YME's focus is on providing free media publishing tools through an online community of young media creators. Specific components include:

As of this writing, YME is in early stages of growth. One example of an idea that is in development, pending the securing of funding, is the creation of low-cost, location-based media stations for public authoring access. One of the partners (Art Center College of Design's Media Design Program) is in the process of establishing such a station in an effort to encourage expression, especially relating to the 2004 USA presidential election.

Youth, Youth Media Development, Independent Media Development, Technology.

Organisers explain that, while Internet access and storage is becoming less expensive and easier to come by in some places around the world, "it is still prohibitively difficult and costly to host video, to the point that very little of the media that could be available online is. This is particularly true in disadvantaged and/or non-English-speaking communities, and the Global South. In addition, what work there is online is not cross-referencable. There is a need and opportunity for a common effort to provide resources and tools that are otherwise out-of-reach for the many organizations that serve young media-makers worldwide."

Organisers claim that YME might be "scaleable to something really signficant, a global media ecosystem bigger than MTV...It is a replicable model that can be applied to numerous other areas that benefit from such an open media architecture (replace "youth" with "environmental" or whatever)." They are financing YME through "a grass-roots call for small donations, through Media Venture Collective...The partner organizations represent networks of literally hundreds of local organizations, so we should collectively be able to motivate a few thousand people to chip in $20 - $100."