Michael Novak's Musings

Bilingual Support for Obama Weekly Videos launched

Michael Novak — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 13:11:45 EDT

Hello everyone,

This is to let you know that CaptionedMediaforObama.com has launched multilingual support for President Obama's weekly addresses! We worked with the Office of New Media during the transition and first few weeks of the administration, and will be providing expanded language support from here on for his weekly addresses.

Our first two spots are as follows:

YouTube: We've posted the April 4 address in our unique bilingual format, using both our karaoke English plus making use of YouTube's new subtitled and translation capability. Go to http://www.youtube.com/user/captionedforobama for this week's address. For bi-lingual support click on the triangle at the bottom right of the main video, and turn on closed captions. Once there you'll be able to select either a translated second language (CHINESE IS ONLINE!), or have YouTube provide its best efforts at an automatic translation for you into a second language. So you'll be able to see both the karaoke English plus your native language.
GSM Phones: We've also launched GSM phone support for newer phones with browsing capabilities and support for the timed text track. Go to http://www.captionedmediaforobama.com/3G/fv/ and see if your GSM phone can play the video. We'll be doing other phone formats as time allows, but this is our beginning format.

So, enjoy our unique karaoke captioning for President Obama's weekly addresses, through either YouTube or your GSM phone. More news to come.

Michael Novak

CaptionedMediaforObama.com

Inside the Transition: Asian American and Pacific Islander Group video now available with Captions!

Michael Novak — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 20:37:24 EST

Hello everyone,

Parag Mehta put together a great video showing the Asian American and Pacific Islander groups participating during the transition team phase. We've captioned the video because, as Parag points out in the video,

"60% of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have limited English proficiency"

We at Captioned Media for Obama do our best to enhance key videos for this group, and deliver them to you as quickly as possible. Go to www.captionedmediaforobama.com/inauguration to see the videos, and stay tuned to that page over the next few days to see coverage of this video, and the Keynote Address in many Asian languages! We have some surprises in store for you between now and Tuesday night, so stay tuned!

Best Regards,

Michael Novak Founder,

CaptionedMediaForObama.com

Obama Christmas and New Year message update - now in more languages!

Michael Novak — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 15:22:31 EST

Hello everyone,

Just an update. Mr. Obama's Christmas/New Year's address is now available in our bilingual format in Spanish, Tagalog, Korean, and Japanese at these addresses:

With Spanish and Tagalog subtitles at www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPyi4mI80WU
- Just click on the "CC" button at the bottom right of the video panel to select which language you want.
In Japanese and Korean subtitles at www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXHdvgHM6fI
As a download in all 4 languages at www.captionedmediaforobama.com/prez/Obama_Christmas_iPhone_large.mov
- Download this file by waiting for the file to load, and then clicking on the "Download as Quicktime file" option on the right. Then just select the language you want
- This format is the largest that plays on the iPhone/iPod, and also includes chapter markers for each component of his speech

We're moving to providing one Quicktime file with all languages available as a subtitle. Then with an iPhone/iPod you can select the language appropriate to the situation. Or just two files on YouTube, where you select the language you want. Stay tuned for news on his inaugural address as well, now in your language, in his voice.

Best,

Michael Novak

Captionedmediaforobama.com

mnovak@tertia.us

Obama's Christmas Message up, Captioned and subtitled

Michael Novak — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 13:27:20 EST

Hello Everyone,

Merry Christmas! We've put President Elect Obama's Christmas message up on YouTube. It's so far subtitled in Korean, but we're working on Spanish, Vietnamese, Japanese, Chinese, and Arabic. So look for those languages today.

Thanks to Jennifer Kim for her overnight work on the Korean!

Also we will be posting versions to our www.captionedmediaforobama.com site for podcasting on ipod/iphone with all the subtitles embedded. So with one file you'll have all these languages available.

Look for the video at these addresses:

Our YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/user/captionedforobama
The Christmas Video at www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7YroOCdIKM
Our main website at www.captionedmediaforobama.com

Best Regards,

Michael Novak

www.captionedmediaforobama.com

Translators for Obama's Christmas message

Michael Novak — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 17:55:02 EST

Hello everyone and Merry Christmas,

Well, we're doing Obama's Christmas message into as many languages as possible. So far we have people working on Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Spanish, Japanese, and Tagalog versions. If anyone out there would like to do another language, please let us know. In particular Malay (and any other language spoken in indonesia) and Arabic are wanted.

We're also looking for corporate sponsorship to do this on a weekly basis for the next 8 years, so if a company is interested, please contact us. They would receive acknowledgement in the subtitle. So this might turn into a paid thing if that is successful.

The results will be posted to our YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/user/captionedforobama shortly, with subtitles added as they become available. Also posted at our main site (www.captionedmediaforobama.com)

Michael Novak

mnovak@tertia.us

www.captionedmediaforobama.com

President-Elect Obama's weekly addresses now available with captions!

Michael Novak — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 17:18:35 EST

Hello everyone,

As we look to see how to support the Obama administration, we have enhanced his weekly address with our unique karaoke captioning. We plan to expand our support of his administration as we go along as we explore how best to do that.

Also, if there are volunteers that would like to translate the weekly address into other languages, let us know. We'll produce his message in both languages so provide increased comprehension.

Go to these addresses to stay current:

Main Youtube channel: www.youtube.com/user/captionedforobama
Weekly addresses on YouTube: www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=0152CE7F16030E0D
Main Web Site: www.captionedmediaforobama.com/
High Quality weekly addresses: www.captionedmediaforobama.com/prez/index.html

So, look at these spots each week to see his short message. The main site provide iphone-compatible videos.

All the best,

Michael Novak

Site Administrator

Taking a breath, and continuing

Michael Novak — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 19:37:15 EST

Hi Everyone,

Well, we did it. Barack Obama will be the 44th President of the United States. It brings a sense of peacefulness that has been missing for many years (8 to be exact).

Now the job will be to help this man have the most successful administration in the history of the republic. By doing so, we will help to chart a course that is crucial to get out of the whole that has been dug for the country over the past 8 years. So look for our Captioned Media for Obama site (www.captionedmediaforobama.com) to continue to provide messages from President Obama in a way that the world-wide audience can understand and appreciate.

Get ready.

... Michael Novak

New Obama videos available in Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, and Captioned

Michael Novak — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 20:06:28 EDT

Hi everyone,

We just posted two videos that you might want to use. They are available both on our website at www.captionedmediaforobama.com, and also on Youtube Channel captionedforobama.

Dave Stewart's An American Prayer video is now available captioned, and with bilingual subtitles in Spanish, Traditional and Simplified Chinese, and Japanese. It's a great song by Dave. His main site for the song is at www.myamericanprayer.com
Barack's acceptance speech in Denver is now available with complete captioning. No translation yet, but just the captioning makes it much easier to understand for a lot of people.

If anyone wants to help with translation, we would love to have you contribute. I went to the opening of the San francisco offices for his campaign, and the level of energy was off the charts! So let's do what we can so that all voters can be reached by his message and leadership. All the best, Michael NovakCaptionedmediaforobama

Washington Post article today

Michael Novak — Wed, 14 May 2008 16:36:19 EDT

Hello everyone,

There is an article today in the Washington Post at

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/05/14/obams_international_following.html

talking about our "www.captionedmediaforobama.com" site. It refers to the mention of us at www.theworldwantsobama.org/.

Check out both URL's about how everyone wants Obama as President!

Regards,

Michael Novak

Correction on Arabic captioned version of Si Se Puede Cambiar video

Michael Novak — Tue, 13 May 2008 01:59:50 EDT

Hello again,

Sorry for the change, but the correct URL for the Arabic subtitled YouTube version of the Si Se Puede Cambiar music video in support of Barack is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsSXwDLOeRw

The video is by Andres Useche, and this is now the ninth language we've moved it to.

We've also posted a broadcast-formatted version of it on our main website www.captionedmediaforobama.com along with the iPhone, iPod, and Apple TV versions.

Enjoy,

Michael Novak

www.Captionedmediaforobama.com

Si Se Puede Cambiar song for Barack now with Arabic Subtitles!

Michael Novak — Mon, 12 May 2008 12:57:20 EDT

Hello everyone,
I'm pleased to announce that our first Obama video with Arabic subtitles is now available on YouTube at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FE4EOJQ6NUM
and in higher resolution versions at our main website at www.captionedmediaforobama.com if you have Quicktime on your computer.

It is a song by Andres Ushche in Spanish, with English and Arabic subtitles. Please take a look.

We hope to have more of his videos moved into Arabic subtitles, as we find translators willing to do the translation. If any of you would like to volunteer, we can send you the master captioned files for translation. Please send me an email if you are interested.
Please enjoy this short song, and let us know what you think.

Regards,

Michael Novak

michael.novak@captionedmediaforobama.com
www.captionedmediaforobama.com

Obama's videos have been captioned for the North Carolina speech

Michael Novak — Fri, 09 May 2008 12:52:42 EDT

Hello everyone,

Barack's speech given after the North Carolina primary has been captioned, and is now on Youtube, and later today will also be on our main website.

You can see them

on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/my_playlists?p=3FB04FF5A28BB9C3 , and
later today on our main site media page at www.captionedmediaforobama.com/media.html

On to the Convention and November!

... Michael Novak

Captioned Media for Obama

Si Se Puede music video moved to German and Chinese

Michael Novak — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 07:05:11 EDT

Hello everyone,

We moved Andres Useche's music video "Si Se Puede Cambiar" into German and Chinese, and also posted a multilingual version on our Media Matrix page. Go to www.captionedmediaforobama.com and check them out! They're also available in lower resolution on Youtube at our Youtube site at www.youtube.com/user/captionedforobama

The multilingual versions show all 8 languages on the same video!

... Michael

Barack interview on HARDBALL on MSNBC (captioned) available!

Michael Novak — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 15:43:36 EDT

Today we posted Barack's interview with Chris Matthews on HARDBALL from West Chester University on the internet, with open, karaoke-style captions for the 30 million US residents with hearing difficulty and 60 million US ESL residents.

It's available on the Internet at:

http://www.youtube.com/user/captionedforobama on YouTube or
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=791B2F5285708FA2 as a separate playlist with the videos that are just captioned in English, and
http://www.captionedmediaforobama.com/media.html in higher quality, in iPhone, iPod, and general Quicktime format.

The sites have more (and more recent) videos with captioning than the official site, and many videos are multilingual. Tell your friends ESL and hearing impaired!

Regards,

Michael Novak

Barack's "A More Perfect Union" speech available with bilingual subtitles - Español and English

Michael Novak — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 01:19:12 EDT

Hello everyone,

We just posted a bilingual version of Barack "A More Perfect Union" with Spanish and English karaoke subtitles. They're available on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=5F3759C95867BF77 and high definition versions are available at www.captionedmediaforobama.com/media.html.

We'll have Bill Richardson's speech in Spanish available in the next day or two at these two locations.

You'll need Quicktime for the high definition versions.

Enjoy!

Michael Novak

www.captionedmediaforobama.com

Better You Tube presence established

Michael Novak — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 14:33:43 EDT

Over the past few days we have established a better presence on YouTube with a better site at http://www.youtube.com/user/captionedforobama. It's a better link to our main site at www.captionedmediaforobama.com. Send us any feedback on YouTube or main web site.

captionedmediaforobama group and website started

Michael Novak — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 20:04:09 EST

So, it's the day after the Texas and Ohio results. We're launching the group captionedmediaforobama within the Obama system, and captionedmediaforobama.com on the web. It will take a week or so to have it up, but in this election the ability to reach second language speakers is really important. So we'll do what we can to support his message to everyone.

Initial thoughts

Michael Novak — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 11:54:39 EST

Well now, here is the first posting for this blog. I starting this because I believe that this is an extremely important election, that Barack is the best candidate, and that i can have an impact on the results of the election. I also believe that this is the first election that will be determined by the non English-native speaking voters in the US, and will require different communications approaches than in the past.

I'm also aware that there is a need to support a national communications capability around a common language, which is English. However, there is a second important element. In this century it will also be important that Americans all become bilingual in order to stay competitive. There is a variety of research that supports this position, the best of which is a document funded by the British Council titled "English Next". They mention that in this century most people will acquire the ability to communicate in some form of English, and indeed that English as spoken by second language speakers will become the dominant language globally. I'll cover that more later.

So my efforts for the duration of Barack's campaign will be to help in whatever way I can for his message to reach voters in the most effective language and method possible.

That's it for now. More later...

... Michael March 1, 2008