In February of 2008, YouthLAB 07 members, Ameenah Muhammad, Sadia Nawab, Zane Scheuerlein and Mindy Faber went to the DIY Video Summit to present their curated program YOUTUBE-SIZED. Here are some clips from the Summit including excerpts of our interviews, works and presentations:

YOU-TUBE-SIZED: 10 Radical Things About YouTube
By Open Youth Networks youth members Ameenah Muhammad, Sadia Nawab and Zane Scheuerlein (Editing help from OYN Director, Mindy Faber).

OYN nurtures youth to empower innovative micro-enterprises that mobilize their peers from awareness to action. By helping youth imagine new ways of engaging in socially-motivated commons-based peer production, Open Youth Networks aims to strengthen youth participation in democratic decision-making through critical media production and analysis.

[Qualifier: Actually, YouTube here is a stand in word for any online video sharing site. We actually view videos on many different sites similar to YouTube so we refer to YouTube in the generic sense like saying Kleenex instead of tissue.]

1. Creating a Freer Youth Culture or Democratizing Media

We create our own entertainment and use our voices as a vice to expose issues within the communities that, otherwise, would not be viewed. In the last few years internet sites such as YouTube have been flooded with videos from youth expressing ideas and showing the world that we are the leaders of a new revolution.

Look, when You-Tube was invented, we went from a top-down profit driven corporate broadcast system to a free open source user–driven on-line Mecca, like overnight. Whatever, its flaws and there are many, YouTube has democratized media.  Okay, we know we have to challenge YouTube when it caves into the political pressures and removes controversial content, but still, the level of gatekeeping going on by corporate owned mass media television networks… We are no longer forced to listen only to “the man” and seeing other people do it makes us realize we can do it too.. In our opinion, you can’t have a real democracy without dialogue between people with differing points of view and sometimes, at its best, YouTube makes dialogue happen.

EVIDENCE
The Revolution Will Be Televised by Open Youth Networks http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfJd0Q8HjPw)

2. Counter-surveillance
Everyday at our schools, we are being watched by cameras and surveilled by adults. Posses of parents spy on our Facebook pages.  Academic researchers study our “online behaviors”.  Marketers spy on our subcultures and consumer habits so they can sell what we create back to us. Police arrest us just for “being in public.” But with camera phones in our pockets and with YouTube as our witness, we can take the private abuses of authority that we as youth endure on a daily basis and make them public for all to see.

EVIDENCE:
Angry Teacher
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymBz1pwSEnw

Police Brutality: Skateboarders vs. the cops http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EH6AYVn2yw4

ThePrincipals Office
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRu7FVX41aQ

Mr. Schwartz Imitation by Adam Norway
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpPsPRIqU44

# 3- Bedroom Cinema – Lots of the videos we watch online are quite simple. They showcase one person in their bedroom with a camera, often one that is built into the computer and instantly uploaded to YouTube. No special effects. No broadcast TV equipment. Just totally raw. We all vent in different ways whether it be in journals or on videos. Showing the world your personal views on an issue is radical and venting can be personally calming. We can play, experiment and try on new personas or react to and reframe the ones that are marketed to us through commercial media. We are clever and witty and sexy and smart and honest or not. You decide.

Evidence
Dax Flame
http://www.youtube.com/user/Daxflame

Miss West Carolina goes to Hollywood http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PzmLELu0RM

#4. Our Culture Kicks Ass
YouTube allows us to celebrate our own subculture, show off our talents and challenge the hegemony of sameness. On YouTube you will see youth doing parkour, cup games , quadrupal kickflips, speed-stacking, animation, and break dancing.

EVIDENCE
Urban Ninja by Evolved Monkey Combat
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2kJZOfq7zk

Daft Hands: Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2cYWfq

World Champion Speed Stacker http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VizrAgSI4O0&feature=related

Cheeeeeeeeez
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5XQxf8quGg&feature=related

Cup Game DOS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhFyQjVsq3U&feature=related

5.  Monetizing Makers, Not the Corporates Takers – No ads on YouTube.
Okay, yeah there are little ads found throughout the site but you aren’t forced to click on them. Viewing all your favorite episodes and music videos without having to see an AXE body spray commercial is simply a blessing. And there is no limit to what you can and can’t watch, no compulsory or maximum amount of videos that can be viewed at one time.

Compared to other forms of media, YouTube is freer- we need to make sure we keep it that way. But if someone makes a really great TV ad, you can view it on You-Tube, because trust us, if its worth seeing, it will be there. But then when shameless commercial interests try to corrupt the YouTube user-driven spaces, they must be prepared to suffer.
When the Dove Evolution ad became viral, its hypocrisy was exposed.

YouTube is Talk-back TV. So even though it isn’t really the point to make money, some YouTubers hit a nerve –they are real artists, actors and political geniuses– so when they become successful and develop a subscriber base in the thousands and get hundreds of thousands of views then why shouldn’t they be able to make a living off their art or bring attention to their talents, messages and music. Revver.com shares 50% of its ad revenue with is content providers. We should monetize the makers not the corporate takers.

Evidence
Midwest Teen Sex Show - http://midwestteensexshow.com/

Chongalicious new Video by Laura DiLorenzo and Mimi Davila
http://video.aol.com/video-detail/chongalicious-girls-new-video/2002947577

6.  Social Sanctuary
What you share is who you are. We define our identities and build our social networks by creating affinity groups through the culture we make and consume and share!

For example, there is this familiar, “Psssstt…have you seen that video??” Chainletters no longer circulate in our inboxes, instead its chain videos! [fwd fwd fwd fwd fwd] “So&so sent you a video on YouTube!” Sometimes it is just entertainment, sometimes political, but politics is in everything, so what’s the difference?

And these videos are the ones that can bring out the haters. Actually, haters are everywhere on YouTube and sometimes if you get a lot of haters, it is actually a compliment because those are actually paying attention on some level. Who said democracy and dialogue isn’t messy? Besides the really stupid haters end up being dissed and exposed by everyone anyway. The worst haters we face are found on our streets everyday – some of them criminalize youth for hanging out in public. At least on YouTube and MySpace, there are no curfew and anti-gang loitering laws. YouTube is a sanctuary.

Evidence
Hater Comments from the Sarcasm Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSYw4dUVb1E

Leave Britney Alone Trace Remix
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FAuJod1XmY

7. Political Remix
With the right tools, YouTube is a digital burying ground for all sorts of treasures- ripe for the reusing. It puts anything from embarrassing flubs to hilarious images in the public eye, to be remixed, reused, and thrown back into the world with a fresh spin or biting political commentary. One of the absolutest coolest things about YouTube culture is when people immediately respond to some insane TV news segment or political speech through brilliant remix.

I mean, they can’t get away with their spin machine like they used to now that we are watching them. Plus, we trust the remix version more than the source footage, if you know what I mean. Through political remix, we expose lies and critique the mass media. To quote copyrighted text is to be a good American.

Evidence
Political Hillary WASN’T LYING! Bosnia gunfire footage discovered…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHVEDq6RVXc&

Sunday Bloody Sunday Song by George W. Bush http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5vZ-2xpmXs

8.  Alternative News and Analysis
Lets face it. A lot of the 24-hour news programs are bullshit. No one, especially teens gives a crap about what a bunch of boring old people jabber on about. Enter YouTube. Now youth can produce and feature their own news about what matters to them. This appeals to many kids because we want to stay in touch and aware, but not become brainwashed and comatose.

For example, politics! As busy young people who usually aren’t in front of a TV to watch the presidential debates, so we tend to get on YouTube to stay up to date. Sometime we like to look up world issues and get a quick summarizing documentary of what’s going on around the world… like in Sudan, Palestine, etc. This means we see all the media views on the issue – not just the corporate TV news version. It’s interesting to see what crazy videos people make either making fun of rival’s parties or of expressing their position on a certain issue. It gives you a whole different perspective.

Evidence
George Bush Don’t Like Black People
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XjHS6yUdio

The Jena 6 by Youth Radio
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqse_Yhmlrw

9.  Laughter and other Guilty Pleasures
Not to complain but to 1) survive high school emotionally, 2) get into a good college and 3) afford the insane tuition of that college means that we have to get awesome ACT/SAT scores, do “Mother Theresa” type levels of community service, achieve “a strong B average” in our GPAs while avoiding the gang crossfire in our neighborhoods, all while having to put up with a high school that operates like a prison system or police state.

And if you are out in public with a bunch of other kids who are not playing soccer, you are immediately suspected for gang activity. But it doesn’t matter because we have so much homework. So we multi-task and in between figuring out the quadratic formula and memorizing dates, we go to YouTube and escape by watching little puppies fall asleep or Japanese televisions programs called “How to Poop”. Adults need to grant us that. Its okay to laugh, really.

Evidence
Sleepy Spudgy, The Best Cat Video You’ll Ever See
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wvo-g_JvURI

10.  In Bed With Embedding
We can embed YouTube videos into our blogs, our MySpace and facebook pages, our websites and our Google MyMaps. In other words what is sent to YouTube doesn’t just stay on YouTube – you can cross-fertilize. For instance, some of our members are creating videos about environmental racism that they post on youtube but then embed onto OurMap of Environmental Justice (link below). We can network and build peer to peer movements through shareable media.

Evidence
See Our Map of Environmental Justice
http://www.elcilantro.org/?page_id=6

Youth Media Exchange the Hidden Cost of Cashmere
http://ymex.org/video/

Go Army: Bad Guys by Jonathan McIntosh
www.politicalremix.wordpress.com

YouTube-sized: Youth Personas, Protests, Paranoias and Pleasures
Curated by Open Youth Networks with Mindy Faber

Premiere Date: February 8, 2008 4:00 P.M.

Premiere Site: Davidson Conference Center, USC School of Cinematic Arts

Youth Curatorial Committee
Spencer Fitzsimmons
Erik Lobo
Lori Moody
Ameenah Muhammad
Sadia Nawab
Zane Scheuerlein

PROLOGUE
The Revolution will be Televised by YouthLAB
1:44 2007
YouthLAB’s spoken word video about the meaning of revolution, social change and the role that new networks and participatory media play as youth “dream of a brighter day!”

ACT ONE: FEEDBACK LOOP: VIRAL ON VIRAL (trt: 22 min)

Internet People by Dan Meth
1:31
Music by Dan Meth and Micah Frank.
If you know every single reference made in this video, then you truly are a nerd.

Ask A Ninja, Question 50, Jessica Lee Rose
By Kent Nichols and Douglas Sarine
5:23 (3:00 minute excerpt)
Douglas Sarine, one of the co-creators of this hysterical podcast along with Kent Nichols, series plays the Ninja who interviews Jessica Lee Rose, otherwise known as Lonely Girl 15on the anniversary of their 50th episode.

The Evolution of an Internet Sensation: Dramatic Chipmunk
By Unknown
1:00
The most famous five seconds in internet video is re-mixed again and again and again and again.

Super Tube Debate by Current TV
4:12
During the 2007 Democratic Presidential Debate CNN decided to mix things up a bit by asking people to ask the candidates questions by uploading videos to YouTube. Not wanting to be left out, the SuperNews team decided to mix things up even more by selecting a few videos for the candidates themselves.

News Loves Viral Videos by Brookers
1:47
Youth video blogger Brookers makes fun of the mass media’s incredulousness over the popularity of YouTube. In her words, “the news just LOVEs to talk about this hott new craze that came out this week …and it will be new next week as well …heck…this new INTERNET phenom garp will probably steal the front page long after we are all dead !”

Dove Onslaught Exposed by polepositionmarketing
1:59
Audre Lorde has said,”The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.” But she might change her mind if she could see this brilliant remix of the Dove Viral Video about “unrealistic body images.” Dove’s original video is aimed at young girls, offering up a critique of false perceptions of beauty created by ads. The problem is that Dove is owned by Uni-Lever, the same beauty industry pushers of Slim-Fast and Axe body products for men and, through its subsidiary in India, the Fair & Lovely line of skin lighteners. This video commentary exposes the corporate hypocrisy behind Unilever using their own advertisements.

Don’t Tase Me Bro Remix by Toby Turner
1:44
Website: http://www.tobyturner.com
A audio/video remix by University of Florida student Toby Turner about the tasing incident of his fellow classmate, Andrew Meyer. Turner uses various shots and angles from the many videos cell phone cameras and camcorders that were present to capture Meyer’s now-famous line, “Don’t Tase Me Bro”. Says Turner, “Andrew is in most of my classes this semester… I wanted to show him this in class, but he didn’t show up. He was in some place called “carcerated.”

Leave Britney Alone Trance Remix by Jon Kinnear
1:47
Okay, the visuals get a bit redundant but this is a must-hear remix. Just don’t hate us if you can’t get the song your of your head ever again.

Leave the “Leave Britney Alone” Guy Alone
By Mugflub
2:48
This college comedian’s spoof on Chris Crocker is one of the best.

Miss West Carolina Speaks Out on Maps by Paper Lilies
1:44
We love Paperlilies and we love her parody of Miss South Carolina over all others, because she is British and because she thinks the Iraq needs maps.

AOL News presents…Where are they Now?
1:05
Corporate controlled media conglomerates (AOL) now make videos about YouTubers rather than the other way around. Interesting, eh?

ACT TWO
TV IS SOOOO 20TH CENTURY (18:00 trt)
What we as youth watch online and why. From Ask a Ninja to sleeping puppies we youth curate and analyze our own online video pleasures.

Sleepy Spudgy
:27
He’s sooooo cute. Put this on your iPod and pass it around during Study Hall. It will wake them up or help them sleep.

Urban Ninja by Evolved Monkey Combat
3:00
At first we were going to include a Parkour video from France. According to Wikipedia, “Parkour is a physical activity which is difficult to categorize. It is not an extreme sport, but an art or discipline that resembles self-defense in the martial arts.” There are a lot of great parkour videos but we chose this American version from Evolved Monkey Combat. EMC from California uses a hybrid style that combines Chines Gung-Fu, Kick Boxing, Tae Kwon Do and Acrobatics. Video is an important way they distribute their work to fans.

Kiwi by Dony Permedi
3:09
This makes us cry like babies.

Bush vs. Zombies by MyEverythingdotcom
3:03
The newest threat in the war on terror is terrifying; the undead! The press conference reveals it all. The makers used a green screen effect to do this video and have posted their Making of.. video on YouTube too.

Youth Radio on Jena 6 by Youth Radio
3:07
This video is like being able to listen in to a “conversation on the corner” – it is like a digital “water fountain.” It is where young brothers “drop some knowledge” about Jena 6. It is a cool video done by Youth Radio in Oakland.

Banksy vs. The Streets by Unknown
3:16
A v-jamming fan video combining images of stencil graffiti and guerrilla artist Banksy with British rap group The Streets.

Midwest Teen Sex Show: Gym Class
3:40 by Guy Clark (starring Nikol and Britney)
http://midwestteensexshow.com/
Youth culture meets sex education. We love the fact that Guy, Nikol and Britney bypass the gatekeepers at schools to tell us like it is in our own language with scaring us to death. The Midwest Teen Sex Show is the most informative and the funniest sex education lesson you will ever get. Why Midwest? Because as they say, “Broadcast media shies away from any real exploration of the topic, and they forget that not all teens live in Orange County.” We just had a hard time choosing which program to feature. Backdoor Business, Female Masturbation or The First Time. But Gym Class is hysterical.

ACT THREE:
CELL PHONE CINEMA
Youth make the most of mobile media devices and portable cameras. Media moments captured by teens and made public through YouTube.

Angry Teacher by Corey Zappa
1:28
So Corey Zappa, a student at Brick Township High in Jersey shot this with his cell phone camera and got suspended for ten days after it went public on YouTube. But what about the teacher? He never faced disciplinary action but ended up taking “Behavior Management” classes. In high schools, youth are often the ones being surveilled. But now that kids have camera phones, adults may have to “watch those mouths of theirs.”

Virginia Tech Shooting by Jamal Albarghouti
1:15
Within hours of the Virginia Tech Massacre, Jamal’s cell phone video was on YouTube and being picked up by all the major networks. How mobile turns into news instantaneously.

The Principal’s Office

police brutality - go skateboarding day
4:20
Criminalization of kids being kids caught on camera. Some adults complain that kids are cooped up inside too much, not exercising outdoors or socializing with their friends. Maybe when you see this video you can understand why so many kids are on MySpace. It is safer than the sidewalks.

Mr. Schwartz Imitation by Adam Norway
55 sec
We found tons of videos made by students making fun of their teachers that are pretty hysterical. We like this one because it is done right outside of the classroom.

ACT FOUR – FACE-OFF: ME AND MY PERSONAS (14:00)
A montage of short videos and vlogs in which youth either construct or imitate different personas online. This disarming and intimate selection reveals how we as youth attempt to make sense of gender, race, class and other identities by pretense or parody
I Got into a Fight in P.E. by DaxFlame
2:13
Daxflame plays a spastic kid named Bernice Juach, who tells stories about his life (such as when he bought a car on eBay with his mom’s credit car and failed to convince her that he thought it was actually a Hot Wheel). Daxflame began his webisodes when he was 15 and he had a huge subscriber fan base.

Pretending to be An(Other) Montage
7:00 A montage of clips where youtubers act out a different race

What if Men Menstruated? By Reel Grrls
2:38
Teen girls from Seattle made this hysterical piece with the help of Reel Grrls, a youth media program that empowers young women to deconstruct a, lets face it, male dominated mass media from their own perspectives.

Chongalicious by Laura DiLorenzo and Mimi Davila
3:53
Okay, this may be cheating but Wikipedia has got this one down. Here is their entry, “Chongalicious is a homemade music video performed by Laura DiLorenzo and Mimi Davila (both born in 1990), drama students at Dr. Michael M. Krop High School in Aventura, Florida in 2007. The song is a parody of Fergie’s 2006 hit song “Fergalicious”. It focuses on the term “chonga,” a slang term describing a stereotypical way of dressing and behaving among hispanic girls living in Miami-Dade County. The video was filmed on a digital photo camera and the music and vocals were later recorded with a simple microphone on a computer. It quickly gained notice when it first appeared on YouTube, where it has had more than 1,900,000 views. Its popularity led local radio stations to play the song often. Power 96 has recently said that it is their most requested song since first being discovered on YouTube.

Slip of the Tongue by Karen Lum (age 16)
3:30
A spoken word music video about gender, race, ethnicity and sexuality made by 16 year old Karen Lum that you will want to watch over and over again because it says so much to so many. Props to the The Factory at Bay Area Video Coalition and Kim’s mentor, Scott Boswell for helping her create a dazzling filmic look.

We would’ve included it in YouTubesized but didn’t get it in on time.

Dr. Bailey takes this kid to the principal’s office and he tapes it with his camera.

Viral on Viral

Dove makes viral videos about beauty

Ask a Ninja talks to Lonely Girl 15 - Viral on Viral

Okay so this person re-edits the Big Lebowski down to a few minutes by including only the word fuck. Rolling Stone Magazine calls it one of the videos not to miss on the web.

Blogging+Ninjas=Awesome! (with few casualties)

Part two of the democratic YouTube debates…with some unexpected interference. Video about viral videos.

Watch your kidney’s. Zane wanted me to post this