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DURHAM — “Think of it as Hulu, but where all of the material comes from Duke,” Michael Schoenfeld, Duke University’s vice president for public affairs and government relations said of the school’s new social media Web site.
Hulu.com is a popular Web site that offers streaming video of TV shows from NBC, Fox, and ABC.
The project, which has been in development for the past six months, draws videos posted by different departments and Duke community members on sites like YouTube and iTunes U together in a single place.
The Web site already is filled with panel discussions, question-and-answer sessions and major speaker lectures on topics from the ethics of organ donation to demonstrations of a next-generation cloaking device.
According to Schoenfeld, the site has about 2,000 videos now posted. However, it’s not a free-for-all. Videos that are submitted to the site have to be screened and approved before being uploaded to it.
“We want to get user-generated content, as well as more professionally produced content.” Schoenfeld explained.
And although Duke on Demand does have the ability to stream video live, Schoenfeld said that it’s much more complicated than posting videos of the events online after they’re over, and therefore probably won’t be used as much.
“This is just in the initial pilot stage,” explained Samantha Earp, a director of information technology at Duke, whose department helped bring Duke on Demand to life.
“We want to keep moving quickly in order to be leaders in this area,” Schoenfeld added.
To spark interest in Duke on Demand, Meg McKee, the project’s program coordinator, said that she plans on placing an ad in The Chronicle, Duke’s daily student-run newspaper, calling Duke’s numerous academic departments, and going to talk to different groups and administrators about the new web site.
“I think it’s a really good idea,” Stephanie Bazell, a Duke senior, said. “I know I would use it to seek out information.”
This article has been corrected to reflect Smantha Earp's job title.
