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Online video is renegotiating its (problematic) relationship with cinema. It deals with cinematographic principles versus the principles of the online age. We cannot directly transfer the cinematographic principles into the online age as new media has its own specificities. YouTube is not just video on the web but YouTube is a natively digital object. Ten years ago Lev Manovich proposed to consider the database as the (new) dominant media form. The database is the hegemonic media form online, as can be seen on YouTube, Flickr, MySpace and Google. We should think beyond technology now the database is also becoming a dominant social form. The database is shaping the social.

New social media behaviors Both hardware and software (and interfaces if we choose to put the interface between hardware and software instead of seeing it as software) direct new users to turn their media into social media. YouTube pushes you to interact by offering a wide abundance of “social options” such as Share/Post video/Add to groups etc. I recognize this trend in the use of my new mobile phone. Not only is it my first mobile phone with an integrated camera it also gives me the option to publish a picture on the web immediately. This has been made even easier by installing a piece of software called Shozu that immediately pops up a “Send to Flickr” dialog after I have taken a picture. This causes me to upload nearly every picture I take to Flickr. My mobile phone creates new social media behaviors.

The medical industry is one that sees a lot of UGC. A search on YouTube finds thousands of videos of people talking about their illnesses, from cancer sufferers to people with bullemia. Support groups are flourishing and people are finding that sharing experiences and content online is sometimes easier than face-to-face. Talking about your experiences to video and uploading this to YouTube for others to respond to and comment on is probably easier than discussing it in real life. The internet and social networks probably offer access to a greater number of fellow-sufferers than even a local support group might offer. Beyond support, people can use social media and user-generated content to help understand their illnesses. The supposed danger here is that people will self-diagnose and that this may be incorrect. At the same time, you’d expect that privacy issues would prevent any meaningful and useful exchange of ideas. But in fact, user-generated medical content is a vibrant example of how the social networking and online communities can be powerful for exchanging information.

A report by Jupiter Research in 2007 showed that 20% of Americans turn to others online for information about medical issues. They are clearly not shy of seeking or giving advice, even on more personal issues. They use sites such as OrganizedWisdom, a Wiki-style community, to share information they have and get information they need. The concern over the accuracy of this information still stands, with worries about non-medical professionals sharing information that people use to self-diagnose. But research by the British Medical Journal in 2004 found that in the online support communities it studied only 6% of content was incorrect. If this replicated across all medical content online then it would probably be among some of the more accurate user-generated content on the internet. User-generated medical content shows that people are willing to share and are accurate when they do so. Even in a more niche and potentially risky area such as medical advice and disgnosis, the quality and usefulness of user-generated content is high.

ICT can help the elderly to improve their quality of life, stay healthier, live independently for longer and remain active at work or in their community. A wide range of services could be offered to address daily needs such as: • Social communication: easy and continuous access to phone and video conversations, overcoming social isolation;• Daily shopping: easy ordering of goods online for home delivery;• Safety: security systems to lock/unlock entrance doors and windows or to check for water and/or gas leaks, etc or installation of user friendly interfaces for domestic and other appliances;• Health: telemedicine from home, wearable systems for monitoring and diagnosis of individuals with a chronic disease (such as heart disease and diabetes). In many EU countries where over half of people aged 65+ live alone, such technologies can significantly extend the time that elderly people live independently in their own house, while at the same time avoid costs for hospitalisation and provide a basis for additional applications in the future (robotics, embedded systems, biosensors, etc...).

Assistive Technologies (ATs) and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) may improve quality of life, extend length of community residence, improve physical and mental health status, delay the onset of serious health problems and reduce family and care-giver burden.

While the ageing of the population around the world raises serious concerns about social security, pensions, long-term care, health care and family systems, digital-age tools have been proposed as possible resources to improve outcomes. Considerable literature has appeared suggesting that Assistive Technologies (ATs) and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) may improve quality of life, extend length of community residence, improve physical and mental health status, delay the onset of serious health problems and reduce family and care-giver burden.

So what is Kohn saying and what is he missing about nationalism? In a nutshell, his theory is that nationalism is a will, a sentiment, a state of mind, mostly referring to and pertinent in politics. "Nationalism - he writes - is a state of mind in which the supreme loyalty of the individual is felt to be due the nation-state" (p. 9). This state of mind emerged, according to Kohn, in the 18th century, initially in England (beginning with the 17th century), where it was facilitated by ideas of individual freedoms and rights and by the Puritan messianism. Building on previous social structures, English nationalism emerged as a civilized, universal and peaceful concept (though one gets to wonder from whose perspective...). The corruption of nationalism comes with German Romanticism and subsequently with the passion of the French Revolution and the Central & Eastern European national 'awakenings'.

The proposed legislation -- outlined after local media reported Facebook fan groups for convicted Italian mafia bosses had spouted up on the social network -- would force Internet companies to remove supposedly criminal content within 24 hours or face a fine as high as $320,000. Italian Senator Gianpiero D'Alia told the Bloomberg news agency the law isn't aimed at blocking sites like Facebook or YouTube outright, but instead at forcing them to remove individual pages or groups.

Global financial crisis negatively affected tourism in Yemen Tuesday, 24-February-2009 Almotamar.net, Saba - Tourism Ministry said on Tuesday that the global financial crisis had a negative impact on economic and social role of tourism in Yemen, which reflected the decline in the number of tourists coming to Yemen and the cancellation of hotel bookings.

They have been largely caught unawares by the growth of such sites as Flickr, YouTube, OhMyNews and MySpace. Their growth stems from both better broadband availability and the increased scope for tribalism, identity expression and personalisation that user-generated content provides. Paul Saffo of the marvellously titled Institute of the Future notes that this could herald a 'Cambrian explosion' of creativity: a flowering of expressive diversity on the scale of the eponymous proliferation of biological species 530 million years ago. So what does this trend mean for wireless carriers? John Delaney looks at the implications.

Mobile operators are well-placed to benefit from the explosion of interest in user-generated content (UGC). It fits well as an extension of the trend to personalize that is already so successful in the mobile environment, and offers a way to monetize the wealth of 'user-generated content' currently residing (unsent) on mobile terminals worldwide.

Other trends facilitating the growth in content include: The growth in storage capacity, coupled with ever cheaper prices. The growth of standardized, non-proprietary capacity in mobile phones encourages both sharing across other devices and upgrading.