“YouTube co-founder Steve Chen has confirmed that the service will use Google’s vast resources to launch live streaming functionality this year, according to a video interview on Sarah Meyer’s new show Pop17.”

This is definitely a story to keep an eye on. With YouTube slated to enter the rapidly crowding live streaming niche later this year, currently populated by the likes of Yahoo! Live and Ustream.tv, the field is going to top out extremely quickly and will give new players virtually no chance to compete.

As I discussed earlier this month, the demands of a live streaming service are extensive and can require a substantial amount of hardware to support adequately. Yahoo showed us all the downside of under-resourcing when their inaugural launch caved under the pressure.

The RWW article did not go into much detail on the specifics, so very few conclusions can be drawn based on the information currently available. Nonetheless, YouTube Live Streaming does seem to be on the cards for this year. And if anyone has the resources to make this live streaming work on a vast scale, it’s them.

Update: TechCrunch just posted about this as well (Confirmed: Live Video On YouTube This Year“), and their entry is worth a look as it outlines the current applications in the live streaming field.

References:

• “YouTube Launching Live Video This Year, Chen Confirms“, Read/Write/Web, 28 February 2008
• “Yahoo! Live and Ustream.TV“, Tech Ticker, 9 February 2008
• “Confirmed: Live Video On YouTube This Year“, TechCrunch, 29 February 2008

“The United Nations is going green in an appropriate manner for its Climate Summit, which is being nicknamed the Virtual Bali Conference due to its green efforts–the organization will be streaming the Climate Summit live, beginning tomorrow and through December 14th. This is part of the United Nations’ efforts to emphasize the importance of the global plight by encouraging participants to view the conference online instead of flying in for the events.”

I’m seriously impressed with the web presence the UN has put together for this conference. It’s a stunning example of how social software and so-called Web 2.0 technology can be used to engage your audience. It not only delivers content, but encourages active participation as well.

They’ve got a media channel set up courtesy of Ustream.tv, which will stream the conference live between December 3rd and 14th. Additionally, their Ustream.tv page – http://www.ustream.tv/channel/virtual-bali -features not only the video component but a chat tool as well, meaning viewers can both watch and discuss the content as it happens.

Furthermore not only that, the tools can be embedded in any website or blog via a simple code snippet – much like YouTube. This expands the potential audience of the information exponentially and will hopefully prove an extremely effective way of maximising the impact of the proceedings.

The UN Climate Change Conference also has an official blog at http://www.un.org/climatechange/blog/index.asp