YouTube starts fed portal

YouTube announced last week that it has launched an official U.S. government channel with the General Services Administration that aggregates videos from the White House, NASA, the State Department and a host of other federal agencies.

The State Department site shows how to apply for a new passport, while NASA provides videos from the shuttle launch, and the White House posts weekly addresses from President Obama, as well as other information.

YouTube, owned by Google, is using a video player that complies with government privacy regulations. The channel now has more than 200 videos.

"We've seen a lot of interaction between citizens and the federal government on YouTube, and we're proud to launch this new channel with the GSA to make it even easier," said Steve Grove, head of news and politics at YouTube. "This is a great development toward making our government more open, transparent, and accessible to the people."

For more on the government and YouTube:
- see this Information Week article