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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message -----
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title=dhalleck@ucsd.edu href="mailto:dhalleck@ucsd.edu">DeeDee Halleck</A>
</DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=discuss@transmission.cc
href="mailto:discuss@transmission.cc">discuss@transmission.cc</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Monday, July 09, 2007 1:35 AM</DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> [transmission-discuss] Sasha's take on political economy of
web 2.0</DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><BR class=Apple-interchange-newline>
<BLOCKQUOTE type="cite">
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT style="FONT: 12px Helvetica; COLOR: #000000"
face=Helvetica color=#000000 size=3><B>From: </B></FONT><FONT
style="FONT: 12px Helvetica" face=Helvetica size=3>Sasha Costanza-Chock <<A
href="mailto:schock@riseup.net">schock@riseup.net</A>></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT style="FONT: 12px Helvetica; COLOR: #000000"
face=Helvetica color=#000000 size=3><B>Date: </B></FONT><FONT
style="FONT: 12px Helvetica" face=Helvetica size=3>July 8, 2007 5:16:21 PM
EDT</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT style="FONT: 12px Helvetica; COLOR: #000000"
face=Helvetica color=#000000 size=3><B>To: </B></FONT><FONT
style="FONT: 12px Helvetica" face=Helvetica size=3><A
href="mailto:imc-video@lists.indymedia.org">imc-video@lists.indymedia.org</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT style="FONT: 12px Helvetica; COLOR: #000000"
face=Helvetica color=#000000 size=3><B>Subject: </B></FONT><FONT
style="FONT: 12px Helvetica" face=Helvetica size=3><B>[IMC-Video] political
economy of web 2.0</B></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT style="FONT: 12px Helvetica; COLOR: #000000"
face=Helvetica color=#000000 size=3><B>Reply-To: </B></FONT><FONT
style="FONT: 12px Helvetica" face=Helvetica size=3><A
href="mailto:schock@riseup.net">schock@riseup.net</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 14px; MARGIN: 0px"><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">Hi all, glad to see this discussion on the list,
alongside the much</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">needed CMS /functionality upgrade discussion.</DIV>
<DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 14px; MARGIN: 0px"><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">Some of my recent thoughts on the topic:</DIV>
<DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 14px; MARGIN: 0px"><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">(from notes on FilmForge development)</DIV>
<DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 14px; MARGIN: 0px"><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">Background: online video</DIV>
<DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 14px; MARGIN: 0px"><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">Online video sharing has been around since the early
days of the net,</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">but the community of people involved was at first
limited to those with</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">fast connections (until fairly recently, this meant
universities) and</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">folks with net skills more advanced than those of the
typical user. By</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">1999, the first dot com boom brought a flurry of
activity around web</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">video, but low rates of broadband penetration,
relatively small</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">distribution of digital video cameras, and relatively
poor user</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">interface design of web video sites limited its
successful</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">mainstreaming. The Indymedia network had early
success with video</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">coverage of major anticorporate globalization events
beginning in 1999,</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">but in fact the number of active video producers
remained a relative</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">handful (compared to much more widespread text,
photo, and audio</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">contributions). By 2003 more bloggers were
incorporating their own video</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">content, but it wasn't until 2006 that web video
exploded into popular</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">consciousness (read: sustained coverage in both
print, broadcast, cable,</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">and online mass media outlets) with the massive
popularity of YouTube.</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">Online video's status as a major arena for Web 2.0
investment was of</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">course cemented by Google's 1.6 billion dollar
acquisition of YouTube,</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">and the browser-based video upload and sharing space
quickly became</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">crowded with entrants. Some are simply YouTube
clones; others are</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">integrated into existing social network platforms
(MySpace video); some</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">offer additional functionality such as browser-based
editing</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">(jumpcut.com and EyeSpot.com); still others try to
attract</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">higher-quality material by sharing a cut of
advertising revenues with</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">the producers (revver.com, blip.tv).</DIV>
<DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 14px; MARGIN: 0px"><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">For the community of videomakers focused on human
rights documentation</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">and social movement mediamaking (the community I work
with most</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">closely), as well as for other public interest,
educational, and</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">nonprofit organizations, the rise of corporate
videosharing sites</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">presents both major opportunities and challenges. On
the one hand, such</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">communities of videomakers are now able to quickly
find vast audiences</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">that were previously inaccessible. On the other hand,
almost all of the</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">corporate video application service providers have
the following problems:</DIV>
<DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 14px; MARGIN: 0px"><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">1) Exploitation. Content producers in effect do free
labor for corporate</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">video sites by producing original content and
uploading it under terms</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">that allow these sites to exploit and profit from
their work,</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">perpetually, across both old and new media
distribution channels,</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">without ever paying a cent. 'Volunteer' content
producers also do the</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">work of promoting their videos across the net, thus
generating the</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">eyeballs key to video sites' advertising revenue.
(For example, see</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">YouTube's Terms of Service: "...by submitting User
Submissions to</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">YouTube, you hereby grant YouTube a worldwide,
non-exclusive,</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">royalty-free, sublicenseable and transferable license
to use, reproduce,</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and
perform the User</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">Submissions in connection with the YouTube Website
and YouTube's (and</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">its successors' and affiliates') business, including
without limitation</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">for promoting and redistributing part or all of the
YouTube Website (and</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">derivative works thereof) in any media formats and
through any media</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">channels..." [<A
href="http://youtube.com/t/terms]">http://youtube.com/t/terms]</A>).</DIV>
<DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 14px; MARGIN: 0px"><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">2) Free Speech. YouTube, and most corporate sites, in
general take</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">material down as soon as they are asked to do so by
either media firms</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">(for example, see the recent Businessweek article
"The YouTube</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">Police."[<A
href="http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_21/b4035060.htm?chan=technology_technology+index+page_best+of+the+magazine]">http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_21/b4035060.htm?chan=technology_technology+index+page_best+of+the+magazine]</A>)</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">or governments (for example, see the Turkish
government's takedown</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">requests against material critical of Ataturk</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">[<A
href="http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20070307/125734.shtml]">http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20070307/125734.shtml]</A>).</DIV>
<DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 14px; MARGIN: 0px"><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">3) Privacy. All corporate videosharing sites track
users' IP addresses,</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">which means that information about users is readily
available via</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">subpoenas by competing companies or law enforcement
agents. This</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">presents a problem most clearly in places where state
censorship of the</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">net is broad and penalties are severe (for example,
woe to the Chinese</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">video blogger who uploads a video clip of government
repression to a</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">corporate videosharing site, even using a pseudonym),
but also raises</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">real concerns for activist communities targeted by
the 'War on Terror'</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">(for example see the Electronic Frontier Foundation
case against the USG</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">in the 2004 Indymedia server subpoena and
seizure</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">[<A
href="http://www.eff.org/Censorship/Indymedia/]">http://www.eff.org/Censorship/Indymedia/]</A>).</DIV>
<DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 14px; MARGIN: 0px"><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">4) Access. All of the corporate videosharing sites
operate on</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">proprietary source code, which means that users are
unable to</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">participate in development of new functionality, and
most only allow</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">video viewing in low-quality flash format, making it
impossible for</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">other users to sample from, quote, or otherwise
creatively reuse the</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">source material.</DIV>
<DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 14px; MARGIN: 0px"><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">For these and other reasons, while YouTube and its
clones may be a good</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">way to get material seen, it is not a safe or long
term solution for</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">human rights videomakers, or for that matter for
anyone concerned with</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">exploitation, free speech, privacy, or access rights.
This critique is</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">elaborated further in a recent article published by
Mute magazine</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">[<A
href="http://www.metamute.org/en/InfoEnclosure-2.0]">http://www.metamute.org/en/InfoEnclosure-2.0]</A>.
Yet, moving beyond</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">critique, what other options do nonprofit,
educational, public interest,</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">and activist organizations have?</DIV>
<DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 14px; MARGIN: 0px"><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 14px; MARGIN: 0px"><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">The Alternatives</DIV>
<DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 14px; MARGIN: 0px"><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">Happily, the number, quality, and reach of nonprofit,
open source,</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">videosharing tools, hosts, and networks are all
steadily growing. Andy</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">Lowenthal has recently documented this in his
excellent article "Free</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">Media vs Free Beer"</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">[<A
href="http://engagemedia.org/Members/andrewl/news/freebeer/view]">http://engagemedia.org/Members/andrewl/news/freebeer/view]</A>.</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">Alternatives to for-profit, proprietary video sharing
sites include</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">videosharing spaces like archive.org, ourmedia.org,
and</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">video.indymedia.org. These sites don't exploit
producers' content for</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">money, vigorously defend their users' free speech and
privacy rights</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">(some of them, like Indymedia, don't even track user
IP addresses), and</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">are all built on Free and Open Source Software
(FOSS), making them open</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">to modification by the broader FOSS community.</DIV>
<DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 14px; MARGIN: 0px"><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">In 2005-2007, recognition spread throughout the
nonprofit and video</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">activist communities that some software developers
were duplicating work</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">in this area, and a network called transmission</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">[<A
href="http://www.transmission.cc">http://www.transmission.cc</A>] ]was formed
to share knowledge, expertise,</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">and development tasks for the next generation of FOSS
videosharing. The</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">transmission network created several working groups
in order to focus on</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">key issues such as content management systems (CMS),
metadata standards</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">[<A
href="http://wiki.transmission.cc/index.php/Metadata_working_group]">http://wiki.transmission.cc/index.php/Metadata_working_group]</A>,</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">subtitles, screenings database, and codecs. Outcomes
of the transmission</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">network include a draft metadata standard and
report</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">[<A
href="http://www.shiftspace.cc/j/meta/tx_report_0.2.pdf]">http://www.shiftspace.cc/j/meta/tx_report_0.2.pdf]</A>,
and a<SPAN class=Apple-converted-space>? </SPAN>fully</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">functional, customized video version of the FOSS CMS
Plone called Plumi</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">[<A
href="http://www.plumi.org">http://www.plumi.org</A>], with a demonstration
site running at</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">EngageMedia.org [<A
href="http://www.engagemedia.org">http://www.engagemedia.org</A>].</DIV>
<DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 14px; MARGIN: 0px"><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 14px; MARGIN: 0px"><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">FilmForge</DIV>
<DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 14px; MARGIN: 0px"><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">Another outcome of the transmission network is a
recent surge of effort</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">around developing a version of the FOSS CMS Drupal
[<A href="http://drupal.org">http://drupal.org</A>]</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">that is customized for videosharing. This networked
effort is now</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">coalescing under the umbrella of the FilmForge
project. FilmForge's</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">mission statement is to develop "a version of the
content management</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">system Drupal, tailored to the needs of videomaking
communities.</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">FilmForge makes it simple to install and run your own
video sharing</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">site" [<A
href="http://filmforge.koumbit.net">http://filmforge.koumbit.net</A>]. In
essence, FilmForge (like Plumi)</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">will replicate all of the functionality of existing
sites like YouTube,</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">add additional functionality key to nonprofit,
activist, and educational</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">videomakers (such as alternative licensing systems,
source material</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">download, peer to peer seeding, browser based
subtitling, and more), all</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">while avoiding the problems and pitfalls outlined
above. Most</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">importantly, it is Free and Open Source Software,
meaning that</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">communities of videomakers who choose to use it will
be able to choose</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">between uploading their content to an existing shared
FilmForge based</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">site, or downloading and installing FilmForge on
their own server. If</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">they choose the latter option, of course, they will
be free to make</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">modifications, additions, and updates to the code,
provided they return</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">these modifications to the Drupal community.</DIV>
<DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 14px; MARGIN: 0px"><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">For more information about the current and future
functionality of</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">FilmForge, check <A
href="http://filmforge.koumbit.net/en/about">http://filmforge.koumbit.net/en/about</A>.</DIV>
<DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 14px; MARGIN: 0px"><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">For more on Plumi, check out <A
href="http://plumi.org">http://plumi.org</A></DIV>
<DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 14px; MARGIN: 0px"><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 14px; MARGIN: 0px"><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">Sasha Costanza-Chock, July 2007</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">schock AT riseup.net</DIV>
<DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 14px; MARGIN: 0px"><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><A
href="http://video.indymedia.org">http://video.indymedia.org</A></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><A
href="http://filmforge.koumbit.net">http://filmforge.koumbit.net</A></DIV>
<DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 14px; MARGIN: 0px"><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 14px; MARGIN: 0px"><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 14px; MARGIN: 0px"><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">_______________________________________________</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">imc-video mailing list</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><A
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<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><A
href="http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/imc-video">http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/imc-video</A></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR>
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