VIDEO HUB blog

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)

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)

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)

In case you don't check the WITNESS job postings, we are looking for a Hub coordinator to join our small but growing team. (job is based in Brooklyn, NY)

WITNESS is seeking a dynamic Hub Coordinator to assist the Hub Manager in overseeing all community and content-related activity within the Hub site, assisting with day-to-day maintenance and content updates of the site, and helping to identify feature content and editorials that would best achieve the Hub’s goals. This position will have more of a focus on building and maintaining strong on-line communities.

Go here for more details.

Posted by Tina Gongsakdi at 06:07 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)

Not really Hub related but I wanted to see what Comedy Central's embedded video player looked like. Ishmael spoke at our Gala in 2005.

Posted by Bryan Nunez at 12:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

There are so many social networks out there already, are people beginning to tire of them? Will this have an affect on participation on the hub?

How many linkedin request have you gotten this week?

This article from unmediated, goes into further detail.

Posted by Bryan Nunez at 04:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Barack Obama announced his potential run for president last Tuesday, but not on any of the major media outlets, rather on Brightcove, a sort of YouTube for business.

This article from LostRemote explains.

Posted by Bryan Nunez at 05:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This award is a joint effort established by Squidoo.com, NetSquared, and GetActive, designed to recognize nonprofits who are setting new standards in savvy Internet marketing. We were nominated for the Hub Pilot and web 2.0 smarts.

Posted by Tina Gongsakdi at 05:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

2007 promises to be a big year for the Hub! We are already looking to grow the Hub staff and are currently seeking a Hub Manager to oversee all aspects of the Hub during development and roll out, scheduled to take place Summer 2007. For more information and how to apply please see the job description on the WITNESS site. Please pass it along to anyone you think might be interested.

Additionally, we are reaching out to ally organizations to strengthen and advance the Hub in areas such as content, technical, outreach, or media support. For additional information regarding how you or your organization may be involved either as allies or as beta testers please contact tina@witness.org.

Posted by Tina Gongsakdi at 10:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Beth Kanter has an excellent overview of recent discussions on how nonprofits and NGOs, mainly in the US, are using online video sharing sites, and also experimenting with their own vlogs documenting their activities.

Most examples so far seem promotional or fundraising-driven rather than advocacy-driven, and its not yet clear how traffic is being driven to see their posts on Youtube etc, but this can only be a matter of time.

Posted by Sam Gregory at 11:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Last Thursday, our Human Rights Video Hub pilot project with Global Voices Online launched. Sameer Padania, our Video Hub Editor has kicked it off with a post detailing how video cell phones and distributed networks are helping put an end to police and prison brutality in Malaysia.

We will be keeping a close eye on how this develops and whether or not we can engage the community to discuss and submit HR footage and story leads. So far after 3 days it seems we have gotten two compliments and one spam.

Posted by Tina Gongsakdi at 04:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Last night we went to a screening of "Blogumentary", by Chuck Olsen. Shot between the years of 2002 to 2004, it provides a great overview of the blogosphere, its impact on society and the colorful people who inhibit this world.

Afew things that I really stayed with me as I walked home were the words "We are the media" which were emblazoned into my brained (helped by the large red letters and unconventional font use). We are taking back the power. I think this raises an issue that keeps coming up over and over again in these gatherings. If 'we' are the media...who is 'we' The blogosphere seem to be dominated by a particular segment of society. Yes we are hearing more voices, but whose voice is it that we are really hearing? If you look at the list of people interviewed for the film, you will get a sense of what I mean...or simply try walking into a gathering of these 'bloggers' and look around.

Posted by Tina Gongsakdi at 10:51 AM | 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)

I was thinking, maybe a good way to see what might happen w/ the Video Hub is to check out what's going on on existing sites, like YouTube and Google Video. Doing a quick search on human rights, came up with the following links.

Salvor at YouTube Salvor blogs about sex worker exploitation in Spain.
Video 1
Video 2

alekhwa has video about torture and poverty Bahrain.

Video blog by Andy Carvin about Egyptian blogger Alaa Ahmed Seif Al-Islam. (It's interesting to note that although Andy is well known as a video blogger and human rights advocate, this particular video has only been viewed 40 times on YouTube. I assume most people interested in Alaa watched the video on Andy's own site.)

Video Hub: Already Here?

Here's a link to "Darfur Destroyed" on buzznet.com which shows the sort of thing that will hopefully be happening on the Video Hub.

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

So we had our Town Hall meeting where we invited several experts from the human rights, film-making and technology world to join us in a one day workshop at the Interactive Telecommunications Program at ITP and help us figure out our issues. The main topics of discussions included content (reviewing and moderation), community building and development and security. (Read Rikomatic's report on the Video Hub discussions)

We got alot of useful input and feedback but mainly the discussions made us realize that we cannot fully answer all our lingering questions without getting our feet wet (so to speak)

Global Voices have made us a generous offer to host a small pilot that would enable us to start exploring some of the issues surrounding curation, amplification and aggregation of content. Stayed tuned as we work out the details.

Posted by Tina Gongsakdi at 04:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

This is the first entry in a blog intended to document the process we are going through at WITNESS while building the Video Hub. In fact we're probably not going to call it the "Video Hub."

Incase you don't know what the "video Hub" is, feel free to visit www.witness.org/technology to read up on it.

Posted by Bryan Nunez at 06:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)