Using YouTube as a Flash Server for Screencasts made with Screenflow

This morning I was working with a faculty member on using the Group Discussion Tool for peer review and turning-in assignments.

In showing her how to use the Groups Tool with the Groups Discussion Board I recorded my screen using Screenflow.  The idea is that the faculty member will be able to refer to the screencast to help her do this on her own, and it did not take anymore time to capture the operation as I was showing her anyway.  (Yes...it is better to have the person you are training to the process themselves....).

Anyway..the issue is that the faculty member is a PC person. 

I do have concerns of them always able to view a *.mov file that Screenflow creates - as well as the issue of bandwidth if they are watching the screencast from home. 

http://media.dartmouth.edu/~blackboard/screencasts/Group_Discussion.mov

I could have recorded with Jing - but I wanted to have some more control and have the video window.

So what you see below is the YouTube version of this screencast.   

Would be curious about your thoughts on using YouTube as a flash server. 

The advantages I see are:

• Going down this route provides a publishing option for more people in our community (faculty/students) as YouTube accepts many file formats and this would relieve us of the burden of having to provide a video publishing area and permissions for user generated content (like voice-over presentations, screencasts etc.).
• The flash format is cross-browser, cross-platform.
• YouTube gives up embed code - which is nice for Blackboard.
• Publishing "how to" screencasts on YouTube makes these screencasts available to the wider world in education.  We are contributing to the "commons" - with the idea that the more institutions/people who do this the more material we will have available to utilize in our own training and curriculum.

The disadvantages I see include:

• Concerns about putting our "brand" and content out there on YouTube in an uncontrolled manner.
• Cluttering the YouTube space with tons of material - material that can go out of date quickly - which will make it more difficult to find topical, relevant material.
• The quality is compromised (recommend viewing in "high definition") and the 10 minute time limit.
• Using YouTube as a publishing platform is more time consuming, as there is a delay in both uploading and encoding on the YouTube side.

Thoughts?