlled NileSat, which he said had unplugged, reconnected, then jammed Libya’s main TV channel.
He also ripped into Arab satellite channels for what he said were instigation to violence and spreading of

I know it seems rare for me to blog so much, but in the last few days, my schedule has freed up; more opportunities to blog have been “knocking at my door,” so I’m taking every advantage that I can. It just feels good to blog, and tell the world how you feel, whether or not the world wants to listen… (This is where you say, “Of course, we want to listen, Owen!”)
Anyway, I know I blogged about my music concerts at the Whisky a Go Go and the Cat Club. I’m planning to do

Unsettling new scientific evidence has revealed a bizarre wrinkle in the space-time continuum, wherein users of Facebook inexplicably go through seventeen days for every hour they spend on the site. With these remarkable new findings, scientists say they have conclusive proof that the social networking giant is, indeed, the world’s biggest time-suck.
“These results are mind-blowing,” said Uppsala Institute of Physics researcher Anders Magnusson. “Our test subjects often reported feeling as if a couple of weeks or more had gone by, only moments after deciding to abandon their responsibilities and piss away their productivity on

Q&A with Joe Weber, CEO FlyingWord.
FlyingWord is creating a line of books that immerses the reader in a totally new experience. It’s not a matter of adding video or audio streams, as on typical DVDs. FlyingWord takes a book and focuses on the beautiful nature of the story, the value of the education, and the nature of the illustrations, then extend them several steps further.
To get a sense of the reading experience, click to see the Treasure Island YouTube video. The experience includes Robert Louis Stevenson’s fantastic book, a wonderful audiobook, and the first ever use of 3D illustrations, and physics interactions in a full-length

It was a tough week for the teen sensation. Justin Bieber’s new movie Never Say Never finished second at the box office last weekend, then he lost at the Grammys, was the subject of controversy for a Rolling Stone story, and his character was killed on CSI. But that wasn’t symbolic of the end of Bieber: He grabbed headlines on Friday night with his MVP performance at… the NBA all-star celebrity

“Can you help us quickly find new opportunities and open new markets to deliver short term revenue growth?”
It’s the most common question I hear through my consulting practice, when corporate executives from blue chips discuss their challenges with me. In many cases, the answer might be hiding in plain sight. Not to chase after the shiny new thing but look for innovation and new profits in existing systems and businesses. It might not be as sexy as the hot new startup, but those potential revenue streams have the chance to return new profits with less upfront

WASHINGTON — During the unrest in Egypt, CNN iReporters uploaded 1600 videos and photos,of which 44 were vetted for use on CNN. While there is value having citizen reporting out on the streets, verifying the content can be an arduous task, according to panelists speaking in this 7:30 minute clip from the Beet.TV Video Journalism Summit at The Washington Post.One of the most dramatic videos from Cairo was an AP video of a protester being shot. The raw, unedited clip has gotten about 670,000 views on YouTube.The images were recorded by a citizen and confirmed by an AP reporter who was at the scene and saw the shooting, says the AP’s Kevin Roach.

read full news from www.huffingtonpost.com

Malcolm Gladwell is a gifted writer. An author of four best-selling books and many articles for The New Yorker, Gladwell likes exposing little recognized phenomena and debunking popular views. His style is more breezy than academic or scientific, yet his anecdotes often sound rather compelling.
One of Gladwell’s recent articles, however, may prove to be the tipping point for Gladwell’s persuasiveness — and

On an historic day that will resonate throughout the Arab world, Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak has stepped down. But, as millions of Egyptians celebrate throughout the country, soon their attention will turn to an uncertain future.
This is a huge victory for the people of Egypt and for democracy. Leaders of countries such as Jordan, Yemen and Saudi Arabia are closely watching events unfold. No doubt, so are the leaders of Iran and

Let’s be serious – everybody is wondering if there is another shoe to drop in the Great Internet Gold Rush of 2011.
$6 billion for Groupon? Nah, too low. Something between $8-$10 billion for Twitter? Sure, why not? Eight-figure pre-money valuations for numerous West Coast consumer web start-ups? Hey, it’s just supply and demand, and besides which, they DID go through YCombinator. $50 billion+ for Facebook? How about $70 billion in a handful of trades on

Bored? Well, this particular post features an interview with pop icon Avril Lavigne, an exclusive video by artist Josh T. Pearson, news about a crazy, over-the-top Roy Orbison box set, and a RightsFlow/YouTube deal. So? Whaddayasay? Let’s get a-crackin’ on this awesomely sweet Thursday…
A Conversation With Avril Lavigne
Mike Ragogna: Your single/video, “What The Hell,” is an early slice of your new 15-track album, Goodbye Lullaby.
Avril Lavigne: I’ve been working on this record for about two years, and it’s the most time I’ve spent on an album. I’m very proud of this record.
MR: Beyond being the artist, what were some of your duties on this one?
AL: I produced two songs for the first time.
MR: What was the writing process like?
AL: I’ve always written every song on my albums, I’ve co-written them

WASHINGTON — The Associated Press declined to stream President Obama’s 30-minute live interview on YouTube (on 1.27) since the program was shot on White House cameras, says the AP’s Kevin Roach, Director of U.S. Broadcast Operations, in this segment from the Beet.TV Online Video Journalism Summit at The Washington Post.
The role of the government, business and organizations in creating television operations poses journalistic challenges for news organizations who prefer to manage news gathering on their own or via a collaborative “pool.” Discussing this subject in this clip (in order of appearance) is Stokes Young, head of multimedia at MSNBC.com, Roach, Anna Robertson who heads original video of Yahoo! News, and Mike Stephanovich, managing editor of the Reuters Insider.The Associated Press is the biggest provider of news video to YouTube.

read full news from www.huffingtonpost.com

WASHINGTON — As a follow-up the State of the Union address, President Barack Obama sat down with YouTube for a live half hour conversation on Thursday (1.27) to take viewer questions from the public and speak with Steve Grove, head of news at Google’s video site.
Also in capital, Vice President Joe Biden sat down with Yahoo!’s Anna Robertson for a 30-minute interview, where she asked community generated questions.
Unlike YouTube, which streamed the Obama interview live and in its entirety, Yahoo! chose to edit the interview into 11, 1 to 3-minute segments which were published the following day.
The Biden interviews drove over 3 million page views and over 800,000 video views. The most popular clip is the one in which the Vice President addresses a spoof about him on the Onion.
The Obama interiew has driven 200,000 views on YouTube.
“We Don’t See a Huge Benefit” In Going Live
For an explanation for Yahoo’s approach to taped

The Web is humming with stories and discussion from the aftermath of President Obama’s response to questions about drug legalization during last Thursday’s YouTube forum. While his words this time around are a bit more encouraging than previous signals from the administration, I would strongly suggest that we all, including the president, cut through the platitudes and get to the truth about marijuana prohibition.
If, as the president suggests, it is time for a “serious debate” about legalization, let’s get to it, starting with a few questions that beg for truth:
Why, with record federal deficits and states teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, are we spending billions on yet another failed Prohibition that is accomplishing nothing other than making criminals out of millions of otherwise law-abiding citizens and fueling drug cartels that threaten our fundamental national security? Is it not time to try something different?
Despite lip-service, about the need for treatment, harm-reduction and other strategies to address drug use as a health issue, why do the federal government’s actual policies and budget still treat the situation as almost entirely a law enforcement problem? Let’s end the unworkable marijuana prohibition and put our money where our mouth is. Let’s solve the problems like border crime. We can do it with pot legalization.
We need to deal with some simple