online video

Transmission Asia-Pacific (TX-AP) : Media Activists from the Asia Pacific gather in Indonesia

2008-05-13T20:44:44+01:00

Video makers, media activists, software developers and artists from 15 countries across the Asia-Pacific will be gathering in Sukabumi, West Java from May 19-25 for an online video skills camp. The goal of the camp is to bring together open source software programmers, video makers and media activists to develop the strategic use of online video distribution for social justice and media democracy.

TX-AP is a joint initiative between media activists in Australia and Indonesia. It is organised collaboratively by EngageMedia (Australia), a video sharing website and free software development, training and networking project and Ruangrupa (Indonesia) a non-profit artist initiative supporting the development of art in the cultural context through events, exhibitions, research and documentation. 50 specially invited media activists and artists will be coming to Indonesia to attend the workshop and share their skills and ideas.

The camp will provide a unique opportunity for artists, video makers, software developers and activists to collaborate and share skills in a global context where on-line video communication skills have become an increasingly important strategy for activists.

Read more for details or visit http://transmission.cc/txap

Andrew Lowenthal of EngageMedia explained "Transmission Asia-Pacific will be a unique face to face meeting between video makers and open source software developers to shape open source online video sharing applications and their strategic use for social aims". He went on to explain "free and open source makes sense for organisations with limited means, both from a strictly economic point of view and also as part of their overall strategic aims, as the system of open collaboration and sharing that free software is based on has a natural philosophical fit with organisations working on environmental or social justice issues".

Participants will attend from around the region, for example participants from from Hong Kong making videos about communities resisting gentrification and over development of urban areas in Hong Kong and China. This group puts video cameras into the hands of those most affected by these policies and then helps them edit and share their work on-line. Projects such as these increase the communication rights of marginalized and displaced peoples allowing them to articulate their concerns to a wider public.

Another media activist from India has been using on-line media distribution to raise awareness of censorship of diverse sexualities in mainstream Indian media outlets. They have produced a satirical and humorous look at queer moments from Bollywood films to draw attention to the marginalisation of these voices within Indian society.

Transmission Asia-Pacific is the 4th in a series of events bringing together video activists and web developers. Previous events have occurred in Rome, London and Amsterdam.

For media access to the camp, stories of individual participants and topics of discussion at the event please contact:

Andrew Lowenthal (EngageMedia): +61 439 093 779 (Australia)
+6281319339823 (Indonesia) http://engagemedia.org

Mirwan Andan (Ruangrupa): +62 813 1924 2965 http://ruangrupa.org

For more information on the workshop: http://transmission.cc/txap

Transmission Asia-Pacific is supported by Hivos and the Open Society Institute

Videodefunct

2008-02-19T09:04:39+00:00

Videodefunct is an experimental research project that focuses on inventing a hybrid vlog. A number of work-in-progress prototypes are being developed in the open source blog publishing system WordPress. A key objective is to design an interactive interface that explores the presentation of online video from a poetic perspective. Videodefunct is being developed by the collective of Keith Deverell, Seth Keen and David Wolf in the School of Applied Communication at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia.

info from the Videodefunct About page @ http://www.videodefunct.net/

Seth Keen from Videovortex explained the system on the videoblogging group mail list

Thanks Jay for the post on the videodefunct project.

The project certainly has been influenced by Adrian Miles work with vogs and his writing on softvideography http://vogmae.net.au/drupal/
thinking/softvideo03 and the VD collective are similarily interested in exploring video on the Internet moving beyond being single-channel and linear like a version of TV and Cinema on the web.

As you mention VD simply breaks down what would normally be a larger linear video into smaller granular clips, that are tagged and
categorised on posting into the vlog. The user then uses this metadata to reassemble these clips in a customised player attached to
the vlog as a page. In the end the vlog becomes a larger thematic video work made up of a bunch of smaller clips.

In Adrian's rhizomes http://vogmae.net.au/drupal/doing/rhizome I think a similar type of interactivity and granularity occurs where
Quicktime in this case is used as a container to bring in a number of varying content types in varying order. Rhizomes in a way are
configured in a variety of ways to display this content like the customized player page in VD. Both often explore video being displayed simultaneously in more than one frame. (multi-channel)

As you mention we are planning a release of VD as an application / platform after a bit more development and content testing. i.e We
will have it working cross-platform in IE soon. In the meantime we are very open to feedback and questions.

Some more links to follow up on the project:

PROTOTYPES – (Please note QuickTime 7.3.1, Firefox browser 2.0.0.9 or later required for viewing.)

http://www.videodefunct.net/banter/ The Banter prototype is an ongoing audiovisual report on the videodefunct project that provides critique and background details on the system. This example begins to show how interviews can be sliced up and re-assembled.

http://www.videodefunct.net/pedestrian/ Pedestrian (first prototype)
http://www.videodefunct.net/theInvertedPedestrian/ The Inverted Pedestrian
http://www.videodefunct.net/theDrunkenTruth/ The Drunken Truth

VD collective blogs:
Keith Deverell - http://greyspace.com.au/blog/
Seth Keen - http://www.sethkeen.net/blog/
David Wolf - http://dpwolf.net/blog/

David Wolf' s exegesis - Vidgets: The Development and Use of
Interactive, Network Based Video Works - http://dpwolf.net/blog/2007/12/ma-exegesis-now-online/

Blogged notes:

http://www.sethkeen.net/blog/2008/01/30/hammering-vlogs/ - on showinabox as part of the hammering vlog workshop in Amsterdam - differences to VD approach...

http://www.sethkeen.net/blog/2008/02/06/videodefunct-notes/ - videodefucnt notes - tagging

http://www.sethkeen.net/blog/2007/11/06/plain-vanilla/ plain vanilla post on pedestrian prototype
Presentation 1# post - http://www.sethkeen.net/blog/2007/06/01/videodefunct-presentation-1/

ACTV

2008-01-26T21:59:39+00:00

ACTV is an independent Internet television channel that aims to provide a platform for voices, perspectives, and opinions unrepresented by the commercial media; to keep abreast of environmental and social issues; and to broadcast independent cultural events, music, and arts to audiences in Israel and around the world.

ACTV broadcasts video films on demand (VOD). It currently hosts hundreds of films and short features.

ACTV does not simply stand on the sidelines and observe reality: It consciously aspires to deal with a range of social and environmental issues from a system of values that seeks to express what is of benefit to local people, regardless of their race, gender, and religion.

ACTV was constructed and is supported by Media ACTV - which aims to achieve social change through the media - by other NGOs and grass roots organizations, and through the generosity of private donors and supporters who wish for these voices to be heard.

Semanal project - create & post a video once a week in 2008

2008-01-02T23:58:03+00:00

Last November I took part in NaVloPoMo - videoblog posting month. it was a lot of fun and was a good way to remember to do something creative in between working. I know a lot of people can't help but be creative all the time, but I find sometimes I get so tired from work that I become passive and tend to watch more than do. so this was a good reminder to get into the habit.

in 2008, Semanal is happening - similar to NaVloPoMo but posting one video a week instead of one each day. this is much more manageable for me at least as I can usually make one on the weekend. the hardest part then becomes finding time to watch everyone else's videos!

http://semanal.ning.com/ is the Semanal site - a worpress blog is also being setup (I'll post the link here also once available). usually people post their videos to their usual video hosting site (eg blip.tv, youtube, archive.org etc) and their blog if they have one, and also post a link / embedded version to the Semanal site. this time you can post to the wordpress site blog also, which will have an RSS feed so you can easily watch the other contributors videos (or watch them directly on the blog site as I tend to do)

I'd love to see more Australian videos there from friends and creative people I know / know of! they can be any type of videos - personal, talking to the camera, gig videos, shows, interviews, arty & experimental, generative, computer generated, Second Life video - whatever you'd like to do. there's a mixture of beginners and more established video producers, so everyone is welcome. sometimes someone picks a theme and people use that, other times they do what they like. you can use your phone camera, happy snap portable camera, webcam, HD / professional camera, or even do remixes of archive.org or other existing footage - whatever suits you. it's a good way to practice different techniques and see what is in the imagination of others too, and even just a good way to learn a new skill such as web video and/or software / video editing techniques. the community for the project is great too - very supportive!

from http://semanal.ning.com/ :
"Every week in 2008, we're posting videos. 52 videos by the end of the year. Post on your blog, on Seesmic, Facebook, YouTube, whatever, wherever and however. You can do anything you want. As long as it moves."

Rupert explains the term Semanal chosen for the project :
"Semanal is Spanish and Portuguese for 'weekly'. And I think it has a nice echo of the English word Seminal, defined here as:
"Highly influential in an original way; constituting or providing a basis for further development: a seminal idea in the creation of a new theory."
and at Wikipedia as: "a work from which other works grow... an intellectual or artistic achievement whose ideas and techniques have been adopted or responded to in later works by other people"

hope to see your videos there!

online video editing sites

2007-08-21T21:50:21+01:00

online video editing sites

Andrew Garton's posted a question asking for recommendations for online video editing systems. I did a quick google search & asked on the videoblogging list. making a list below (& replied to his post) for reference :

---

found these ones.. though haven’t tried them. though I think I’ll have a play and see how some work.

http://www.jaycut.com/
a review here : http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/jaycut_online_video_editor.php
& the same guy reviewed a few online video apps : http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/video_editing_20_8_ways_to_remix_vi... where he lists a few (the ones u’ve listed plus more)

motionbox (http://www.motionbox.com/)
http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/04/02/motionbox-best-online-video-sharing... has a review with links to some others.

(from comments & googl & reviews)
Tubeloader
videoegg (http://www.videoegg.com/)
Bubbleply
grouper (www.grouper.com)

I asked on the videoblogging list, so hopefully some of the guys there will have some ideas. will post more if I come across some.

(http://toonamation.com/ & toonit sound cool - probably not what you’re after though!)

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2124596,00.asp has a comparison chart for Cuts, Eyespot, JumpCut, Motionbox, One True Media. page back for fuller articles on each.

O'Reilly's site has a notice about Adobe's Photobucket coming soon (seems to be for pro users)
http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2007/02/photobucket_to.html

US Congressional Future of Video Hearing - videos on youtube

2007-05-12T14:30:29+01:00

YouTube CEO Chad Hurley is being questioned at the US Congressional Future of Video Hearing - Box Elder has posted videos from the Hearing on The 463 - Inside Tech Policy blog.. let's see what the outcome will be..
There's also videos about Net Neutrality also

The second edition of the Streaming Festival ended on the 28th of October 2007.

2006-11-27T00:14:00+00:00

The second edition of the Streaming Festival ended on the 28th of October 2007.
The festival broadcasted four programs; documentary, fiction, animation and art plus three special programs.
Composed by the KAN festival was a special program presenting a select number of films including films from Agnieszka Smoczynska, Anna Maszczynska and Anna Pankiewicz.
CultureTV brought a special program with selected international video art works. Including works from Pipilotti Rist, Grimanesa Amoros, Gaelle Denis and Bathtime in Clerkenwell by Alex Budovsky.
Visit : www.culturetv.tv
Isfth broadcasted in a special program films from James Harvey, The City of Photographers by Sebastian Moreno and four recent works from Dré Didderiëns www dredidderiens nl. This program was curated by Mak Kapetanovic.
We screened 18 hours of independent films from more than 100 filmmakers from over 20 different countries. The Festival was proud to present these films and their makers to you.