Sam Knowlton

But if we look at today, what does YouTube have that KUJH doesn’t? Well, 63 million users per day, for starters.

I love KUJH and I love channel 31, but seriously, we don’t have 63 million viewers. I’d be surprised if we have 63.

I’m the first to admit that beyond YouTube’s massive audience, there’s little that YouTube has in terms of functionality that we can’t do. Rating, comments, cross-linking — these are all functionalities that we can add. But you know what? YouTube already has them up and running.

And there’s that whole unlimited server space, nothing-will-ever-be-deleted aspect.

If I learned one thing this summer, it is not to reinvent the wheel. The more we can use resources and tools that already exist, the more quickly and feasibly we can implement our dreams for KUJH.

Example: Taking KUJH to YouTube was a change that went from idea to execution in three days. A Friday-night conversation became a reality by the following Tuesday afternoon.

How long would it take us even to implement comments on the tv.ku.edu site? I have no idea—but I’ll bet the house that it would take more than three days.

If and when KUJH takes a turn toward trying to make money, maybe there would be more to lose by posting content to YouTube. But even then, that’d be a serious discussion.

But I’ll be long gone by then. And counting the days until we crack open the K-You-JH time capsule.