Professors and librarians have already come up with plenty of interesting uses for YouTube, and they’ll certainly have little trouble thinking up more. But is the site doing a good job of encouraging creative content? Nick Douglas, a video-blogger writing for Slate, thinks not.
The crux of Mr. Douglas’s argument is that YouTube traffics only in a particular kind of short-form video: While the site has done a remarkable job building up the infrastructure that allows people to watch videos on the Web, it has also created a number of barriers to entry. The site bans nonpornographic nudity, places a 10-minute limit on most uploads, and has a resistance (so far) to including live streams.
A question for academics who use (or have considered using) YouTube for teaching or scholarship: Is the site flexible enough to meet your needs? —Brock Read
