Is It Right That Obama Is Using YouTube?
You heard that Obama was going to post fireside chats on YouTube, right? Well everyone did. (Except maybe for those people with wheels on their houses.)
When I first heard about that I was like “Yeah Obama’s a cool guy. He’s using the web and stuff.” But, then I questioned myself if he was doing the right thing when Allen Stern tweeted that he hated this whole thing.
First of all, it doesn’t look professional. Like c’mon, you’re the leader of a country and you’re going to use YouTube? A place filled with idiots, copyrighted videos, retarded video blogs and spam. He could instead post the videos on Change.gov or make a completely different site for this. Its not that hard to make a flash video player.
Second of all, isn’t this like taking YouTube to the next level? Aren’t they getting like an unfair advantage? Isn’t Obama killing all of YouTube’s competitors? Everyone (literally everyone) is going to use YouTube and no-one will give shit if there’s a better alternative out there. And think about all the new users/traffic YouTube is going to get.
So, what’s next? Bin Laden ranting on YouTube? International conferences being recorded live from webcams? Leaders of different nations pissing each other off by video blogging? Change…we got that. But, this? I’m not sure if this is a good kind of change.
Update: There’s a big discussion going on about this on Plurk. Some great points have been posted. Take a look.
15 November 2008 at 11:25 pm
I don’t approve of him siding a private company like that. I seriously doubt he will use Youtube, he’s made many wise decisions, I’m sure he’ll make another one.
And yes, using Youtube is a very unfair thing to do for other businesses that are competing with Youtube, don’t get me wrong, I love youtube (its the only place I go for vid searches).
Obama is the president of the free world. I’m sure he knows this… he needs to act like it, because he’ll be judged tougher than any other American Pres so far.
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15 November 2008 at 11:44 pm
Hey, it did help him win the election by appealing to the internet audience, though probably not by a whole lot (go ask Ron Paul). What’s wrong with that? Sure, a man of his power can hire a team to make his whole new owned website if he wants to vlog or something, just so he can look professional. This just means that Obama isn’t the kind of president that steps on people’s faces once he got what he needs from them, in this case gaining some e-popularity through the site.
With the logic and tone of your article, are you saying that because there are idiots on Youtube means you are one as well? It’s not like the real world don’t have idiots.
Youtube is mainstream on the internet. Deal with it. It’s good to hear that even the president recognizes this.
Here’s to you, Mr. Pessimistic Blogger.
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th13rteen Reply:
November 16th, 2008 at 12:02 am
Okay I get it that Obama doesn’t want to make a whole new site for his fireside chats. But, he can post it on Change.gov or Whitehouse.gov using one of many flash video players.
The thing is Obama is promoting YouTube. Its not fair. He’s indirectly killing the competition. We need competition. That’s what keeps products improving.
I’m not being pessimistic or anything. I’m just throwing this out there and listening to what you guys, my readers, have to say.
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ia Reply:
November 16th, 2008 at 11:47 am
But it is one Change.gov too! Why not hit two birds with one stone by taking advantage of capabilities of a mainstream video site to share videos with friends *and* embed it anywhere?
Of course, he can always open accounts at sites other than YouTube.
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th13rteen Reply:
November 16th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
Do you think people are gonna go to Change.gov to watch the videos? No. Everyone’s going to go to YouTube.
Embed and share videos, huh? Well they can easily make something from scratch that allows us to share the videos with our friends on different networks and embed it on your sites. Its not that hard.
If he really wants to use a video sharing site then he should open accounts on other sites like Viddler and Vimeo, and put the vids up there too. But, still it wouldn’t be fair because YouTube would still get the spotlight.