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WhoseTube?Nick Douglas takes readers' questions about the impact of YouTube.


Posted Thursday, July 19, 2007, at 3:58 PM ET

Slate contributor Nick Douglas was online at Washingtonpost.com on Thursday, July 19 to discuss the impact of YouTube and the world of online video. An unedited transcript of the chat follows.

Nick Douglas: Good afternoon. We got a lot of good questions in reply to my article about YouTube's dominance and its potential to cripple the art form of online video. I'll just jump in and answer some questions that have already been asked.

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McPherson Square, D.C.: Do you think our presidential candidates have used YouTube well? How could they use it better?

Nick Douglas: YouTube has taken great initiative with the presidential campaign, heavily promoting campaign material, which so far seems more positive than TV ads. But the real way to use YouTube would be publishing more candid campaign moments. We live in a scary post-Macaca world! Candidates should embrace constant video coverage and learn constant integrity, not the same polish from TV as applied to YouTube.

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Anaheim, Calif.: You mentioned Eraserhead at the last part ... is that the band from the Philippines?

Thanks.

Nick Douglas: That's the classic David Lynch film that would confuse most YouTube users. A confused YouTube user is like a normal one with more 1s at the end of their string of !s.

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Leesburg, Va.: Operator11 appears to have the gumption and cajones to take on YouTube, particularly in the area of star creation. Would you expect to see someone or a cadre of players of a "Brookers" level break out from Operator11?

Nick Douglas: Probably not at the level of Brookers (a YouTube star who gained fame with a video called "Crazed Numa Fan"). It's harder every month to rise from obscurity online. EVERYONE knows Star Wars Kid; fewer know Gary Brolsma, the Numa Numa guy. The biggest YouTube stars are less known than Gary. As the world of online video expands, it becomes harder for any one person to capture the entire public attention. I'm willing to bet at least half of the people reading this have never seen a Brookers video. And Operator11, a streaming site, is competing with Stickam, Ustream, BlogTV, and Justin.tv. O11 doesn't have the competitive advantages YouTube made for itself by adding flash video capability. I don't see what sets O11 apart from its competitors.

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From: The Fray: Should I trust the guy who wrote "Why YouTube Is About To Die" just 3 months before Google bought them for $1.6 billion?

I'm not sure why Nick has always seemed to have a beef with YouTube. The article smacks of elitism, rather than insightful criticism. In all forms of media, the most popular stuff is not necessarily the most critically acclaimed. That's just the way it is. With the advent of YouTube, it's never been easier to put out your own videos. And it's never been easier to find your audience. That's a good thing.

And if you think your stuff is too good to sit with the unwashed masses at YouTube, you can always publish elsewhere and settle for the smaller audience. If it's that good, someone will probably just rip it and stick it on YouTube anyway.

Nick Douglas: This was a good criticism. I made a huge mistake predicting YouTube's fall (in a Valleywag article in 2006). Let me assure you that I believe the world is better off with the innovation of embeddable flash video than it would be without, and we can largely credit YouTube for this. There is a lot of high-quality content on YouTube. The problem is drawing enough attention to it by eschewing "Top Videos" lists. Competitor Vimeo.com has no such top list, and instead concentrates on helping people "discover" videos. I've used the site for several months after leaving it over a year ago; I'm amazed by the quality level there. There are crap videos on Vimeo, but you just NEVER RUN INTO THEM. As opposed to YouTube, where they take over.

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West Side, California: The reason why Youtube is #1 in video sites is because of exposure, hype, and market placement. All the major media outlets pull video from youtube (good or bad), and social networking/blog sites pull from youtube as well.

But this is not a bad thing. Rather, I think Youtube's competitors should see this as a good thing. With the bulk of the traffic hitting youtube, so does the bulk of the lawsuits and bandwidth traffic. Smaller video sites can take advantage of this time to update their software, provide services Youtube cannot, and boost their bandwidth. Then they can go big like youtube did without the constant glitches or legalese.

It also should be noted that Youtube makes content produces and the pirate community made by pulling videos off to please corporate lawyers. But other sites don't care as much or at all, and neither do the lawyers.

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Nick Douglas was the founding editor of Valleywag.com, to which he still contributes. He videoblogs at Lookshiny.com and is writing a sitcom about a San Francisco startup.
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