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futurejournalismproject:

YouTube Launches Human Rights Channel

Via the YouTube blog:

Activists around the world use YouTube to document causes they care about and make them known to the world. In the case of human rights, video plays a particularly important role in illuminating what occurs when governments and individuals in power abuse their positions. We’ve seen this play out on a global stage during the Arab Spring, for example: during the height of the activity, 100,000 videos were uploaded from Egypt, a 70% increase on the preceding three months. And we’ve seen it play out in specific, local cases with issues like police brutality, discrimination, elder abuse, gender-based violence, socio-economic justice, access to basic resources, and bullying.

That’s why our non-profit partner WITNESS, a global leader in the use of video for human rights, and Storyful, a social newsgathering operation, are joining forces to launch a new Human Rights channel on YouTube, dedicated to curating hours of raw citizen-video documenting human rights stories that are uploaded daily and distributing that to audiences hungry to learn and take action. The channel, which will also feature content from a slate of human rights organizations already sharing their work on YouTube, aims to shed light on and contextualize under-reported stories, to record otherwise undocumented abuses, and to amplify previously unheard voices. The project was announced today at the Internet at Liberty conference, and will live at youtube.com/humanrights. Storyful will source and verify the videos, and WITNESS will ensure the channel features a balanced breadth of issues with the context viewers need to understand the rights issue involved.

We hope this project can not only be a catalyst to awareness, but offer people new avenues for action and impact. The channel is committed to providing new citizen creators as well as viewers with the tools and information necessary so that every citizen can become a more effective human rights defender. It will also be available on Google+, where the broader human rights community can take part in discussions, share material, and find collaborators.

Image: Screenshot the Human Rights YouTube channel.

I have enjoyed listening to John Mayer’s Born and Raised album this week. Love it! I like to take notes when I first get a new album from one of my favorite songwriters. This is authentic stream of consciousness first response material, so please forgive me if not perfectly accurate with slap happy tired thoughts because I fell asleep listening that first night. These notes are straight from the memo on my phone the night I first listened to the live stream. I thought I would edit once I listened more to the album, but since this album feels so honest I’ll just post as my thoughts came out the first time… 

Age of Worry (smile)

“Make friends with who you are” (yep)

(Love that organ sound)

Shadow days (sigh and cry)

“I’m right here, and I’m right now and I’m open (woah my kindred spirit signs signs everywhere signs…Stop that!)

“Hard times help me see…” 

“All at once it gets hard to take, it gets hard to fake what I wont be” (true ‘dat lol)

“It’s such a waste to grow up lonely” (well…)

“Still got time, still got faith”

“Got a Mom, got a Dad, but they don’t have each other” (sad that my kids have had to say that most of their lives)

“Show your face to the morning ‘cuz one of these days you’ll be born and raised and it all comes on without warning”

(ohhh love that sound when he goes up on stay)

“If I ever get around to living, I”m gonna put my things away” (lotsa watches???)

“I’m gonna take the love I’m giving and set it free…” (love that)

“When you gonna wise up boy” (so glad I’m not the only one who gives myself pep talks in songs)

“You are spending all your time searching for a sign that’s never gonna look the way you want it” (guilty of that too, obviously see note above)

Love is a verb (verb verb verb ah ah verb is a weird word when you say it three times fast like that, sheesh I’m tired and wacky but I want to stay up and listen. This might be my new fav JM album where Trio Live is the current reining champ in my book close race here)

LOVE that jazzy intro (please make a whole song at least one song like that! My next album will have that jazzy feel, now it’s going in a whole other direction! Still cool, swirly dreamy

“When you’re done with this world, the next is up to you” (hmmmm)

(I got trills, they’re multiplyin) [this is seriously cheesy and should be deleted]

whiskey whiskey whiskey chords are familiar (my vice and chaser lyrics would be pasta, pasta, pasta, sugar, sugar, sugar - sleep) key word sleep

“It’s just a phase, it’s not forever. Just a phase, but I still might have a ways to go” (live and learn for life)

“wake up shake it off and repeat” reminds me of my ex - yikes! Here’s your sign!

“You know my paper heart”

(Girls voice is????)

“Maybe I could stay awhile”

chuckle at honky tonk slap a knee version of Born and Raised

yummy harmonica (my dog howls when I play harmonica, good thing I am wearing headphones. must test that)

“It takes a fool to love you. I’m just the fool for you”

So far Fool for You and Age of Worry are my favs, (subject to change upon further listening). 

Kewl. Nice work. Congrats! I have songs that need guitar will sing for you any day while you rest up Mr. Mayer. Have your people, call my people. HA! Man I need sleep.  

happy birthday bob dylan. happy birthday bob dylan. happy birthday i love what you say, happy birthday b-o-b bob dylan! 

rootsnbluesfestival:

http://shawnaray.blogspot.com/2012/05/loving-listening.html