Article From Ustream

Ultimately, we believe that Ustream helps businesses and societies be more transparent, productive, and build deeper relationships — we’ve seen it first hand. And our goal is to educate the masses and give them the ability to harness live video, so that they can achieve these very things. This mission is both ambitious and exciting, and we have an incredible team that is focused on fulfilling our mission.

The unfortunate events in Ukraine have opened our eyes even wider, as three citizen journalist groups surfaced on Ustream last November, providing all of us a first-hand look at the tragedy taking place. Live video has given these brave broadcasters an outlet, despite the highly oppressive conditions on the ground. Their streams continue to bring transparency into the situation, and in the last 24 hours alone, we’ve seen engagement crossing 1 million views.

With it, Ustream plans to provide free access to its ad-free enterprise streaming services, which are also used by brands like Sony and Salesforce, to citizen journalists around the world. The company also wants to help promote the live streams and provide technical support. Spilno.tv and Ukrstream.tv are among the first to receive material support through the program, allowing them to reach more than 50 million viewers since the start of the protests. “It’s our way of giving back to the world,” Hunstable told me.

The move comes as Ustream and some of its competitors are moving away from an emphasis on free, ad-supported live video to focus more on enterprise services. Ustream started to impose new restrictions for its free accounts earlier this year, limiting the ability to archive past shows. Hunstable told me that Ustream will always have a free tier, but that the money is clearly with pro services, and not with ads. Ads matter “less and less” to Ustream, he said.

http://womennewsnetwork.net/2014/02/19/citizen-journalists-safe-zones/ 

This link is about how citizen journalists can't find safe places in Ukraine.

http://www.reddit.com/r/citizenjournalism/search?q=ukraine

This is an independent blog where by individuals post about citizen journalism.  

Sam Smith

Pop singer Sam Smith has been named the winner of the BBC's Sound of 2014, which highlights the best new artists for the year ahead.

The list was compiled using tips from 170 UK-based critics, broadcasters and bloggers, and previous winners include Adele, Ellie Goulding and Jessie J.

"I'm completely speechless," said the 21-year-old from Cambridgeshire. "It's a huge compliment to be recognised by the industry and the BBC in this way.

"I really didn't expect it."

Smith got his big break in 2012, as the featured vocalist on Latch, by Mercury-nominated dance act Disclosure.

The single spent 15 weeks in the UK top 40, peaking at number 11 - but his next song climbed even higher.

La La La, a collaboration with British producer Naughty Boy, went to number one and became the fifth biggest-selling single of 2013.

The station's head of music, George Ergatoudis said: "Sam Smith is blessed with a distinctive mellifluous voice that imbues his lyrics with real emotion and soul.

"The public are looking for authentic artists with genuine talent and Sam more than fits the bill. He is going to enjoy huge success this year."

Smith has also been named the winner of the Critics' Choice award by the Brits, and will pick up his trophy at the ceremony on 19 February.

ranging from magazine editors and newspaper critics to influential bloggers, DJs and radio and TV producers.

Each was asked to name their favourite three new acts - rather than the ones they thought would be commercially successful.

They were free to choose performers from any country and any musical genre.

Artists who had scored a UK top 20 single or album before 11 November 2012 were ineligible, as were those already well-known to the UK public - for example by featuring in the final stages of a TV talent show or already being a member of a successful band.

However, this has been criticized by Neil McCormick...

The idea that Sam Smith deserves to be hailed as “The sound of 2014” is risible, unless all we want from pop music is more of the same, another fluid honey-toned voice sprinkling melodious Americanised soul licks over blends of digital beats concocted by laptop production teams.

Smith was announced as winner of the BBC’s Sound of 2014 poll, having already been selected for the Brits Critic Choice Award. So that’s it, apparently. The future has been decided by the great and good of the music industry and all the rest of the young wannabes can go home now. Unless it strikes anyone as odd that an artist being hailed as the next big thing has already scored a massive number one single.

Carly Rae Jepsen

The story of how Carly Rae Jepsen made it big is a well-known one. Phenom Justin Bieber heard her song, “Call Me Maybe,” on the radio while home in Canada and signed her to his label shortly thereafter.

But not everyone has heard the story straight from Jepsen herself.

“I remember getting a hysterical phone call from my younger sister Katie who was like, ‘Justin Bieber! He tweeted your song!,’” she recalls in the clip. “I was like ‘Calm down, what’s going on?’ and I went and checked it out and she was right - he had.”

“’Call Me Maybe’ had been playing on the radio for a little bit at this point,” she continued. “It had been mingling in the top 11 on iTunes within Canada and it had no life anywhere else. And Justin comes home and tweets about it and within a day it’s at No. 1 and that really was my big break.”

The video went viral, scoring one million views in 24 hours. Now that number is more than 40 million (and counting).

Two days after the video posted, Jepsen finally met Bieber at a recording studio in LA, where the pop idol had yet another surprise in store.

“We spent some time talking and hearing songs from his new album, and on the fourth song he’s like, ‘Do you like this song? If you like it, I was thinking maybe you would wanna sing on it.’”

Half an hour after they met, Jepsen was in a recording booth, unexpectedly laying down vocals for Justin Bieber’s new album as he and his entourage looked on — at least at first.

“He’d already recorded his part, so I was harmonizing with his parts,” says Jepsen, who is sworn to secrecy about the song’s details, including the title. “He was there for parts of it, [but] at one point they left the room, because I’m sure they could sense I was nervous.”

Since then, Jepsen’s life has gone bonkers, as “Call Me Maybe” has become an unstoppable Internet force. 

Justin Bieber

Justin Bieber is arguably the biggest pop star ever launched by YouTube.

The Canadian singer was catapulted from anonymity to superstardom in three years. Living in Stratford, Ontario, at the tender age of 13 he competed in "Stratford Idol" and posted the videos on YouTube. Ten million views later, he was signed by Usher. Following a breakthrough single, "One Time," with his debut release of "My World", Bieber had topped 100 million YouTube views.

On Twitter, the ultimate real-time metric of celebrity success moment by moment, Bieber's name was tweet-checked 84,846 times in one day. He occupies a solid holding pattern on Twitter's "Trending Topics" list.

Bieber set a recent record of 1,854,917 song plays in twenty-four hours. He has remained No.1 in Ad Age's "Top 10 Most Tweeted Brands" chart, other than a brief second place to the Oscars. MuchMusic named Bieber newcomer of the year and Celebuzz has declared him one of the decade's Top Ten YouTube superstars.

Justin Bieber is reaching way down the food chain to the littlest fruits - as evidenced by a viral video making the rounds: "3 Year Old Crying Over Justin Bieber," shot by the girl's mother and available on, of course, YouTube. Cody, the three year old girl, was subsequently booked on the Jimmy Kimmel show where she met the object of her affections. 

The roles of both Justin's mother - who uploaded his first videos when he was 13, and Cody's mother, are to be noted - at best. Have 'American Idol' and YouTube convinced us all that anyone can be an instant star?

Justin Bieber gets 11,000 new Twitter fans a day.

Justin Bieber appeared in Chicago March 24, sporting a custom-made t-shirt in support of manager Scott "Scooter". He post a Tweet alerting Bieberettes that a Roosevelt Field mall signing event had been cancelled, when thousands of Bieberettes descended on the shopping mall venue. The mob swelled to uncontrollable proportions and a teenage bystander was injured.

Bieber decided to back a new social network, called 'Shots of Me' — a network exclusively for selfies. The app will be marketed by RockLive.

Bieber has a massive teenage social media following. He has 46.5 million Twitter followers – making him the second most popular member of the micro-blogging website after fellow singer Katy Perry – and his first Instagram picture crashed the site’s servers.

The young star has earned $108 million over the past two years, and the future is looking bright as a result of the new release and ensuing tour.

Without a doubt, Bieber owes much of that success to Facebook and Twitter, which he’s used to spread word of his album and concerts to tens of millions of followers. 

Charles Leadbeater

We Think notes:

• The audience is taking to the stage thanks to the web people get to express their opinions and have their say 
• Information is everywhere and ideas take to life when they are shared 
• New ideas often come through conversation
• The web is a mass of conversation which is why it is creating mass innovation 
• 20th century is mass production for mass consumption whereas the 21st century is mass innovation allowing more ideas being shared by more people than ever before
• Millions of people are creating games, worlds, knowledge and software 
• Old groaning corporations are the wrong shape to do this, mass innovation comes from communities. Everyone in that community leaves their peace 
• People join these communities as they want to socialize and get recognition for the work they do 
• The motto of the generation growing up with the web is we think therefore we should be good for democracy as more people will have a voice 
• Equality because knowledge can be set free to help people who need it most but can not afford to pay 
• Freedom because more people will know that it's like to be creative (Utopian idea)
• In the past you were what you owned. However, now, you are what you share.

Charles Leadbeater is a leading authority on innovation and creativity. We Think explores how the web is changing our world, creating a culture in which more people than ever can participate, share and collaborate, ideas and information. Ideas take life when they are shared. That is why the web is such a potent platform for creativity and innovation. It's also at the heart of why the web should be good for : democracy, by giving more people a voice and the ability to organize themselves; freedom, by giving more people the opportunity to be creative and equality, by allowing knowledge to be set free. But sharing also brings with it dilemmas.

It leaves us more open to abuse and invasions of privacy.

Participation is not always a good thing: it can just create a cacophony.

Collaboration is sustained and reliable only under conditions which allow for self organisation.

Everywhere we turn there will be struggles between people who want to freely share - music, films, ideas, information - and those who want to control this activity, either corporations who want to make money or governments who fear debate and democracy. 

Thanks to the web more people than ever can exercise their right to free speech, reviving democracy.

More people than ever have basic tools which allow them a degree of creativity. On YouTube for example you can see videos made by performance artists which have have attracted millions of viewers. The web should spread the freedom to express ourselves creatively, yet, the web also expands the scope for surveillance not just by the state and corporations, but also by our peers and friends. Every move we make on the web leaves a little wake that can be tracked. For example, Lewis Hamilton almost lost the 2007 F1 title thanks to footage posted on YouTube. 

Thanks to the web more people than ever should have access to knowledge, and that should help education and innovation among the poorest people in the world. However, the web is also the source and has become a tool for stalkers, pedophiles, terrorists and criminals to orgnise shadow networks beyond our control.

Key Words

Innovation

Utopian

Creativity

New capitalist society

We Think

New ideas

Culture

Mass Conversation

Free speech

Democracy

Opportunity

Equality

Participation

21st Century

Audience

Information

Share

Application


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-25763704


The selfie has arguably become the greatest photographic trend of our time. Why are we so interested in taking and sharing selfies and how does observing an image of yourself differ from observing a picture of someone else, asks University College, London neuroscientist James Kilner. This links to Leadbeater's theory as it is enabling the audience to upload and share images to the web and allows them to express their ideas and information, as well as participate.
 the w


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25698697


Up to 500 people have attended a vigil for Mark Duggan outside Tottenham police station. This links to Leadbeater's theory as he believes new ideas come from conversation and that ideas are taken to life when they are shared. People in this community want to socialize and get recognition for the work they do.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sheila-shayon/the-justin-bieber-phenome_b_513106.html


Justin Bieber is arguably the biggest pop star ever launched by YouTube. This links to Leadbeater's theory as Bieber uploaded and shared his music on the web and gained recognition. The web enabled Justin to express creativity and managed to attract millions of viewers.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-25672502


Pop singer Sam Smith has been named the winner of the BBC's Sound of 2014, which highlights the best new artists for the year ahead. The Sound of 2014 was compiled by a range of music industry experts, ranging from magazine editors and newspaper critics to influential bloggers, DJs and radio and TV producers. This shows how the web has enabled Sam Smith to share his music and gain recognition.


Criticisms


In Clay Shirky's account, the power of the web is that its networks make it "ridiculously easy" to form groups. To Charles Leadbeater, who used to advise Tony Blair and quotes both the young Milibands in his acknowledgements, such a hands-off approach to steering social development is anathema. Covering many of the same case studies as Shirky, the tone of We-Think is more like a being a guardian looking over the playground of the web, hoping gently to encourage or discourage particular behaviours.


Criticisms


Bradbury shows many of the ideals of a dystopian society. The three main ideals are:


1: Control of the media by government


2: The alteration of history for the governments benefit


3. Disposal of all those who refuse to accept the government's set of beliefs and follow them blindly


An example of a dystopian theorist is Graeme Turner.

Tom Daley Sexuality

Olympic diver Daley has revealed he is in a relationship with a man. The London 2012 bronze medalist has decided to use YouTube as the means to out his narrative. This is an impressive example of strategic control. Daley demonstrates why celebrity brands must quickly embrace transparency in an open and candid way, before a high-profile TV vehicle catapults them to prime time. 

Daley is a celebrity brand embedded into the nation's heart and has a unique brand truth. Clearly the much discussed narrative surrounding Daley has been a speculated on for months. So Daley has taken the step to shape the narrative in advance of a high-profile TV format, ITV entertainment show Splash!, returning to our screens. It suggests the recent Sunday tabloid editorial return to kiss-and-tells has influenced his decision to stop all the hyped hypotheses. Clever. Brands (and individuals in the public eye) require a longer-term view with the ability to react in real time. With a believable narrative, agility, flexibility, a willingness to exercise judgment and a skill for improvisation. Today's world of over-abundance, excess, data and a dizzying array of social technology requires celebrities and brands to produce compelling explanations and demonstrations of truth. It's a fast-moving – a crazy world – it's difficult to succeed. Failing to project the real you will only lead to a painful deconstruction of a spun truth. Daley teaches us some valuable lessons.

Tom Daley is billed to be the top earner from Team GB going by social media.

• Tom has received 7,236,673 views on YouTube in two days, since posting the video.

In a five-and-a-half-minute long video Daley came out, telling the world he was currently in a relationship with a man. The most telling aspect was the description underneath – “This has been a hard decision to make, but I wanted you to hear this from me.”

Daley’s coming out is in stark contrast to previous, PR organised, press on the issue of his sexuality and private life. Only in September he said in a interview with the Daily Mirror headlined Tom Daley: I am NOT gay.

Daley does not reveal the identity of his boyfriend in the video, clearly indicating that while he is happy to come out, he still wants to maintain some level of privacy. 

Welsh rugby captain Gareth Thomas, who came out in 2009, said Tom Daley had wanted to quash speculation about his sexuality, and had chosen ''a very personal message'' to do that.

The 19-year-old bronze medallist sat his final exams at Plymouth College in June.

His tweet read: "Got my A Level results!! Now officially have an A* in photography, A in Spanish and A in maths :) so happy!!!!"

A pair of Tom Daley's Team GB swimming trunks have sold for £540 at an auction of items from the London 2012.

A footballer arrested after an abusive Twitter message was posted about Olympic diver Tom Daley has been suspended for one match and fined £500. 

This shows the negative side of social media and the impact with over 31,000 thousand people retweeting this tweet. 

A  17-year-old boy has been arrested over a string of malicious tweets he allegedly sent to the teenage diver Tom Daley over his failure to win an Olympic medal in a case that has raised fresh questions over the policing of comments on social media.

The teenager – who tweeted by the name of @Rileyy_69 – was arrested at 2am and was being questioned by Dorset police after the young diver retweeted a comment suggesting that Daley had let down his late father who died last year from brain cancer.

The teenager was arrested under the Malicious Communications Act. It carries a maximum sentence of up to six months in prison and a fine of up to £5,000 for a communication “which conveys a message which is indecent or grossly offensive.”

Police said that the teenager was arrested at a guesthouse in Weymouth after a telephone complaint from a member of the public. Legal commentators suggested the case highlighted how social media has gone mainstream and is increasingly subject to the scrutiny of the criminal justice system.

Click here to be directed to a link which shows the response Tom Daley received when revealing his sexuality.

Changes To Child Pornography

Google and Microsoft are teaming up to try to rid the internet of child pornography.

Google and Microsoft have bent to political pressure in the UK – by agreeing to tweak their search engines to not only make it a little harder for sickos to find child abuse images online, but to also prevent regulatory intervention.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron said that "significant progress" had been made since the summer months when he began wrangling with web search engines and other internet players over the relative ease with which illegal content that shows children being sexually abused could be accessed.

More than 200 employees at Google have spent the past three months working on preventing child sexual abuse content from appearing in the firm's search results.

Using Microsoft picture detection technology, a unique identification mark is applied to such content, and then all copies are immediately removed from the web.Schmidt detailed how the two tech giants were using new technology to take down many images and videos of child porn from the web.

Google has also cleaned up the search results for over 100,000 web queries that were known to lead to child porn-related results.

"We will soon roll out these changes in more than 150 languages, so the impact will be truly global," said Schmidt.

Another 13,000 search queries that are related to child porn will lead web users to online warnings saying that child sexual abuse is illegal, while offering advice on where to get help.

The move comes a week after the arrest of 348 people around the world who were connected to an international child sex abuse investigation. Of the people arrested, there were 40 teachers, six law enforcement personnel, nine pastors or priests and some doctors and nurses.

The PM said:

Both companies [Google and Microsoft] have made clear to me that they share my commitment to stop child abuse content from being available not only in the UK but across the world.

This must mean making sure that it is not possible for people to find child abuse content via search engines now or in the future.

If the search engines are unable to deliver on their commitment to prevent child abuse material being returned from search terms used by pedophiles, I will bring forward legislation that will ensure it happens.

With the progress that has been made in 4 months, I believe we are heading in right direction but no-one should be in doubt that there is a red line: if more isn’t done to stop illegal content or pathways being found when someone uses a child abuse search term, we will do what is necessary to protect our children.