The Video Storm is Here

I’ve been preparing for the video storm that has been approaching our campus for a few years now. The infrastructure part has been easy, bigger Internet pipe, video servers, disk arrays, file format and player strategies. We worked out security issues with VOD content from PBS and production issues by producing Chapel Podcasts. So we know how to do it, but should IT be the leader of this video explosion?

Last week our president returned from the NCAA meetings inspired by how many institutions are using YouTube for recruiting and marketing their programs. Combine that with our interviewing for a new VP of Marketing and we have final validation that video via your website is where we need to be. Now I’m fearfully aware that IT is the only group ready to manage all of these video production and distribution issues. Something tells me that this will be just like IT driving the early web and I have a feeling I will be just as happy to turn it over to Marketing when they are ready.

So survival mode probably leads me toward YouTube. Sure we will continue to enhance our VOD and iTunesU is growing rapidly. But YouTube will save us, because it just works and it defines acceptable quality. My strategy now will be to optimize Apple Leopard’s new Podcast Server so that I can automate as much of the postproduction work as possible. I just wish this video storm was not so large and moving so fast.