What is powering YouTube?

YouTube Architecture:

1. Apache
2. Python
3. Linux (SuSe)
4. MySQL
5. psyco, a dynamic python->C compiler
6. lighttpd for video instead of Apache

YouTube Platform:

Apache

Python

Linux

MySql

psyco, a dynamic python->C compiler

lighttpd for video instead of Apache

for more info on YouTube Architecture

If I can give you one advise: start small!

Large projects have the tendency to take a long time to finish. If you start small, you have some kind of proof of concept first. So you can extend it piece by piece.