the snowman's plight

["James J. O'Donnell" <jod@georgetown.edu>]

David Rosenthal had commented in his blog (blog.dshr.org) on my 
query about YouTube preservation.  I just posted the comment 
below there. In the meantime, I think the non-response to my 
initial question (who's preserving YouTube?) suggests that the 
issue has in fact not yet been addressed.

**********

David well outlines some of the issues that face preservation 
efforts, wherever they come from. Let me highlight one more.

YouTube is interested in page views and maximum number of page 
views and links through whatever video you happen to be looking 
at. Well and good, and good luck to them: if I enjoy seeing the 
stuff that attracts my attention, then I'm happy to play along 
with this, remembering Richard Lanham's work on *The Economics of 
Attention* in the process.

But the traditional library function recognizes the original 
commercial value of information objects *and* goes on to 
something else. Looking at 2007 YouTube 20 years from now doesn't 
play along with that original business plan, but has a historical 
and spectatorial purpose. Not, hey, what a cool snowman; but, 
hmm, and just why did snowmen become important icons in politics 
in 2007 and how were they used? The library function is one of a 
place where all sorts of originally commercial objects get used 
in ways that go beyond the business plan of the original 
producer.

Now, if we believe the long tail argument, then YouTube may have 
a business plan 20 years from now in keeping this old stuff 
around and accessible. Or perhaps not. The question for the 
snowman, poor abused snowman, would then be: do you feel lucky? 
If so, trust YouTube. But I think the snowman got on that screen 
because he wasn't feeling especially lucky, wasn't feeling that 
he can just trust the aggregate collection of economic impulses 
of his contemporaries to make things all work out for the good.

Jim O'Donnell
Georgetown