Tag: youtube

Forget Clickbait. This Is How Technology Improves News Reporting

Posted on by robbie

Steve Grove, a onetime print reporter at the Boston Globe and a broadcast journalist for ABC News, joined YouTube and helped the homemade video site influence world events (becoming a platform for investigative video reportage like Sen. George Allen using the obscure racial insult “macaca” and a way to mobilize millions, such as President Obama and will.i.am’s “Yes We Can” music video). Today, as head of Google’s News Lab, he’s enthused about virtual reality and big data becoming an integral part of storytelling. NationSwell spoke to Grove from Google’s Silicon Valley headquarters about the future of newsrooms.

What’s the best advice you have ever been given on leadership?
[T]o make it something that you practice, not something that you are. I tell my team at Google all the time, “You’re all leaders.” What I mean by that (this comes from some books I’ve read, a few classes I’ve taken and also my own experience) is leadership is helping a group that is facing a challenge grapple with it in an honest and productive way. It’s really getting to the root of what a problem is, engaging in various interventions or techniques to really get to the core issue they’re trying to solve. Great leaders are able to exercise leadership, not just embody it.

What’s on your nightstand?
I just finished a book called “Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work,” which is about the modern economy and how technology has actually, in some ways, made us more distant from the actual work-product. The guy who wrote it was a motorcycle mechanic, and he talks about the power of working with your hands and how the trades are actually a really active way to use your mind and develop yourself. It’s not just an argument for, hey, you need to go start your own mechanic shop, but that you should understand how the things you own work.

What innovations in your field are you most excited about right now?
There are all kinds of new storytelling devices that are making journalism and frontiers really hopeful. While getting traffic to your site is a challenge and thinking about catchy titles or even clickbait is part of a conversation, deeper, more immersive storytelling is even more exciting and differentiates your site or broadcast. Virtual reality’s a part of that. You’re not just clicking and leaving: you dive into it. But another really interesting development (we’re not quite there yet) is journalism via drones. It’s really powerful for things like crisis response… and climate journalism — looking at ways different ecosystems have changed and are changing from above. It’s just a totally new perspective. There’s lots of challenges to figure out there ethically and technologically, but that’s exciting.

Data journalism itself is probably one of the biggest frontiers for journalism right now. It takes a massive amount of computing power that we now have, the extraordinary access to data sets we didn’t have before and a shift of how newsrooms think about telling stories. We, of course, work on Google data in that space, but ProPublica, FiveThirtyEight, The UpShot, Vox — they’re all really innovative data-driven journalism. That’s one of the things we’re betting big on: that data journalism has a huge potential for making readers around the world smarter about topics they’re discovering. Newsrooms are beginning to understand there’s never been a better time to be a storyteller, given the tools they have.

What do you wish someone had told you when you started this job?
I wish somebody had told me to lead with passion and manage with consistency. A lot of leaders are very good at one, but not the other. They can crisply manage a spreadsheet, a meeting schedule, a document and metrics tracker, but they don’t have the vision or the passion to lead an organization. Other leaders give the inspiration and purpose. That’s great, but the management piece falls off a little bit, because it’s harder for them to operationally develop things. Most leaders need to have both. I wish someone had defined that for me. I came into my work with the former — the passion and excitement — and I don’t think I was incapable of the latter, but I didn’t know when to toggle between the two.

What inspires you?
What’s most inspiring to me about my time at Google is amplifying stories or voices that wouldn’t have otherwise been heard. You look at YouTube as a platform for that, or the Internet in general as a chance to discover stories that wouldn’t have otherwise made it into our conversations — that’s a really powerful additive element of technology in media. Whether that’s citizen-captured videos from streets of the Arab Spring or whether that’s someone “coming out” to their community on a blog or whether that’s a kid in his bedroom in Philly or a mom in her house in Montana getting to ask the President a question in a Google+ Hangout, there’s all kinds of elements that plays itself out.

What’s your proudest accomplishment?
I feel very fortunate to have had some amazing experiences at Google. But if I had to pick something I was most proud of, I might go back to before I was a journalist, in my early twenties, when I spent about half a year in India. I just sort of went; I didn’t know anybody there. I bought a plane ticket and landed in Bombay [now Mumbai]. I wanted to do something that went beyond being a tourist, but I didn’t know what. I ended up finding the opportunity to work for an organization that did interventions in small rural Indian towns to try to get 30,000 people above the poverty line. They would help these people grow mango forests or cross-breed cows to create their own dairies. I [wrote] profiles of the people who this group was helping. I got to spend two months in rural villages, finding my own translators, talking to different people who were in these situations. It wasn’t the best journalism or work I’d ever done, but early in my career, it was a really transformative experience.

To learn more about the NationSwell Council, click here.
This interview has been edited and condensed.

Home page photo courtesy of Steve Grove.

MORE: The Software That Could Enable Drones to Go Mainstream

How Star Trek Is Inspiring Diversity in the Workplace

Posted on by robbie

The recent tech boom inaugurated an age of invention, but NationSwell Council member Greg Gunn, who founded his own education technology software startup, has been “frustrated” by the sector’s lack of diversity. For the last five years, he had an open-door policy of passing on advice to anyone who asked, but he recently formalized his informal professional coaching into Lingo Ventures, systematizing his advice, researching how programmers enter their chosen field and investing in platforms that connect diverse employees with tech companies.
Across a round dining room table on the first floor of his Brooklyn brownstone, NationSwell spoke to Gunn about how technology is changing our lives, where it falls short and how the future might be different.
What’s the best advice you have ever been given on leadership?
The power of the leader is to provide stability, or even just the feeling of it. When the boss comes in, things don’t go into freak-out [mode], but calm down. There’s the importance of the boss coming in every day with positivity. If you’re freaking out, everybody around you feels the freak-out 10 times as much. So, it’s being conscious, grounding yourself and coming in with positivity and stability every day, no matter how tough things are.
What’s on your nightstand?
I draw a lot of my inspiration from science fiction. I’ve been reading “The Three-Body Problem” series. It’s a science-fiction trilogy by the most award-winning science fiction author in China, Liu Cixin. Only two of the books have come out in English, so [I’m] waiting for the third one. It…starts in the Cultural Revolution in China and ends up in the future in space. It’s got these powerful ideas of how society responds to stability and chaos and how it survives those cycles. Some of the strengths you build during a period of great stability can become not-strengths or liabilities in a moment of chaos, and I’m really thinking of it right now in terms of economic change that our society is going through. Everybody’s worrying what’s happening to the American economy. Is it stable? How do we really know? And I think about it even more in terms of the impact of technology on the economy, which is already starting have profound changes, but people aren’t predicting how profound those changes are going to be. How does our way of thinking about work evolve in the face of that?
What innovations in your field are you most excited about right now?
The most important educational technology today is YouTube, because any time you need to learn something — whether it’s a small thing or a big thing — there are resources out there. Not only can you learn whatever skill it is, but there are 100 different ways out there that people [acquired] it, and you can find the one that actually works for your brain. I don’t know if democratizing is the right word, but that literally makes the best personalized education experience out there and free for everybody.
People talk a lot about Khan Academy, which I think is just a subset of the bigger phenomenon of people sharing how they learn things. More and more learning content is coming out of the universities, so things like EdX, Coursera. The edge of innovation right now is we’ve gone through this great wave of getting a whole bunch of content out there, and now that it’s all out there, we’re figuring out: Where do I actually need human touch again to get the optimal learning experience? How do I bring human tutors, teaching, peer support and coaching back into that? Now we’re remembering what we’ve always known: the content itself motivates to a degree, but having a human really motivates you a lot more.
What do you wish someone had told you when you started this job?
One thing that I started to learn and I think I’m still learning now is to be more open about what you’re working on. I’ve always been a perfectionist and a bit afraid to share what I’m working on or what I’m thinking about until it’s a finished product, especially with what I’m trying to do with Lingo Ventures. I think it’s important that I’m talking to more people, so that I’m both sharing and learning at the same time. It’s taking that personal risk to put the half-baked idea out there so that I can bake it with others.
How do you try to inspire others?
For my coworkers, in the work we do, part of which is diversity related, it’s easy to look at what’s happening in Silicon Valley and be really frustrated. So a big part of the work is how to flip that script. If this thing is wrong, where can we get value to get past it? If I’m working with an entrepreneur of color who feels like they’re constantly at a disadvantage in fundraising, part of the work is figuring out how do we turn those things that you believe are being perceived as disadvantages into things that are competitive for you. It’s not easy work, but you’ve chosen the problem because it’s a hard problem.
What’s your perfect day?
Have breakfast with my son and take him to school. Go to the white board with two or three entrepreneurs. Write a piece on something I’ve been thinking about. Get my team unblocked on whatever the organization needs that day. Then spend the rest of the day doing art: drawing, sculpting, whatever.
What don’t most people know about you that they should?
Star Trek is the vision that guides almost all of my work; it always has. My vision of what I want the future to look like and my companies to look like is really guided by the bridge of the Starship Enterprise in Next Generation: the way people interact, the diversity, the values, the goals, the technology. What would Captain Picard do? It sounds geeky but it really shapes what inspires me and what I want my workplace to look like.
To learn more about the NationSwell Council, click here.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
MORE: How Do You Overcome the Persistent Problem of Finding and Retaining Teachers? 

Which Is Better, Hand Dryers or Paper Towels?

Posted on by robbie

For as long as there have been public restrooms, there’s been a dilemma we’ve all faced after we wash our hands: Paper towel or hand dryer?
Finally, we have an answer, thanks to the team at AsapSCIENCE. As it turns out, there’s definitely a greener choice, while the other is better for germaphobes.
[ph]
PAPER TOWELS:
Pro: Moisture is what spreads bacteria the most, so for people who can’t take the time for a hand dryer to completely dry their mitts, paper towels can do the job in 5 to 10 seconds. Friction also removes bacteria as well.
Con: This fact should scare you: 13 billion pounds of this throw-away product are used in the United States alone. To produce one ton of paper towels, it takes 17 trees and 20,000 gallons of water.
HAND DRYER:
Pro: It requires fewer resources and prevents deforestation and high carbon emissions.
Con: Using one takes at least 45 seconds to reduce hand moisture by 97 percent, even though most people only dry their hands for about 22 seconds. Some dryers might also blow bacteria back onto your paws due to contaminated bathroom air.
WINNER:
It really comes down to preference. But it seems the real answer is to wash your hands properly (scrubbing with soap for at least 20 seconds!) and you won’t even need to use either option to get rid of any germs remaining on your hands. After all, it’s important to keep your hands clean — about 80 percent of infectious diseases are transmitted by touch.
As the AsapSCIENCE video explains, if you must use a paper towel, try to use as few as possible. For hints on how to do that, check out this adorable video of Umatilla County District Attorney Joe Smith demonstrating how to dry your hand with a single sheet of paper towel.
[ph]
DON’T MISS: This Small Change to Toilet Paper Will Reduce Its Big Environmental Impact

What Happens When You Give a Homeless Person Money?

Posted on by robbie

As the saying goes, “A kind and compassionate act is often its own reward.” But getting a little bit of cash for being nice? Well, that’s just icing on the cake.
That’s exactly what happened to some generous souls in Tempe, Ariz. who decided to donate their hard-earned money to a homeless person. Not only did the panhandler immediately give the money back, but these kind people were surprised with an additional $20.
As it turns out, that “homeless person” was actually YouTube star Dawson Gurley, aka Big Daws, who’s better known for his pranks on innocent bystanders (eating junkfood at the gym, playing drinking games at the library).
“I see a lot of videos on YouTube about giving to the homeless and doing great things,” Gurley says. “So today I wanted to give back to the people giving to the homeless.”
Even though there were some people who demanded that Gurley get off the streets or get a job, there were others such as the man at the one-minute mark, who wanted to give money even though he just got out of homelessness himself.
ALSO: Watch Why This Homeless Man Breaks Down In Tears After Walking Into His Friend’s House
At the end of the video, Gurley meets a woman named Charna Foley who has been struggling to find a job for three months. She breaks down in tears after receiving the YouTuber’s last $20. She later tells ABC15, “He gave me freedom that day to be normal and buy what I want.”
The clip, which is now going viral, has touched so many viewers that several have asked how they can also help Foley get back on her feet. Gurley has since set up a PayPal account for people to make donations to her (send funds to [email protected]).
DON’T MISS: Ever Wondered What To Say To A Homeless Person? Here Are 5 Things to Say And 5 Things Not to Say
 
 

What You Need to Know About the 5 Most Successful Social Media Campaigns for Social Change

Posted on by robbie

The videos filled your Facebook and Twitter feeds for weeks. Everyone from your great aunt to your favorite actor to politicians jumped on the bandwagon and doused themselves with ice-cold water all in the name of charity.
Whether you love it, hate it or experienced the challenge’s chill firsthand, it’s official: The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, in all its cold, wet glory, is a bona fide social media success. But it’s far from the first online marketing campaign to go viral. Here are five social media campaigns — and what you need to know about them — that have made a substantial impact on an organization’s efforts to raise awareness or funds for its cause.
[ph][ph][ph][ph][ph]
Did we miss one that stood out to you? Let us know in the comments!
 

A Promise Fulfilled: A ’57 Chevy on This Dad’s 57th Birthday

Posted on by robbie

With Father’s Day right around the corner, a touching new YouTube clip has surfaced on the internet that reminds us that there’s nothing more important than family.
When Mike King was 8-years-old, he made a promise to his dad, Roger, that he would buy him a ’57 Chevy Bel Air (his favorite car) on his 57th birthday.
Well, he definitely delivered. The Louisville, Kentucky man posted this video of his dad’s reaction when receiving the car.
[ph]
After the emotional response was shared, Mike wrote on Reddit that he worked 60 hours over six days a week to afford the classic ride. He bought the car two years ago — but has kept it hidden in his garage so his dad didn’t see it before his birthday.
MORE: This Pro Football Player Fulfills an Extraordinary Promise to His Old High School
Mike also shared with WDRB News a little more about why he never gave up on his promise. Apparently, his biological father abandoned him and his mom at a very young age. A few years after this, Mike’s mother remarried.
Mike also wrote on Reddit, “My dad has been everything to me, he is not my biological father but he IS my father. But this man in this video, my DAD my FATHER, was the best thing that ever happened to me and my mom and I hope I can be a fraction of the man that he is.”
But as the proud father told the local news station, “It’s really a no-brainer, you know. You love your kids — all your kids — no matter what the same.”
ALSO: An 87-Year-Old World War II Vet Made a Promise at 19 to Help Someone Every Day
Looks like Roger raised himself a fine young man. As he said to WDRB, his son’s gesture “meant the world” to him, but added, “It’s not about the car. It’s about your son growing into being a man and doing the right things in life and carrying himself the proper way. That’s what’s most important. This is just icing on the cake.”
Like a gift that keeps giving, Mike is currently trying to raise money online for a paint job and other touch-ups on his dad’s new toy.
DON’T MISS: This Admirable Boy Saved For a PlayStation, But Decided to Save Lives Instead

This Formerly Homeless Man Shows What It Truly Means to Pay It Forward

Posted on by robbie

Magic of Rahat has struck again!
It’s the third chapter of the YouTube star’s video series featuring a homeless man named Eric. And now, this incredible story has come full circle.
Back in March, Rahat orchestrated a “prank” on Eric that set him up to be a lottery winner. After scoring $1,000 in cash, Eric immediately wanted to share his prize. His heartwarming gesture touched so many viewers that they opened up their wallets and donated so much money ($44,000!) that Eric now has a furnished home that is completely paid for for the next year.
Now that he has a job and is no longer living on the streets, Eric is helping others in need — and his amazing act of kindness is captured in the video below.
With $1,000 of his own money, Eric approaches a homeless busker on a sweltering day and offers to pay for a hotel room. The man is suspicious at first, but ultimately takes up Eric on his kind offer.
At the hotel lobby, the two learn that the $1,000 will pay for a whole month at the hotel. When they get to the room (complete with air conditioning, a fridge, and a stove), the man is so overwhelmed that he breaks down in tears.
“I wanted to help,” Eric tells his new friend after a warm embrace. “And this is not the last time you’re going to see me.”
MORE: Watch The Magic Trick That’s Both Heartwarming and Baffling at the Same Time
According to a recent report from the National Alliance to End Homelessness, there are more than 610,000 people who do not have a roof over their heads. We need to do so much more to get our homeless Americans off the street. While it sounds like a daunting task, it can be done.
As you can see from Eric’s story, a little compassion can go a very long way.

This Unique Education Initiative Connects Lonely Seniors to Chatty Teens

Posted on by robbie

You can use it to make Skype calls. Or to check on your baby as she sleeps. But this brilliant — yet simple — idea is probably the most charming use of webcam we’ve ever seen.
As part of a language exchange program launched by FCB Brasil and the CNA language school in Liberdade, Brazil, elderly residents of Windsor Park Retirement Community in Chicago are helping Brazilian teens improve their English through one-on-one video conversations. The exchanges are recorded and then uploaded onto a private YouTube channel for instructors to evaluate the student’s progress.
As you can see in the heartwarming video below, these exchanges don’t just help the students speak English with increased accuracy and confidence; the lessons provide the seniors new friends and exposure to a world outside their retirement home, too.
As the students and teachers share their hopes and dreams, it’s clear that strong bonds have been created. One student told his “more-mature” friend who was eager to visit Brazil, “You can stay in my house if you want.” And in a particularly touching moment, an elderly woman tells her young friend, “You are my new granddaughter.”
MORE: These Seniors Needed Affordable Housing, and These Kids Needed Love. Together, They’re Beautifully Solving Both Problems
“The idea is simple and it’s a win-win proposition for both the students and the American senior citizens,” Joanna Monteiro, executive creative director at FCB Brasil, told Adweek. “It’s exciting to see their reactions and contentment. It truly benefits both sides.”
[ph]

Watch Why This Homeless Man Breaks Down In Tears After Walking Into His Friend’s House

Posted on by robbie

If you can think back to March, you might recall a certain video of a local homeless man named Eric “winning” the lottery. The incredible clip, created by popular YouTube star Magic of Rahat, touched of millions of viewers (15.7 million and counting), making grown men and women cry.
And now that Magic of Rahat has a new video, it looks like you might want to reach for that box of tissues once again.
As we mentioned previously, the original video created so much buzz and community support for Eric that thousands of online donations poured in. A whopping $44,000 was raised in three weeks — twice the initial goal of $22,000.
MORE: Watch The Magic Trick That’s Both Heartwarming and Baffling at the Same Time
When asked what he was going to do with the large sum, Rahat told his fans to “stay tuned for a follow-up to see what this money will do for Eric.”
Well, the follow-up is here — and we think it’s the most heartwarming one yet.
[ph]
In the video, Rahat breaks down where exactly the $44,000 in donations went: $11,000 for a year of rent; $3,700 for furniture and appliances; $2,900 for utilities, cable and insurance; $5,000 for supplies, clothes and food; and $21,400 in a joint bank account between Eric and himself (Rahat mentions that he won’t be taking a single penny).
Want even more great news? Eric mentions in the video that he has a job now, so it looks like he’ll be able to support himself, too.
Talk about a happy ending…

Watch This Talented College Student Get the Financial Surprise of a Lifetime

Posted on by robbie

You’ve probably heard that American college graduates are saddled with more student loans than ever before. Exactly how much debt, you may ask? According to the Project on Student Debt, the average borrower owes a whopping $29,400.
But as you can see in the touching video below, one talented junior from the University of Houston just got an incredible financial leg-up thanks to his head football coach, Tony Levine.
Levine decided to surprise rising star Kyle Bullard and his mother with the holy grail of college funding — a full scholarship — after the student’s successful walk-on season as a kicker for the U of H Cougars.
MORE: A Formerly Homeless Student’s Remarkable Education Journey
The coach (who is known to be somewhat of a prankster) set up four hidden cameras in his office to film Bullard’s entire reaction. Levine starts off the conversation with a very serious talk about the limited number of scholarships and how Bullard didn’t seem like a good fit — until he surprises the football player and his mom with the amazing news.
According to the Houston Cougars site, the 5-foot-11-inch Boerne, Texas native had quite the run after taking over placekicking duties midway through last season. He finished with a perfect six-of-six on field goals and sixth on the team in scoring with 38 points.
This just goes to show you that hard work really does pay off, and no one is more delighted than Bullard’s mother. You can just see the financial black hole of college tuition being lifted off her shoulders. We have a feeling that this scholarship represents the dedication to excellence of them both.
[ph]
DON’T MISS: This Pro Football Player Fulfills an Extraordinary Promise to His Old High School