The YourTubeAdvocate channel is unique. The channel changes hands every month, from one YouTuber to another. The YourTubeAdvocate for any given month attempts to report any site updates to viewers, while also taking users' issues to YouTube. While not an official project, YouTube has, in the past, responded to numerous advocates' emails.
Picture the YourTubeAdvocate as somewhere between ambassador, senator, public relations person, and neighborhood watch.
It is sometimes difficult to contact YouTube staff, and most emails are responded to with automatically generated messages, which often do not really address the concern or issue you wrote in with. Other email responses point you to the Help Center (http://help.youtube.com/support/youtube/bin/static.py?page=start.cs&hl=en_US) (URL 8.18). Therefore, having the YourTubeAdvocate channel as one additional avenue to potentially reach YouTube is really helpful.
The channel was created by YouTuber JustA11en (www.youtube.com/JustA11en) (URL 8.19) and has changed hands more than a dozen times as of this writing (Figure 8-17). I held the position for the month of November 2007. During my one-month term, I made eight advocate videos, including one, which YouTube later featured, about celebrities like Oprah invading what we felt was our YouTube.
If you're looking to be more involved in the community, feel you could contribute educational or interesting videos for a solid month, and have invested a bit of time in your channel already, emailing the current YourTubeAdvocate and letting him or her know you're interested is a great first step. Even though the advocate position doesn't pay anything and you'll deal with more emails in one month than you have in the past year, it is a completely rewarding experience.