It’s no secret that YouTube is one of the phenomenal successes of the last year, doing for video what Flickr did for photos. While both services have become showcases for the Web 2.0 trend, rumors abound that they are being overburdened by expenses for disk space and bandwidth demands with no real revenue streams to pay for it.

But one interesting effect of a YouTube’s “commentable” video clips can be seen this graduation season. Many college commencement speakers, from even small institutions, have found their words captured for posterity and available via a click and easily embedded into blogs and other commentary. One particularly controversial case was the graduation speaker at the University of St. Thomas, MN, this year.

Someone put the video up at YouTube and has prompted lively discussion. Which got me to thinking – by this time next year, you can imagine not just a few dozen commencement speeches put online, but perhaps one for each and every college and university around the country. A “best of” reel of inspirational words of wisdom across academia would be quite interesting to assemble. And how about not just the US, why not other prestigious institutions around the world. So yes, YouTube has some possibilities beyond lip sync videos, pet bloopers, extreme stunts and teen pranks. And there may even be some money in it.