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

OGG Campaign - Free/Open video Campaign

As internet video 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? Web video holds tremendous potential, but limits on broadband, playback technology, and fair use threaten to undermine the ability of individuals to engage in dialogues in and around this new media ecosystem.

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 much more to Open Video. 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.

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 online video. 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 fair use. In short, it’s about a lot of things, and that’s why this conference is going to be so exciting!