In Paris hat Lawrence Lessig letzte Woche die Keynote gehalten für den seltsamen Event rund um Sarkozy und das “demokratische” Web. Hier der Vortrag in der gewohnten Lessig-Art, also Slides der Präsentation plus seinen Vortrag aus dem off.

Google’s much lauded 2009 Super Bowl ad, “Parisian Love,” told a life story through Google searches. People’s search history can still reveal plenty, but it’s likely that today people are broadcasting more information through Facebook. In “A Life on Facebook,” one man’s story is told entirely through his Facebook wall. Watch the video after the click.

I posted a video on Friday demonstrating the internet’s power to celebrate feats of human awesomeness. And sure, that happens sometimes. But more often, the internet is the home to the concept of “FAIL,” where any time something goes wrong and there’s a video camera around, that failure is cataloged, viewed, and mocked endlessly. Check out one guy’s “Fail compilation” for the month of October. There are some injuries, and a little bit of foul language, but it’s hard to make it through the whole thing anyway.

Many viral videos that catch on seem somewhat mean-spirited, in a lauging-at-you kind of way. Witness the ur-viral “Star Wars Kid,” or Miss Teen South Carolina’s famously nonsensical answer. Every once in a while, one comes along that’s just a celebration of the fact that, you know what, people are awesome. Check out the montage of awesome people after the click.

When an ordinary person happens upon something extraordinary, what does he do? It used to be, if you wanted to take it public, you might go to your local news station. Today, it’s easy to imagine you just put it on YouTube, and if it’s truly amazing, people will see it. That’s probably not the case with this video, in which an excited man presents evidence of a time traveler using a cell phone in one of the shots of the 1928 Charlie Chaplin film “The Circus.” But regardless of the flimsiness of his case, the reaction is a testament to the medium–in the week since it’s been uploaded, almost half a million people have watched it. See for yourself after the click.

How do you know when the meme you started on YouTube has really started to take hold? You can probably be pretty sure when the president of the United States records a video for it. Sex columnist and gay rights activist Dan Savage put together a YouTube channel called “It Gets Better,” aimed at helping gay teens who are the target of bullying. It started with a handful of videos of people providing support and encouragement, and then a handful of celebrities like Ellen Degeneres and Neil Patrick Harris jumped in as well. And now it’s really gotten traction, with Obama releasing an official White House video for the channel. See Obama’s contribution, after the click.

Yesterday I posted a video featuring Jimmy McMillan of the The Rent Is Too Damn High Party putting in a stellar performance at the New York gubernatorial debate. I mentioned that it was being spread all over the internet like crazy. So I guess it shouldn’t be surprising that the remixes and mashups have started. Click through to see McMillan’s debate audio mashed-up with a scene from Pixar’s “Up.”

If you’re interested in crazy American politicians, this election season has been like Christmas in October. Christine O’Donnell, running to be in the U.S. Senate, is the object of attention on the national platform right now, but there have also been plenty of stars at the local and state level. Jimmy McMillan, of the “The Rent Is Too Damn High” Party, made quite an impression at a recent debate for the position of Governor of New York. And while once the gubernatorial election debates were the exclusive territory of New York politicos, now performances like this can spread like wildfire through the dry underbrush of the internet. Watch an inspired political moment, after the click.

It’s always a little strange when characters from the internet–especially the accidental heroes of viral videos–mingle in the real world. Some, like the Star Wars Kid, reject the attention, while others seem to lap it up. For an example of the latter, see Antoine Dodson performing the “Bed Intruder Song,” live at the BET awards. See the video after the click!

You’ve got to hand it to the Simpsons. It takes guts to ask one of the most irreverent and biting artists around to make the intro for your Fox show, and even more guts to actually animate and air the thing. The famous British street artist Banksy storyboarded the animated intro for this week’s episode, and it looks like he didn’t pull any punches. Watch the full intro after the click!

Papercraft, the art of folding and cutting paper to create 3d shapes, is a prominent part of the online DIY and “Maker” culture. Rarely is it so well-done and mesmerizing as in this animated piece which appears to be cut out of a single book. Catch the video after the click.

ince this video’s release a few days ago, it’s come to light that the man here isn’t actually homeless. But even though the implied story here is a bit fictional, it’s still captured the imagination of hundreds of thousands of people passing it around–plus, it’s a great performance. You can watch the video after the click!

Donald Duck meets Glenn Beck in this clever mashup. Video from dozens of Donald Duck cartoons and audio from American right wing radio and television host Glenn Beck’s programs make up a cohesive narrative about the duck’s struggles in this recession. See the video after the click!

Let’s face it: social media strategy can be a hard thing to wrap one’s head around. But if you want to take it to the next level–with your company, your project, or yourself–you’ve got to have it together. Check out these (not very) serious tips on how to get a bajillion hits from social media guru Alex Blagg. See the video after the click.

Today, if all goes according to plan, the Blender Foundation releases their latest animated short, “Sintel,” free on the internet. This release is remarkable because Blender, the software they use and help develop, is a free competitor to the hyper-expensive animation suites in popular usage, and because the team is extremely international and collaborates remotely. That and their films are always released for free download! Click through for the trailer to Sintel, and keep an eye on their page for the full release.

A few weeks back, Cee-Lo came out with a catchy song whose title was vulgar enough that it couldn’t be played on American radio. (It wasn’t even close.) But the internet picked up the song and loved it–if you still haven’t seen it, Google will help you find it–and now we get to see great projects like this one: a chiptuned version of the track with re-written lyrics all displayed on an NES intro screen. Fantastic. See the video after the jump.

Now that Firefox is a giant in the browser world and the Mozilla Foundation is one of the leading defenders of the open web, it’s easy to forget how creative–and disruptive–their projects have always been. Many of the innovations developed for early Firefox builds are now universally standard on every browser. Their entry into the mobile space has so far been just a browser, and while they’re not actually looking into building hardware, their incredible ideas for what the phone of the future could be are pretty cool to see. See the video after the click.

As all of the Mülltrenners know, it’s the little things that can make a big difference in the environment. This video is a demo for the “Greenbox,” another such thing: but this little change could be a big improvement in pizza box technology. See the video after the click.

‘Green Box’ Product Promo (Pizza Box) from Green Box on Vimeo.

In the popular first installment of his new web series Everything is a Remix, New York filmmaker Kirby Ferguson looks at culture as remix, focusing particularly on music and Led Zeppelin as remixers. This episode is only about 6 minutes of video, and the next one should come out around the end of the year. See the video after the click.

Everything is a Remix from Kirby Ferguson on Vimeo.

As gadgets get smaller and smaller, why wouldn’t we expect them to end up in our wallets? Mashable got a demo of the Dynamics credit card that has hidden numbers and a rewritable magnetic strip.

Even if you’re not familiar with Minecraft — and for the record, it’s a popular and independent low-fi bare-bones sandbox game that’s got rabid fans making an encyclopedia, a forum, and obviously videos — watching this guy accidentally burn his house down is quite entertaining.

OKGO, the long-time kings of the viral music video are back at it again with their new song “White Knuckles.” Maybe they felt the Gregory Brothers breathing down their necks, because they really pulled out all the stops this time; long, complicated, single-shot music videos are great on their own, but add adorable and amazingly well-behaved dogs, and you’ve got yourself a sensation.

There are a lot of bad words in here, so it’s probably NSFW. Unusual weather rocked New York City on Friday, dramatically culminating in a tornado tearing through Brooklyn. Yes, really. Fortunately, these two Brooklyn hipsters were on the scene with their video camera, and their running commentary has quickly elevated this video to the status of double-rainbow for extreme weather. No “What does it mean?” moment, but watch for “Dude, look at it, it’s funneling!”

Our hero, Amarillo resident Jacob Isom, rescues a Quran from being burned by Christian fundamentalists, and his reaction is immortalized in the form of song. It’s not the best example of an interview from the local news being autotuned into a viral video—that honor belongs, of course, to the Bed Intruder Song—but there’s something so sympatisch about this (very goofy) guy’s selflessness that makes him fascinating to watch.

Yesterday’s round of primaries mean that the American (midterm) election season is really upon us. A record high dissatisfaction with the incumbents has cleared the path for all kinds of crazy people to run and get real attention. Phil Davison, running for Stark County Treasurer, is no disappointment on that front.