Peters is covering the convention for YouTube and its parent company, Google, after winning a national contest.

On Wednesday, Peters interviewed a younger Michigan delegate who had been for Clinton and only just made the decision to go with Obama, a U.S. senator from Illinois and the Democratic presidential candidate.

Peters also talked with Jonathan Alter of Newsweek.

One of his videos, on Michelle Obama’s speech, is getting strong traffic on YouTube. His interviews with these people and coverage of the convention can be found on YouTube.

Peters’ winning YouTube video will be shown at Mile High Stadium in Denver tonight as the Democratic National Convention concludes.

His video — about reasons for being a Democrat in 2008 — is already a hit.

“I got stopped by two guys who said, ‘You’re the YouTube guy,’” Peters said. “These guys actually yelled 30 feet away from me.”

Peters said that when surrounded by major political figures and journalists he understands his role.
“I realize how insignificant what I’ve done is in the broad scheme of things,” he said in a phone interview Wednesday night from Denver.

On Wednesday, he watched from inside the Pepsi Center as former President Bill Clinton spoke and U.S. Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., accepted the vice presidential nomination.

“I think tonight was the first time they had a full-out offensive on McCain,” Peters said.

He said it was about time Democrats took the fight to Republican presidential candidate John McCain, a U.S. senator from Arizona.

“Bill Clinton hit McCain hard and fast and numerous times,” said Peters, an Obama supporter.

I

Rich Peters called the speeches a powerful “one-two punch” for Democrats. With access to the Pepsi Center in Denver, site of the convention, Peters talked to dozens of female party activists throughout the day Tuesday, looking for someone to express the widely reported anger and disunity associated with the Democratic nomination fight between former First Lady and U.S. senator Clinton of New York and Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, a U.S. senator from Illinois.

“I couldn’t find a single one,” Peters said.

Peters said the crowd Tuesday appeared pleased that Clinton was taking the fight to U.S. John McCain, R-Ariz., the Republican presidential candidate.

Clinton had several well-timed barbs aimed at McCain.

“It makes sense that George Bush and John McCain will be together next week in the Twin Cities, because these days they’re awfully hard to tell apart,” she said, referencing the Minnesota site of the GOP convention next week.

“I thought, no way was she going to be that aggressive,” Peters said.

Peters is a supporter of Obama who earned entry to the Democratic National Convention by winning a video contest sponsored by the party and Internet giants Google and YouTube.

His winning video is expected to be shown sometime this week at the convention. Peters has posted a number of political videos on YouTube.

Rich Peters, a recent University of Iowa Law School graduate who grew up in Carroll, shot video for YouTube, the popular video sharing Web site, during the convention. He earned access to the Pepsi Center in Denver by winning a video contest.

Peters told Iowa Independent in a phone interview that he was surrounded by women in the Pepsi Center who responded to Michelle Obama’s family themed keynote pitch for her presidential candidate husband, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. He watched the audience intently and talked to a number of women in attendance about their impressions.

“What cameras aren’t going to pick up are the words people used to agree with Michelle,” Peters said.

He added, “The neatest thing was being amongst the crowd. Every couple of seconds there would be someone yelling something positive.”

With memories of a hard-fought primary and caucus season looming in the minds of many activists, there is concern from the Obama camp about reaching supporters of his chief rival in that process, U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y. — particularly women.

“I did not know going in whether there would be unity,” said Peters, an Obama supporter. “But as soon as I got boots on the ground, I can’t tell you how much energy there was, and it was all positive.”

Earlier Monday, Peters appeared for a segment on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” with host Joe Scarborough, a former conservative congressman from Florida.

Peters brought along a bag of Cheetos as a joke related to Scarborough’s references to bloggers as Cheeto eaters.

For YouTube, Peters interviewed New York Times columnist Paul Krugman. Peters also talked with environmental activist Robert Kennedy Jr., among other people Monday.

Rich Peters

A video produced by a recent University of Iowa Law School graduate — “Why I’m a Democrat In 2008” — will be featured on the big screen at the party’s national convention in Denver next week.

At a minimum, the video likely will be seen on C-SPAN, and it may reach a network television audience depending on its timing.

Rich Peters, 29, who grew up in Carroll, Iowa, created the video for a Democratic Party/YouTube contest. More than 33,000 people already have watched the video — a number that is sure to increase dramatically once it airs before a national audience.

Contest organizers recently selected the Peters video from hundreds of entries. With his win, Peters, now living in Iowa City where he volunteered for the Barack Obama presidential campaign, will have full access to the convention in Denver where he will produce more videos for YouTube.

“I intend to leave no stone unturned,” Peters said in a phone interview with Iowa Independent from Iowa City.

Peters has posted dozens of videos on YouTube related to politics — including one, “Coalition of Voices,” a montage of photos and video clips from Obama’s primary and caucus campaign season. Another video, from North Carolina, chronicles Obama’s interaction with a homeless veteran.

Peters said he would like to be involved in non-profit work or politics himself, perhaps returning to western Iowa to seek office.

But for now, in association with Google, the parent company of the wildly popular video-sharing site, YouTube, a dominant force in American politics, Peters has found a calling.

“I really like the content people are providing on YouTube and other citizen blogs,” Peters said. “I kind of want to see where this takes me. I think YouTube itself is a great community with varying backgrounds.

In recent days, as part of his winning package for the contest, Peters traveled on Obama’s campaign in the South, shooting several videos, which are now on YouTube about the experience.

He interacted with national media and top political figures during the trip from Florida to Virginia.
“They shared so many stories with me,” Peters said.

Initially a supporter of U.S. Joe Biden, D-Del., in the presidential race, Peters found himself gravitating to Obama’s change message.

“I truly believe that Obama will actually implement that,” Peters said.

Peters, who graduated from Buena Vista University where he double-majored in biology and chemistry before going to law school, canvassed door to door as an Obama volunteer in Iowa City during the caucuses.

In his winning video Peters uses the force of his voice and charisma with few props. It’s a straightforward accounting of his reasons for voting for Obama and other Democrats in November.

He starts with the war in Iraq.

“This war in Iraq has gone on for long enough,” Peters says in the video. “Our troops, they’ve done their job. And Obama’s plan for withdrawal is the best way to get these heroes where they belong — home.”

Shooting the next segment in a wooded area, Peters makes his case for the environment.

“I believe the Environmental Protection Agency should be more than just a rubber stamp for big business in the White House — that it should actually do its job and protect the environment,” Peters said.

Peters said he has not been told the specific time for the airing of his video.

Here is Peters’s video:

There’s money and even a new TV in it if you do.

Western Iowa Advantage, an economic development organization in this area, Tuesday launches its first-ever video contest, an event that is slated to run for six weeks.

“We just saw this as a great opportunity to get the message of how great it is to live in western Iowa out to a target audience for us,” said Jim Gossett of Western Iowa advantage.

Gossett said the videos on YouTube.com, one of the more broadly recognized destinations on the Internet — and a place that has changed politics and public relations with its ability to showcase user-generated content immediately — will reach younger people and families, just what cities like Carroll need.

Specifically, the videos must be geared to life in the following counties: Adair, Audubon, Carroll, Crawford, Greene, Guthrie, Ida, and/or Sac.

The contest is void where prohibited. See official rules at www.westerniowaadvantage.com for details. Entries must be received by May 15.

“There is no residency requirement, so let your extended families, cousins and old college roommates know they can enter as well,” Western Iowa Advantage says in a news release. “As long as it showcases the great life one enjoys in western Iowa, we want to see it.”

Videos will be judged on how well they portray the positive attributes of the area (40 percent), the overall appeal of the video (30 percent) and creativity/originality (30 percent). The most important thing is to show what makes western Iowa great.

“The more creative, the better,” Gossett said.

There are three separate age groups: high school (13-18), college (18-22) and adult (18+). There will be one grand-prize winner for the best video, one first-prize winner from each age group and three runner-up winners chosen from the best remaining videos. Winning videos will also be presented on the Western Iowa Advantage Web sites and in promotional events for the community. Prizes are as follows: grand prize, 42-inch, HDTV; three first places, $500; and three runner-up prizes, $250.

For more information go to Western Iowa Advantage’s Web site.

In the video, Dodd stands in a campaign office, looking relaxed, his shirt unbuttoned. He discusses the challenges facing the country, including the Iraq War and rising health care costs. But the media, he says, aren’t paying attention to what matters. A montage follows of news anchors like Wolf Blitzer and Bill O’Reilly talking about Hillary Clinton’s campaign song, Paris Hilton’s jail sentence, John Edwards' $400 haircut, Anna Nicole Smith’s will, and Barack Obama’s latest fan, the swooning Obama girl.

Cut back to Dodd: “They say they talk about haircuts instead of troop cuts, song choices instead of energy choices, Paris instead of Baghdad, because they say that’s what you want to talk about.” He’s hoping they’re wrong. And he’s giving YouTubers the chance to prove it. In the video, Dodd asks people to call their senators — and videotape the conversation — to tell them to vote for the Dodd Amendment on the Defense Authorization bill, which would begin redeployment of U.S. combat troops from Iraq within 30 days of the bill’s enactment and would set a deadline for completing redeployment by March 31, 2008.

“Senator Dodd is using his YouTube Spotlight to get people involved in the most important issue of the campaign,” said Dodd’s internet director, Tim Tagaris, in an emailed statement. “Using YouTube to whip votes for legislation that would actually end the war in Iraq is a bold new step that no one else has tried.”

In an interview with the Iowa Independent, Steve Grove, YouTube’s news and politics editor, said, “The highest bar of success is video response … the most active and engaging thing a user can do.” Dodd’s video is asking a lot from people. Not only do YouTube users have to make a video responding to Dodd, but they’re supposed to get in contact with their senators and push a specific policy. A significant response would be a success not only for the Dodd campaign, but also for grassroots organizing in the 21^st century.

One final note on the video: It’s an attack, if indirect, on the Democratic front-runners and the purported superficial level of their campaigns. Dodd reminds viewers that Clinton used her YouTube opportunity to choose a campaign song, that Edwards once paid $400 for a haircut, and that Obama is roundly considered a rock star, even as he accuses the media of discussing those same issues. Dodd is angling to be the candidate of substance, the one who is running a serious campaign; and while this spot is unlikely to launch him into the first tier, it does make the point persuasively.

Grove declined to say which candidates had the best YouTube profiles, but said that “the mere fact that candidates are on YouTube” means that campaigns are changing “to get their message out and to interact with voters in the 21^st century.”

Every announced candidate has a YouTube account, except for former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson. It is somewhat difficult to gauge users' interest in the candidates. Each candidate channel or profile provides the number of subscribers, channel views and videos watched. A subscriber is a user who has signed up to receive videos whenever the candidate uploads a new video; subscribing signifies some level of commitment to and interest in the candidate.

At the time of writing, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama had 6,566 subscribers, the most of any Democratic candidate, followed by New York Sen. Hillary Clinton with 4,054, former Sen. John Edwards with 2,949, Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich with 1,965 and former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel with 1,259. On the GOP side, Texas Congressman Ron Paul has 16,525 subscribers, followed by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney with 2219 subscribers, Giuliani with 1512, McCain with 1352 and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee with 596.

Grove said that while subscriptions are important, examining the number of views a video receives indicates whether the video is effective. “That means people are actually watching your videos,” he said. But getting users to respond to videos is the top prize. “The highest bar of success is video response … the most active and engaging thing a user can do,” he said. “The big lesson is it’s a two way medium. It’s not just a shrunken television screen. It’s actually a way to engage and interact and hear back from voters.”

YouTube is actively reaching encourage political involvement among its users. As YouTube’s News and Politics Editor, Grove hosts a channel called CitizenTube, whose goal is “to highlight and support user-generated political content on YouTube,” he said. While he creates some content like interviewing candidates, CitizenTube is mostly about connecting people, “The idea of educating, empowering and connecting voters and candidates with each other,” Grove said. As part of CitizenTube, the website sponsors a program called “You Choose,” which allows a different candidate each week to address and interact with YouTube users. Duncan Hunter used the platform to ask YouTube users about their heroes. Hillary Clinton encouraged people to suggest a theme song for her campaign. “It was a unique, fun project that got people engaged,” Grove said. Indeed. It generated extensive media coverage and more than 500,000 video views after just a few days.

YouTube is also co-sponsoring a Democratic presidential debate in July and a Republican debate in September with CNN. YouTube users will submit questions (in video form), and CNN will select which videos to use. “For the first time in the history of presidential debates, voters from around the country will be able to ask the future president of the United States a question in video form and hear the answer,” said Chad Hurley, CEO and co-founder of YouTube in a statement.

But YouTube may also influence the 2008 campaigns in a less predictable fashion. Campaign operatives anxiously await—or fear—the next "Macaca moment", an instance where a candidate’s error gets caught on tape and shared with the world. (In the 2006 Virginia Senate race, Republican George Allen was videotaped using a derogatory slur—Macaca—and when the video went on YouTube it went "viral", spreading across the web and eventually the nation. Grove recently called the Obama:Apple::Clinton:IBM video the first viral video of the campaign; to this date, it has been viewed more than 3 million times. What makes a video viral is harder to explain. “There is no secret sauce,” Grove said. “Any piece of content, a video that taps into a sentiment or a feeling that’s out there but isn’t being currently expressed has a better chance of bubbling up to the top.”

David All, a GOP media consultant recently posted his tips to campaigns on how to use YouTube and avoid being sunk in the event of a "Macaca moment". Grove said that while he believes YouTube has helped increase transparency in politics, he said that he hoped it would go “beyond the gotcha moments” and toward “a more authentic political dialogue.” YouTube videos might be able to “strip away some of the spin,” he said. “Both candidates and voters are thirsting for it.”

Grove called YouTube “a tremendously democratizing force in politics” that “flattens out the dialogue.” It is “giving power to people,” he said. “And it’s giving candidates and voters and issue groups all a chance to create a lot of different content about and connect with each other.”

Not any more. US forces Korea commander, General BB Bell, released a memo indicating that the Department of Defense will put the kibosh on this practice, blocking US military portals that provided military personnel access to YouTube, MySpace and 11 other popular sites. According to the memo released by Bell, the policy is being implemented to protect secure information and to reduce the drag on the military’s computer system:

“This recreational traffic impacts our official DoD {Department of Defense} network and bandwidth ability, while posing a significant operational security challenge,” the memo said.

The armed services already has a policy that prohibits military personnel from sharing information that could jeopardize their missions or safety – including anything from classified to declassified information. The new blanket policy is different because it blocks all communications on these site mediums, where troops had been exchanging messages, videos clips, and audio bits with friends and families.Whether or not this new policy has had any impact on Iowa soldiers and their families remains to be seen. “We haven’t had a single call yet from family members regarding this policy change,” said Lt. Col. Greg Hapgood, Iowa National Guard Public Affairs. “If there was a major concern, I imagine somebody would have called by now.”

Military personnel and their families can still access the sites on their personal computers; they just cannot use the DoD networks. However, this poses a problem for soldiers in the Iraq and Afghanistan theaters of war, for this is the only access for most soldiers. The new policy doesn’t cut off communication between soldiers and their family and friends. “Soldiers still have access to their own personal e-mail account provided by the DoD, and they can send messages and images through these accounts,” said Lt. Col Hapgood. “They also have phone cards and access to satellite phones, but again, access to these modes of communication depends upon where they’re located.”

Recognizing the unprecedented capability of disseminating information and portraying the positives or successes of its mission abroad, the Pentagon began posting its own videos on YouTube. Targeting a younger audience, the Pentagon’s channel, the Multi-National Force-Iraq, has posted videos showing soldiers in action and performing acts of kindness towards the citizens of Iraq. In just two months, the “M-F F-I” channel has climbed to 16th in YouTube’s most subscribed-to listing and has surpassed the one-million views mark. The following videos illustrate the two types of video strands the Pentagon has been posting. The first video captures soldiers in a firefight, while the second focuses on the troops’ goodwill efforts.

Baghdad Firefight, March 2007

Troops Give Gifts to Iraqi Children

Although the DoD cites safety and band width as its primarily rationale for implementing the new regulation, the concern or lack of control has to be on their minds. With public support of the war in Iraq dwindling in America and abroad, the military can ill-afford another Abu Ghraib unfolding during its watch, or worse, broadcasted for the entire world to see on YouTube. Alleged war crimes and abuses committed by American soldiers have already been broadcasted on YouTube, although, given the raw nature of the footage and the lack of authentication of the videos, it’s hard to determine if soldiers have violated any laws.

(Warning: The following video has violent images and profanity. Please view at your own discretion.)

Witness to a war crime – US Soldiers Shoot Unarmed Civilians

In the wake of the Abu Ghraib scandal, the YouTube boom adds another dimension to the communication, security, and information dissemination issues the DoD already faces. Blocking YouTube and similar sites is one way to help control some of these concerns, but if there’s a will to get something up on YouTube, soldiers are bound to find a way around the block to make it happen.

Browner-Hamlin is an experienced blogger who has contributed to The Huffington Post, My Left Nutmeg and The Right’s Field. He plans to travel with Sen. Dodd and offer updates from the campaign trail.

The Dodd campaign, under the direction of internet strategist Tim Tagaris, has been innovative in their implementation of web-based tech tools. They initiated a live two-way conversation between viewers of the first Presidential debate and staff. The technology used for that was, at the time, a month old.

The updated campaign site uses the regular suspects of social networking – facebook, flickr, MySpace and YouTube. The campaign is also trying a fewer of the newer technologies. Browner-Hamlin says he’ll be utilizing Twitter to post updates directly to the site’s front page. In addition, the campaign plans experimentation with UStream. When the beta web app is working properly, it enables embedding of live video streams.