I'm very impressed by the way Queen Rania uses YouTube to get a message across. It also shows once more the still increasing importance of online developments. The link below leads to a video where she accepts a Visionary Award and explains why she created her own YouTube channel. The interesting part starts after 3 minutes.

Wauw Hans! I just watched the video and found it intersting from the start. Here you can see what a good tool Youtube is to give people a broader view. And especially the first reason of Queen Rania, 'supsicion, intolerance and mistrust are driving us apart...' is a very good reason to start her own Youtube channel! Lets hope more people think about this, so we can also learn from it.
Regards,
Esther

Hans, this is indeed interesting.. I loved the reasons why she launched her YouTube channel and ends with number one which gives a clear message to the world. She is doing the same thing on YouTube as we are doing here on the website but a lot smaller; Sharing information so everybody can get smarter!
Thank you for your great contribution to this!
Love,
Martine

"We are stronger when we listen and smarter when we share"
That's what I would take as the most important part of this video, not only as something personal but also because it reflects the aim of Youtube.

Thank you for the video Hans.

Greets,

Ale.

I found thas this video was very interesting ! Thanks Hans!

I liked the idea Queen Rania had for people to get to know the real arab world as well as her humor at the end!I think this video shows how usefull and powerfull internet is nowadays!

I do like the 'clever' presentation that Rania delivered. Once more, it is proved that social-networks have power, unlimited access and freedom of speech. On the other hand, do not forget that the use of social-networks, lets say youtube, have also two sides, the one i like to call 'dark and directed'.

So, We are stronger when we listen and smarter when we share but we are more intelligent when we filter and cross examine information delivered to us, even from the mouth of a 'Queen'. Because, its hard for me not to believe that a 'royal' ruler use the means, maybe to improve an image.

Freedom is perfect but be careful. Everybody deserves 10 minutes of publicity but all those uploaded last for ever. Just be cautious.

I have enjoyed reading this discussion.

Another noteworthy YouTube member: The Pope. www.youtube.com/vatican

YouTube allows you to "broadcast yourself" and with their easy ways of sharing their videos (emailing, embedding in social network pages, blogs etc) or by encouraging the conversation via responses, they have invented a very effective way of distributing these videos.

YouTube allows anybody to share 'their truth', or express themselves freely. But it will be up to you to separate truth from fiction.

This freedom to express oneself has been tested in two countries that seem to be the biggest supporters; the NL and the US. This in-turn has launched many videos and response videos. Below two examples.
Freedom of speech in the NL
youtube.com/watch?v=NFBO-_degqI
Freedom of speech in the US
youtube.com/watch?v=k8NkfYZah1c

So while YouTube allows you to "broadcast yourself", or the web in general, allows you to publicly express yourself, it is up to you to make sense of it all. I would even argue that one should be careful or thoughtful when expressing themselves publicly on the web.

The increased (ease of) access to multiple points of view might, as some argue, distract us from the more reputable broadcasted points of view. I simply hope it will encourage us to think more carefully.

That is great that everyone on YouTube has a chance to express oneself. However, that is also one of the major issues...

Recently I've read an article in The Economist about the online video market. The author highlights that advertisers are very careful about their brands to appear on YouTube. The major reason is that YouTube's content is variable and sometimes "off-putting".

So, even though YouTube is by far the leader in the quantity of videos watched by users, it does not attract a lot of advertising revenue.

As a result, new joint venture by News Corp and NBC - Hulu, which is supposed to bridge that gap. It's content is not yet available for viewing in Europe. Let's see how it develops...