Spreading oral history

After yesterday's discussion in class, I thought about other ways of spreading oral history. I really liked Classen's sensitivity and self-awareness in his interviews with black Mississippians, but on the other hand I was still kind of unsatisfied because I don't know which parts of the interviews he left out etc. I agree that it's a good thing to give people a voice and let them tell their individual stories because the part of history Classen writes about in his book is part of their personal history and experiences.

When I looked for something interesting to write my blog about, I found this website: http://www.oralhistory.org/do-oral-history/

According to Donald Ritchie,

"An oral history interview generally consists of a well-prepared interviewer questioning an interviewee and recording their exchange in audio or video format. Recordings of the interview are transcribed, summarized, or indexed and then placed in a library or archives. These interviews may be used for research or excerpted in a publication, radio or video documentary, museum exhibition, dramatization or other form of public presentation. Recordings, transcripts, catalogs, photographs and related documentary materials can also be posted on the Internet."

This a very similar to the way Classen presents oral history in his book. I am sure that this is very useful, but what I miss is the idea of letting people tell the stories they really want to tell so they are more free and letting them share everything they want to share without any interviewer deleting parts of their stories and commenting on other parts in their books.

My vision would be a platform similar to youtube that everyone can use to share their memories. It could be organized in different time periods and topics so it's easier to find the stories one might be looking for, and there should be something like a comment-function to make a further discussion possible. I know that there is no completely accurate history, but I feel like this would be more authentic and honest.

Do you think such a platform would be useful?

Do you have other ideas about how to spread oral history?