User: Yaco/OpenVideo project
- This page contains information about Franco Iacomella aka yaco plan for FSF Internship work.
Intern background
Franco Iacomella studies and research in the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), in Argentina. He is focused in project design and visual communication; writing and reading about political designs. He is also involved in social and political projects related with public access to knowledge and cultural diversity.
He works in FLACSO (Latin American School of Social Sciences), is consultant for the Universitat Oberta of Catalunya (UOC), teaching in the Free Software Master Degree and is involved in the Free Technology Academy iniciative. He has been working in the "Free/Open Culture" field for the last 8 years, being a member-contributor of a big number of world wide known institutions, projects and initiatives like: GNU Project, Free Software Foundation Latin America, Free Software Foundation, Gleducar NGO, MIA, Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), Free Knowledge Institute, Open Web Foundation and others.
Work plan at FSF
Open File Formats: Open Video Campaign
About Open File Formats
Introduction to the Open Video Campaign
As video and communication technologies matures, we face a crossroads: will technology and public policy support a more participatory culture—one that encourages and enables free expression and broader cultural engagement? Or will online video become a glorified TV-on-demand service, a central part of a permissions-based culture? Video culture holds tremendous potential, but limits on broadband, playback technology, creation knowledge, and fair use threaten to undermine the ability of individuals to engage in dialogues in and around this new media ecosystem.
YouTube and other online video applications are rightly celebrated for empowering end-users; however, online video lacks some of the essential qualities that make text and images on the web such powerful tools for free speech and technical innovation. Email, blogs, and other staples of the open web rely on ubiquitous and interoperable technologies that have low barriers to entry; they are massively decentralized and resistant to censorship or regulation. Video, meanwhile, relies on centralized distribution and proprietary technologies which can threaten cultural discourse and innovation.
Open Video is about the legal and social norms surrounding video culture. It's the possibility to give to every person to use the video language to express itself. It's about the mediums to publish the different expressions and visions of the world. It’s the ability to attach the license of your choice to videos you publish. It’s about media consolidation, aggregation, and decentralization. It’s about cultural diversity. It's about giving the control of images and imagination back to people where creation, distribution and new ideas have no limit.
What is Open Video?
Open Video is a broad based movement of video creators, technologists, academics, filmmakers, entrepreneurs, activists, remixers, and many others. When most folks think of “open,” they think of open source and open codecs. They’re right—but there’s more to Open Video than open codecs. Open Video is the growing movement for transparency, interoperability, and further decentralization in online video. These qualities provide more fertile ground for independent producers, bottom-up innovation, and greater protection for free speech online.
The Open Video Alliance defines the Open Video in the following way:
The Principles for an Open Video Ecosystem are a technical road map for a more decentralized, diverse, competitive, accessible, interoperable, and innovative future of video. We foresee more democratic, ubiquitous use of video—making it comparable to text and images today. The Principles cover the following topics:
- Authorship and Viewing — Video creation, editing, and playback tools should be ubiquitous, easy to use, accessible, and available in free and open source implementations
- Open Standards for Video — Video standards (formats, codecs, metadata, etc.) should be open, interoperable, and royalty free
- Open Distribution — Software platforms should support open standards and open licenses. Networks must remain neutral.
- A Rich, Participatory Culture — Laws governing intellectual property must not discourage participatory culture. By default, video content must be available without technological barriers or access constraints.
- Civil Liberties and Basic Rights — People should have the right to participate in a democratic culture, the right to privacy, freedom of expression, freedom from censorship, non-limiting terms of service, and the right to self-distribution.
The OGG fight
What is OGG?
Ogg is a free, open standard container format maintained by the Xiph.Org Foundation. The creators of the Ogg format claim that it is unrestricted by software patents and is designed to provide for efficient streaming and manipulation of high quality digital multimedia.
The name ‘Ogg’ refers to the file format which can multiplex a number of separate independent free and open source codecs for audio, video, text (such as subtitles), and metadata.
Why it is important to support and promote OGG?
Holmes Ideas
- Finishing our own publishing workflow for ogg video
- Some improvements to audio-video.gnu.org to take advantage of HTML5
- Activist process for convincing big video sites to support Ogg.
- Email campaign to audio and video publishers to support Ogg / HTML5. Petitions to youtube and other sites, building a list of passionate supporters who can then persuade targets (large and small) to switch or take transitional steps.
- "Pre-roll" campaign... make a THX-style graphic for Ogg ("e.g. Free formats, where available") that can be included using javascript.
- Badges for sites that support Ogg/HTML5
- Discussion about publishing tools, start conversations about how to make posting Ogg/HTML5 easier.
- Get a few internet video ad companies on board with Ogg/HTML5 (not sure if FSF cares, but I personally think it's a big blocker).
