VIDEO HUB blog

Ran across this from unmediated.

JD Lasica from ourmedia.org is trying to put together a set of easy to use tools to get people up and running with citizen journalism.

His wish includes:

* Out-of-the-box community publishing solution based on an extension of either the base code for Drupal or ArmchairGM (which supports the Openserving.com initiative).

* Set of widgets that are customizable and of particular value to sites publishing community news, political events and related topics.

* Customizable templates (sleek, CSS-ready) with mastheads, themes and graphic icons that can be adapted to different localities, regardless of CMS or platform.

* Multimedia publishing tool (free, cross-platform) for distributing videos, podcasts and photos to multiple hosting destinations.

* Instant feeds: RSS and Media RSS.

* Google Maps configured for use by local communities.

* CMS modules or capabilities: Advancedsearch, navigation controls, social networks and groups, community chat, customized blog posts, comments, forums or message boards.

* Preconfigured online video which allows people to publish to local channels based on tags or a structured ontology. If you're a community publisher in Boise, you may wish to create channels about the city council, crime, recreation, senior living, youth news, etc.

* Resource directory: Public domain and Creative Commons-licensed images and clip art.

* Wiki plug-ins so wikis can be integrated into the local sites to spur community involvement in structuring solutions to local issues.

* Tutorials and screencasts: Detailed guides on how other local sites successfully use Web 2.0 tools and databases in their communities.

The full article can be could found here.

Posted by Bryan Nunez at 12:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6724531.stm

From the BBC News:

Amnesty International has warned that the internet "could change beyond all recognition" unless action is taken against the erosion of online freedoms.

he warning comes ahead of a conference organised by Amnesty, where victims of repression will outline their plights.

The "virus of internet repression" has spread from a handful of countries to dozens of governments, said the group.

Amnesty accused companies such as Google, Microsoft and Yahoo of being complicit in the problem.

Website closures

When challenged on their presence in countries such as China in the past, the companies accused have always maintained that they were simply abiding by local laws.

Amnesty is concerned that censorship is on the increase.

"The Chinese model of an internet that allows economic growth but not free speech or privacy is growing in popularity, from a handful of countries five years ago to dozens of governments today who block sites and arrest bloggers," said Tim Hancock, Amnesty's campaign director.

"Unless we act on this issue, the internet could change beyond all recognition in the years to come.

More and more governments are realising the utility of controlling what people see online and major internet companies, in an attempt to expand their markets, are colluding in these attempts," he said.

According to the latest Open Net Initiative report on internet filtering, at least 25 countries now apply state-mandated net filtering including Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Burma, Ethiopia, India, Iran, Morocco and Saudi Arabia.

Egyptian blogger

Filtering was only one aspect of internet repression, the group said. It added that increasingly it was seeing "politically motivated" closures of websites and net cafes, as well as threats and imprisonments.

Twenty-two-year-old Egyptian blogger Abdul Kareem Nabeel Suleiman was imprisoned for four years in February for insulting Islam and defaming the President of Egypt.

Fellow Egyptian blogger Amr Gharbeia told the BBC that the internet was allowing people to express themselves: "The web is creating a more open society, it is allowing more people to speak out. It's only natural that upsets some people."

The Amnesty conference - Some People Think the Internet is a Bad Thing: The Struggle for Freedom of Expression in Cyberspace - will have some well-known speakers including Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales.

It marks the first anniversary of Amnesty's website irrepressible.info, which is being relaunched to become an information hub for anyone interested in the future of internet freedom.

Posted by Bryan Nunez at 10:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

unmediated posted an article from dembot, which reads like a "where are they now?" VH1 special of online video...

TOP TEN REASONS WHY VIDEO PLATFORMS FAIL:

1. Insubstantial library of content
2. Poor bit rates
3. Lack of innovation (clone platform)
4. No share in content ownership rights
5. No exclusivity of content distribution
6. Lack of spark/spirit for a centralized community
7. Need for users to d/l proprietary software
8. Awkward interface design
9. Overly excessive emphasis on rights protection
10. Lack of technological foresight & audience expectations

The rest of the article is worth reading too.

Posted by Bryan Nunez at 06:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Our good friend Ethan has done it again, drawing the connection between a recent viral meme, anti-censorship, and human rights in an article on World Changing.

A 16 digit number used as a key to decrypt HD-DVDs became the center of an online revolt against internet censorship yesterday, when it was posted on several blogs, and attempts to stop its proliferation only led to increased popularity.

My interest in the situation has less to do with DVD hacking and more to do with the question of how sensitive information can spread on the Internet. The spread of the number is something of a perfect storm. Many of the techno-libertarians who populate sites like Digg have no great sympathy for digital rights management or the DMCA. The clandestine information - a 16 digit number - is really small, and can be spread through numerous different methods. (As cryptographers have observed, it’s much easier to stop the spread of the video files, which are gigabytes in size, that targeting less that a kilobyte of information…)

Guess video will still be a problem for the foreseeable future.

Posted by Bryan Nunez at 05:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Steve Safran of Lost Remote writes:

I like it whenever I come upon contrarian points of view. And newassignment.net has a doozy. Steve Fox writes about Virginia Tech student Jamal Albarghouti’s cellphone video of the shooting at Virginia Tech. Here are some of his thoughts:

As everyone steps up to applaud the “citizen journalism” that occurred yesterday, with kudos upon kudos give to the cellphone video made infamous by CNN… Consider this: the video had no inherent news value and told no story. It did have sounds of bullets being fired and screams. Those were bullets that killed, maimed and injured students and faculty members. This wasn’t a video game. Is such video responsible journalism? Are these the types of Citizen Journalists that people want to see? Are we doomed to create “citizen journalists” to play the I-patsies for cable television?

A poster in Fox’s piece also points us to Paul McCleary’s thoughts from CJRDaily called “What Happens When an I-Reporter Gets Hurt?”:

Arguably the most stunning thing about Albarghouti’s footage is not what he was filming — it took repeated viewings to figure out exactly what it was that he captured — but the fact that he seemed to run toward the gunshots. We applaud — scratch that — we expect any cameraman worth his salt to move toward the action, but a grad student with no experience in these situations?

I will respectfully disagree with Fox’s take on this. There is plenty of news value in a firsthand, eyewitness account of a major news story. Just because Albarghouti wasn’t in the classroom doesn’t mean what he captured wasn’t news. He had sound and he had pictures of police moving in. We show pointless exteriors of buildings hours after a crime has taken place there. This was news video. McCleary’s point is more provocative. There will come a time when someone rushes to he scene of a tragedy to capture it on video and gets hurt. Does that mean we stop asking people to send in pictures? No. It means we - as you already hear - tell people to use common sense and not take risks. Mind you - If he were my kid, I’d scream at him. (And take away his cellphone…)

Posted by Bryan Nunez at 04:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From Slashdot:

"A fifteen year old from Perth, Australia, posed as an employee of the Australian Broadcasting Commission, demanding that YouTube remove hundreds of video clips of 'The Chasers War on Everything.' The amusing part is that The Chaser is a comedy company well known to perpetrate exactly this sort of prank."

Interesting to see how little it takes to get something pulled off YouTube.

Posted by Bryan Nunez at 02:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Perhaps momentum is building for projects like the Hub. This article from The Age highlights how people in the Philippines are using YouTube to try and get attention about alleged government complicity with a rash of murders of political activists.

From Slashdot:

"One factor driving the move of political statements to YouTube, and away from old-style street protest, is that on the Internet the chances of being personally associated with a protest are lower. Mounting your political message online is also safer in countries where taking part in a protest can result in your death or injury at the hands of your country's army. We've seen how street protests and online polls alike are being shunted aside and ignored. What is the future for the common person who yearns to be heard?"

Posted by Bryan Nunez at 10:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This should have gone up a year ago, but I was tweaking our google adwords settings and stumbled across it. Anyway it's a good nutshell explanation of WITNESS, and the early stage thinking behind the Hub.

Posted by Bryan Nunez at 01:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I ran across this story about "crowdhacking" - ways in which people try to game systems like eBay, Digg, and de.lico.us to promote stories, or gain higher feedback ratings. According to the article, these systems are all susceptible to manipulation, which has implications to the Hub once these tactics become more widespread. We should definitely keep an eye on this trend.

Posted by Bryan Nunez at 11:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From lostremote

As more niche online video makes its way on the web, it will draw large Long Tail audiences who are excited to find video programming that fits their unique interests.

Read the rest of the article here.

Posted by Bryan Nunez at 10:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From Slashdot.

FM Reader writes
"After a controversial mock-up video reportedly submitted by a Greek member about Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, Turkish courts ordered the national ISPs to ban the online video service, YouTube. YouTube hostnames are currently redirected at the DNS level to a page that announces the court order."

What interesting about this? One offensive video has resulted in the Turkish government banning YouTube from the entire country.

Posted by Bryan Nunez at 02:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From lostremote:

Stations owned by Fisher Communications, Journal Broadcast Group and Granite Broadcasting will soon launch a user video initiative powered by Broadcast Interactive Media. Called YouNewsTV, it will allow users to upload their own video, which will be vetted before it appears online. Users can share the video or embed it on their own blogs. As part of the revenue-sharing deal with Broadcast Interactive, the clips will have pre-roll ads, both on the TV sites and in the embedded experience. “If the video is not suitable to have advertising or is copyrighted material, it is not going up,” says Timur Yarnall, president/CEO of Broadcast Interactive. YouNewsTV is cleared to launch in more than 30 markets by midyear, with the first coming later this month.

Posted by Bryan Nunez at 10:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Thanks to Lost Remote for point to this article from Read/Write Web. It's a pretty good overview of the various online video companies competing in the YouTube space, as well as the various technologies used to deliver the videos.

Posted by Bryan Nunez at 12:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

... good thing we're not squeamish.

Katrin Verclas of NTEN and MobileActive fame writes on the NTEN blog:

• Mobile phones should be used as part of an integrated campaign. As sexy as mobile marketing and campaigning is, it can’t yet stand by itself.
• Texting campaigns, especially with short codes on a professionally run platform, are still expensive and will not turn into ‘profit centers’ any time soon.

• Mobile phones are a great way to strengthen ties with your existing supporters and get immediate responses for urgent actions. For now these are the two most promising uses for mobile phones in campaigns, but I think it’s safe to say that we’ll see this broaden as mobile marketing takes off.
• Remember that most people still use their cell phone for calling. I know of commercial campaign that let people sign up by sending a text to an sms short code or by simply calling a number. Most people called the toll-free number. Similarly, campaigns asking people to call to take some sort of action have shown promise.
• Mobile messaging needs to have a clear call to action or valuable content. But what makes content valuable? Well after giving it some thought, I’d like to get the headlines from the NTEN blog, asthma and smog alerts from the American Lung Association, and traffic alerts from my town on my mobile phone, to name a few.
• Be creative. I am fascinated by SMS graffiti and public sms displays, and I’ve written about it over at MobileActive.org. Playing is ok - this is an emerging field where innovation is possible and much needed!
• Evaluate your work. If you are running a campaign or considering one, be in touch, share your results, and do not be shy to experiment. We are constantly on the lookout for good data to share (even anonymously).

Posted by Bryan Nunez at 06:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Here are the figures from TVWeek:

The potential for social networking on phones is huge. MySpace, the biggest social networking site on the Web, now commands nearly 5 percent of all Internet visits. Audience measurement firm Hitwise reports that one of every 17 Internet visits is to a social networking site, with MySpace commanding 81 percent of those visits.

With 2.8 billion mobile phone users out there it's predicted that 2007 will see more people will accessing the internet via a mobile phone than via a PC. Huge potential for social networking on phones? You do the math.

What should be interesting is whether or not that translates into the widespread use of mobile social media.

Posted by Bryan Nunez at 08:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Veoh, one of the video sharing sites we looked at early on, has relaunch with a new slicker interface as well as some cool transcoding and syndication features, including automatic cross-posting to YouTube, Google, and MySpace.

Here are a couple of reviews from TechCrunch and LostRemote.

Posted by Bryan Nunez at 11:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It's been awhile since I've posted anything about the Josh Wolf situation. He now has the distinction of being longest incarcerated journalist in US history for contempt of court, 170 days.

An article from Slashdot links to an interview with Wolf on Democracy now.

Video blogger and independent journalist Josh Wolf has been in a federal jail for 170 days for refusing to turn over to a federal grand jury a video of a San Francisco demonstration. On Feb. 6 Wolf's length of incarceration set a new record for US journalism. "Democracy Now!" has an interview with Josh Wolf from his jail cell. If federal authorities can jail bloggers with impunity, it does not bode well for the future of citizen journalism.

Posted by Bryan Nunez at 11:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

While researching possible options for video filtering technology for the Hub, we came across some stuff about Audible Magic, a company that was developing a way to filter for copyrighted material. It appears that MySpace is going to use this technology for their videos.

It will be interesting to see how well it works. In the mean time check out the article on TechCrunch, and the ensuing discussion.

Posted by Bryan Nunez at 06:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The folks at unmediated highlight efplighting.com, a site with some good tutorials on how to light subjects for interviews among other things. It could be useful for some of the educational modules for the Hub, although we are still on the lookout for a good tutorial on best practices for shooting cellphone video.

Posted by Bryan Nunez at 06:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

While catching up on my podcasts from The Economist, I came across this article about whether or not Bosses should Blog. It was pretty funny, especially the part about SecondLife.

Guess I'm not the only one who has doubts about it.

If blogging doesn’t appeal, WEF offers the suggestible chief executive another way to make a noise in cyberspace. He can join a fantasy game, Second Life, and give an interview in the persona of a computer-generated puppet, or "avatar".

One attraction of Second Life is the freedom to choose an avatar with the dress sense of a rock star and the physique of a porn star. Whether the Davos demographic leans that way remains to be seen. But it would probably pose fewer legal risks than blogging with candour.

Posted by Bryan Nunez at 04:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In all the hubbub about video on the hub, we seem to be forgetting that a big, if not bigger, consideration should be the hub's social networking capabilities. If people can't connect, interact, and organize as a community, how will the hub be anything more than a bunch of videos tagged as being "human rights related?"

Techcrunch, recently posted articles about two social networking sites change.org (how'd they get THAT url?) and dotherightthing.com. They liked change.org, but were less complementary about dothrightthing.com, which they dub "do the smug thing."

Posted by Bryan Nunez at 12:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6319439.stm

Posted by Bryan Nunez at 05:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From unmediated: When the value of a website is completely dependent upon the participation of its user community, changes made to the site that upset that community can have a very negative affect on the website.

From the full article:

...the relationship between users and empty vessel web services [i.e. flickr, Facebook, YouTube]is unique in the history of user/technology relationships — and user/media relationships, for that matter... The sense of ownership is now just based on use — it’s based on the users’ content actually bringing the service to life. So while Flickr, Facebook, and YouTube, as traditional corporate owners of the service, can technically do anything they want — and they will surely have valid business reasons for wanting to make changes — they are ultimately beholden to their users.

Just ask Friendster.

Posted by Bryan Nunez at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here's another article I came across from the Unmediated feed. Drupal is a leading contender as the platform for development of the hub, this article from newassignment.net talks about how Drupal is being used by sites like Ourmedia, and the Onion.

Posted by Bryan Nunez at 11:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In a somewhat timely turn of events relative to my last post about Google Video, Google has just announced that Google Video will become a search engine for video content posted anywhere online. Users now get search results from YouTube in addition to Google Video.

Here's a full article from Arstechnica.

Posted by Bryan Nunez at 04:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Re-Remediated (again) from unmediated, who got it from JD at Social Media.

Our friend from blip.tv, Mike Hudack, wrote an article a with some handy guidlines at Video Vertigo:.

• Aggregators should always identify the individual show, videoblog or video podcast in their index, and include a link to the appropriate site for that show. When possible, the link should be to the show's own Web site, when that's impossible the link should be to the show's presence on a service provider's Web site.

• Aggregators should always conduct video playback in the video's original player, rather than the aggregator's player. ...

• In one way or another the aggregator should make clear that the video content they're displaying is aggregated, and not originally uploaded to the aggregator's Web site.

Posted by Bryan Nunez at 05:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By now most of you have already heard that Mayor Bloomberg has announced a program that will allow people who call 911 to also send images and videos from their cellphones. It was also mentioned on SNL's Weekend Update last night.

Posted by Bryan Nunez at 12:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Despite some other things that Google has done in the past, they are still make a lot of useful tools. The latest one I came across might be really good for allowing people to discuss videos posted to the hub.

The Google Video "Permalink" allows you to create a link to a specific point in the video. The article in Make you go hmm provides some good examples on how it works.

Using the "Outlawed" piece on Google video I've linked to 7minutes, 2 seconds into the video where Binyam is quoted about why he chose to go to Britain rather than the US.

Posted by Bryan Nunez at 04:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Happy New Year. It's been awhile since the last entry, but better late than never I guess.

A lot has happened in the last year with user generated content culminating with Time Magazine's Person of the Year being "You." In particular, video from camera phones has gotten a lot of press attention with the notable examples of a student at UCLA being tasered by campus security and the execution of Saddam Hussein.

This article from ABC News is about how video surveillance cameras were used to capture a serial killer in Philadelphia. Watching footage from around 50 surveillance cameras around the city, police were able to piece together the direction and eventual location of the killer.

There is an interesting debate happening on Slashdot regarding the pros and cons of the panopticon, primarily concerns over privacy, transparency, and accountability - who controls the camera. Given these two trends - widespread use of cellphone video and the increasing sophistication of ubiquitous surveillance cameras - I think the "Participatory Panopticon" becomes even more important.

Posted by Bryan Nunez at 11:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

BoingBoing.net posted a reader's comments and link back to the Human Rights Video Hub Pilot on globalvoicesonline.org . Posted Oct 24, 2006

Posted by Matisse Bustos at 03:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The most emailed article on todays online version of the New York Times is called "Web Surfing in Public Places is a Way to Court Trouble." Although geared at business travelers who are often talking about business or conducting it in very public spaces such as airport gates and business centers at hotels, there are relevant tips for human rights workers and projects like the Video Hub which deal with sensitive material.

Relevant tips include: Being aware of how secure a network is that you might be working on; not giving out sensitive information over non secure networks (including credit card information but also information in documents that are un-encrypted) ;using encrypting software (again the article is referring mostly to business correspondence or financial information- but this is certainly part of the dicussion we've been having at WITNESS with respect to those who might upload video content to the Video Hub from places where governments might be monitoring their activity and where their safety and security may be jeapordized.)

Posted by Matisse Bustos at 12:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Thanks again to the folks at unmediated for pointing out this review from lightreading comparing video sharing sites, something I've been meaning to do for a long time.

Here are the results:

1) Blip.tv
2) VideoEgg
3) Dailymotion
4) YouTube
5) Veoh
6) Google Video
7) Grouper
8) Jumpcut
9) AOL
10) Eyespot

Posted by Bryan Nunez at 06:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

There was an interesting article in today's New York Times about how important cellphones are in Iraq, not just for communication, but as a tool for self expression. Iraqis use their cellphones to pass around viral videos that poke fun at the Iraqi government, the US military, and energy shortages among other things.

Here's how cellphones are being used in a Human Rights context:

For human rights workers in Iraq, cellphones play a darker role. Omar al-Jabouri, who heads the human rights office for the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party, said he often received pictures of men tortured or killed by death squads, many of them taken with the cellphones of witnesses or the victims’ relatives. At bombings, Iraqis are often seen recording the carnage in pictures or short videos.

Cellphone technology seems to be relatively affordable:

The prices the phones command are rather high for Iraq, of course. But with a booming aftermarket in cellphones, people can sell their old ones for nearly the original price and move up to a fancier model. Service is relatively cheap, with most people relying on $10 and $20 prepaid cards rather than the more expensive monthly plans.

Posted by Bryan Nunez at 02:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

JD Lasica from OurMedia had an interesting post about a "spoof" of Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth. Turns out that Republican PR firms are "users" too.

Is this something we should expect on the Video Hub as well?

Posted by Bryan Nunez at 01:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)