One element of online seminar provision the IHR are looking into is live streamed events. This is not something that happens often in academia at present but does offer the potential for interaction with the seminar in real time – something that pre-recorded podcasts can not achieve. The preliminary results from our survey (see previous posts) has suggested cautious interest in the idea (although the yes to no ratio is very much 50/50).
It is therefore interesting that the rumour mill is suggesting that YouTube might soon be entering the live stream market. See http://techcrunch.com/2010/06/03/youtube-live-stream/ for more details.
At present there are various services including UStream, TV-U, Justin TV and LiveStream.net that seem to be doing relatively well. All of which provide free (and pro versions) of their players. The introduction of the popular YouTube site into this market could well have repercussions for the popularity of live streaming in general. Something certainly worth keeping an eye on.