Government sites using YouTube

Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO) has advised government agencies of the risk in using You Tube. Potential issues surround copyright and trailer videos served to users based on similar keyword tags used to describe the video. The keyword associated videos which appear after the clip may include irrelevant, inappropriate and potentially offensive video clips. For example on the Premier of Victoria website which features a dedicated Channel for the Premier also dishes up parody videos mocking the governments transport strategy. The Victorian Premier's YouTube Channel



By submitting a YouTube video AGIMO warns the upload automatically grants a broad licence to YouTube and YouTube users to reproduce, distribute and prepare derivative works of and display the video. YouTube can use any submitted video in anyway they like whether it be commercial or non-commercial.

AGIMO also identified caution should be exercised when Intellectual Property (IP) issues are obvious. For third party IP any copyright owners (such as actors) must give permission to grant the YouTube licence and once granted it may extend to whatever is deemed ‘commercially reasonable’. According to the YouTube Terms of use, agencies loose control of their content once it is posted.

Accessibility issues are a prime consideration in the use of multimedia content on government websites. YouTube embedded players do not meet mandatory standards for Accessibility (i.e. no transcripts, subtitles etc).This is a significant issue for all government agencies and is an ongoing difficult issue. For example a visually impaired man recently lodged a formal Disability Discrimination Complaint with the Australian Human Rights Commission over the Tourism Queensland's Island Reef Job website. Although the site was not using You Tube he claimed the site used inaccessible colour contrast and non compliant coding to make it difficult for people using screen readers (which present websites as audio for blind people) to understand.



Government agencies need to consider a risk based decision in respect to their target audience and the accessibility requirements of that audience. There
is argument surrounding the ultimate responsibility with the use of YouTube as a video communication channel. It is not clear if accessibility is the responsibility of YouTube or the content owner, however if the information originates from the government, then agencies need to consider their own legislative obligations in making the material accessible and non-discriminatory. A legal precedent exists under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 because SOCOG failed to make their official website, Sydney Olympic Games, adequately accessible to blind users.

How to optimise your website

Pi's top 10 tips on "How to Optimise your website for search engines"

1. The Keywords tag - The first step is to choose the most suitable search terms for your site. Use keyword metatags to describe the words a visitor would use to find your site in a search engine like Google or Nine MSN.

2. The Description Tag a brief sentence description of the page. Some search engines also use the description to display a summary of the page.

3. Page Title Change tag to incorporate "Keywords" i.e. Search Engine Optimisation by Pi .

4. Insert Alt Tags on images to assist increasing the number of word matches to the search.

5. H tags are given more weight than ordinary text and, the bigger the H size, the more weight it receives. So include the target search term in H tags at least once on the page, and two or three times if possible. Also, place the first H tag as near to the top of the page as possible.

6. Bold text is given more weight than ordinary text but not as much as H tags. As much as is reasonable, enclose the search term in bold tags when it appears on the page.

7. Body Text: Include more keywords on the home page copy that describes to the visitor what your business does, think what words would a customer use to find you. Use the search term as often as you can on the page whilst not detracting from the page's readability. Make sure that you use the term once or twice very early in the page's body text and as often as possible throughout. Reword small parts, and even add sentences, to make sure that the search term is well represented in the text.

8. List your site in Google and DMOZ

9. Backlinks - Create Links to associated websites- inward and outbound from your site - The idea behind link popularity is that the more pages that link to a page, the more important the page is and it, therefore, deserves a higher ranking than it would otherwise have. It is not enough just to have a large number of backlinks, it is the quality of backlinks along with the quantity that help you rank better in Search Engines.

10. Make the site accessible for good search engine placement, as accessible sites are machine friendly, making it far easier for search engines to index the content. See our top 10 tips for accessibility.