About

The Aim

This section, maintained by Valentin Spirik , will focus on the how-to and technical aspects of producing audiovisual content using the new P2P autonomous media infrastructure.

This is a Wiki - if you, the reader, have information that you feel is missing and want to share: get involved and help building the P2P Audiovisual section!

We have ported directory items from the P2P Encyclopedia - some items may still need to be moved/linked.

The Wiki Text

The Wiki text that follows tries to give the reader an overview to the the audiovisual P2P net by filtering the vast amount of available information by asking questions like "Is this useful, can it be recommended - is it somehow in the interest of either the majority of people or a neglected minority?" (Instead of being a link or site that first of all promotes the interests of e.g. a company.)

The Directory

The Directory - Articles in category "Audiovisual" on the other hand tries to collect related sites and links of all sorts - including commercial services - where the criterias mentioned above might or might not apply. Over time however a critical evaluation of the individual entries can be done.

Some Basic Resources

Ourmedia's Learning Center is an open Open Media Directory and great place to start learning about podcasting and webcasting: http://www.ourmedia.org/learning-center/open.

This Open media projects list at ourmedia is a good starting point for exploring a variety of other alternative/participatory media projects on the web: http://www.ourmedia.org/about/open-media-projects.

Beginner's Guide to the AudioVisual P2P Net

Using the net's P2P audiovisual infrastructures can be seen as connecting oneself to a collective mind - an intelligence much smarter than each individual.

Here is how it works:

Tools and Platforms

A blog (basically a dynamic homepage, last entries show up first) is an individual's or an organisation's virtual home in the audiovisual P2P net - here a review of blogging tools, providers and some basic blogging introduction: http://www.ojr.org/ojr/stories/050714gardner/. Very popular is the free and open-source WordPress platform: http://wordpress.org/.

New blog entries can be tagged (keywords describing the content) and then be found via blog search engines like Technorati http://www.technorati.com/ or smaller but more specialised ones like Blogdigger http://www.blogdigger.com/.

An important tool for bloggers is the RSS feed, readers can subscribe to a blog's feed (like to a channel) and will be notified automatically about all updates. Feedburner http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/home is the largest feed management provider and offers a very useful free basic service.

There is a vast choice of "free" services for media hosting - important in this context is the question "Who owns the content?". Since those "free" services all want to make money somehow they all have a "terms of service" or "terms of use agreement" that should be read and understood before uploading media. In most cases "free" means that the service retains the right to alter the user's media and to use it for advertising. Some of the more recent "terms of service" agreements from some of the better known providers seem to be very bad for the users/creators. One of the few safe choices at this point (July '06) for free media hosting are still only the Internet Archive http://www.archive.org/index.php and Ourmedia http://www.ourmedia.org/.

Licences, like the popular Creative Commons licences http://creativecommons.org/ are important for an unbureaucratic online distribution: instead of restricting a user's possibility by reminding him of the copyright, online audio and video gets distributed because users are encouraged to share e.g. a podcast under a certain license.

For musicians/DJs specially interesting is ccMixter http://www.ccmixter.org/ - featuring creative commmons licensed samples/remixes and making it easy for artists to focus on the creative part of their work.

The open-source Democracy Player http://www.getdemocracy.com/ and Broadcast Machine http://www.getdemocracy.com/broadcast, as well as Videobomb http://www.videobomb.com/ - all from the Participatory Culture Foundation http://participatoryculture.org/ - are very interesting options for distributing/promoting independent online film and video.

Still in earlier development, but promissing for independent audio/music distribution is the open-source project Songbird http://www.songbirdnest.com/.

This Open media projects list at ourmedia is a good starting point for exploring a variety of other alternative/participatory media projects on the web: http://www.ourmedia.org/about/open-media-projects.

A good general resource for audio/video web related topics is the Wikipedia: e.g.: Podcast http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcast or RSS http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS_%28file_format%29

How-to

Ourmedia's Learning Center is a great place to start learning about podcasting and webcasting: http://www.ourmedia.org/learning-center/open.

A good place to start learning about videoblogging (also called Vlogging) is http://freevlog.org/.

How to Make an Internet TV Channel http://www.makevideofeed.com/, 10 Ways to Promote an Internet TV Channel http://www.promotevideofeed.com/ and The Channel Channel http://thechannelchannel.tv/ ("One minute previews of Internet TV Channels") are three excellent resources for online video promotion/distribution from the Participatory Culture Foundation.

Theory

The so called "digital revolution" at the end of the 20th century was often exclusively described as a technological revolution - it was going to bring consumers a new "digital" quality (CDs instead of LPs) and advanced productivity to almost every industry. Ten years after the web went mainstream a different picture evolves: consumers turn into producers, we blog about a Participatory Culture and Citizen Journalism and we share our media - recommended article "We Are the Web" by Kevin Kelly http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.08/tech_pr.html.

Or in short: what was "Power to the people" in the '60 of the last century today is We Are the Media http://www.ourmedia.org/node/9237, watch this "Video Mash-up about the Vlogging movement".

Useful Software

The VLC Media player http://www.videolan.org/ is a free and open-source video (and audio) player available for all major platforms and capable of playing back most of the video formats found online. The latest release now also offers transcoding (though this seems not to work yet on the OS X version, VLC 0.8.5). The VLC can also be used as a streaming server http://www.videolan.org/streaming/.

The open-source MPlayer http://www.mplayerhq.hu/design7/news.html is "The Movie Player for Linux", but there is also the MPlayer OS X http://mplayerosx.sourceforge.net/.

The open-source Democracy Player http://www.getdemocracy.com/ brings independent internet tv (and using the Broadcast Machine http://www.getdemocracy.com/broadcast/ anyone can publish media - also via Bittorrent). Since the latest version (July '06) now also supports drag and drop the Democracy Player becomes an interesting alternative for use as the main media player. Available for all major platforms.

FireAnt http://fireant.tv/ is - like the Democracy Player or Apple's Itunes - a feed aggregator, meaning a user can subscribe to a particular channel via a publisher's RSS feed and the app will automatically download the latest episode of a particular programme. FireAnt is specially popular with videobloggers, but also happens to be one of the best ways of playing back downloaded .flv flash videos. (KeepVid http://keepvid.com/ lets users download flash videos from sites like YoutTube.) Available for Windows and Mac OS X.

Ogg Vorbis http://www.vorbis.com/ (for audio) and Ogg Theora http://www.theora.org/ (for video) are open-source alternatives for media encoding, also interesting for commercial online publishing since they are patent free and no license fees will have to be paid.

The open-source Streamripper http://streamripper.sourceforge.net/ lets users record e.g. webradio as .mp3 files. For OS X users: StreamRipperX http://streamripperx.sourceforge.net/ (the old StreamRipperX 1.0.5 still works under OS X 10.3.9, not only 10.2 as mentioned).

ffmpeg x http://www.ffmpegx.com/ is a popular shareware programme for transcoding video on the Mac, maybe not a tool that is easy to use, but works well once configured to one's needs.

Flip4Mac http://www.flip4mac.com/wmv_download.htm is a commercial but free (there is a pro/to buy version) that allows Mac users to watch (newer) .wmv encoded files either via the web browser or with the QuickTime Player. This is of interest since the open-source VLC (0.8.5) - listed above - currently can not play back videos encoded with the latest Windows Media 9 codec (on the Mac).

Audacity http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ is an open-source audio editor, available for all major platforms.

The Gimp http://www.gimp.org/ is an open-source image manipulation programme, available for all major platforms. To make the transition easier for Photoshop users there is also the GimpShop http://plasticbugs.com/?page_id=294.

CinePaint (Film Gimp) http://www.cinepaint.org/ is an open-source programme for deep paint manipulation and image processing (e.g. motion picture frame-by-frame retouching) - new major update expected for August 28th, 2006.

Inkskape http://www.inkscape.org/ is an open-source vector graphics editor, available for all major platforms.

Jashaka http://www.jahshaka.org/ is "The worlds first OpenSource Realtime Editing and Effects System", available for all major platforms.

Blender http://blender3d.org/cms/Home.2.0.html is an open-source 3D modelling/animation programme, available for all major platforms.

Guided Tours

This is a little experiment in how-to communicate Wiki content. The idea is to make reading the Wiki more of a (useful and applicable) experience, so this is more blog style, but with condensed information/links.

Tour 1 - Indie Film Maker's Tour (Editor's Tour)

a) The classic route

Apple's Final Cut Pro is still one of the best options that indie film makers have when it comes to film and video editing. A great resource for FCP tutorials (plus reviews and more) is Ken Stone's Final Cut Pro site http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/fcp_homepage_index.html. Another classic is the Los Angeles Final Cut Pro User Group website http://www.lafcpug.org/, check out their forums for questions/answers from FCP pros. The "top-rated media pros forum community on the net" is Creativecow http://forums.creativecow.net/index.html, you'll find very active support forums for e.g. almost any Apple or Adobe software, but also "Today's Industry & Cow News". Bringing all the latest news from the HD world is the HD for Indies Blog http://www.hdforindies.com/, have a look at their linklist.

b) The early adopter route

Worth checking out are open-source editing alternatives like Jahshaka http://www.jahshaka.org/, this project also has its own community site http://www.jahshaka.net/. For free media hosting there is the Internet Archive http://www.archive.org/index.php (you can upload via ftp to their Open Source Movie section http://www.archive.org/details/opensource_movies) and Ourmedia http://www.ourmedia.org/. Great open-source tools for D.I.Y. Internet TV are the Democracy Player http://www.getdemocracy.com/ (watch TV) and the Broadcast Machine http://www.getdemocracy.com/broadcast/ (make TV). Once your video is online you can promote it, discover other artist's works and make a video playlist (that generates an RSS feed that can be used as a channel in the Democracy Player) at the Videobomb site http://www.videobomb.com/.

Tour 2 - Online Audio (Publishing) Tour ••• Draft/Work In Progress ••• (14.09.06)

Free Publishing/Hosting

http://www.archive.org/index.php open source audio section: free distribution for labels/indie artists

http://www.ourmedia.org/ free hosting for podcasts, also ourmedia learning center: http://www.ourmedia.org/learning-center/open

Remix Culture

http://www.ccmixter.org/ remixing of cc licensed tracks

http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/ cc licensed sounds

http://www.popmodernism.org/scrambledhackz/ "sCrAmBlEd?HaCkZ! is a Realtime-Mind-Music-Video-Re-De-Construction-Machine." - introduction video: http://www.videobomb.com/posts/show/1529

Software

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ "The Free, Cross-Platform Sound Editor", open source

http://www.vorbis.com/ open source audio (and video) encoding

http://www.videolan.org/ plays most audio/video formats and can also be used as a streaming server and for transcoding

http://streamripper.sourceforge.net/ lets users record e.g. webradio

http://wiki.creativecommons.org/CcHost "...an open source (GPL licensed) project ... infrastructure to support collaboration, sharing, and storage of multi-media using the Creative Commons licenses and metadata. ... used by ccMixter..."

Distribution/Promotion

http://www.legaltorrents.com/index.htm features some of the best cc licensed music

http://cchits.ning.com/recent/ cc hits

http://creativecommons.org/ cc licenses

(More) Communities/Discover/Buy, Sell

http://www.audiri.com/ "...to provide all of the normal artist resources but with the majority of the site geared towards the typical music seeker. Our goal is to help you find music you like, easily."

http://www.soundclick.com/ "the artist music community"

http://www.indiestore.com/ "... allows independent artists and labels to sell their music online. Sign up now and we’ll have you up and running in less than 15 minutes. ..."

http://www.newgrounds.com/ "Newgrounds is the original and still the largest Flash portal on the web." user made movies, games, music and more; community and feedback.

http://hype.non-standard.net/ "The Hype Machine keeps track of new songs posted on the best blogs about music. Easily listen, discover and buy songs that everyone is talking about!"

(More) Media Archives/Collections

http://www.ubu.com/ great archive featuring avant-garde audio/video works from the last century

http://diymedia.net/collage/ "Collage is the act of appropriating existing messages to make new ones."

http://remix.kwed.org/ site/podcast featuring user submitted c64 remixes

http://www.ocremix.org/ "... a website dedicated to reviving the video and computer game music of yesterday, and reinterpreting that of today..."

Activism

http://www.downhillbattle.org/ "... working to support participatory culture and build a fairer music industry." the other site from the people behind "Democracy - Internet TV Platform". good link collection (scroll down)

Concepts/Ideas

http://www.littlesounddj.com/lsd/ "The basic idea is to transform a plain Game Boy/Game Boy Color into a full-fledged music workstation."

Related Online Articles

(14.09.06) The Future of Online Video - Openness Matters. RSS Can Help. (www.getdemocracy.com)

(30.08.06) Geek to Live: 6 ways to find reusable media (Creative Commons search and more - www.lifehacker.com)

(17.08.06) In the Making: Tutorials for Online Video (www.getdemocracy.com)

(17.08.06) John Gilmore donates US$15,000 to the Freenet Project (freenetproject.org)

(14.08.06) PRESS RELEASE: Pirate Party Launches World's First Commercial Darknet (www2.piratpartiet.se)

(14.08.06) Closing Letter to the Copyright Industry Associations of America ("... we announce a massively distributed copy-less file system." - thebighack.org)

(27.07.06) What goes on the Net stays on the Net (About YouTube: "They could refuse to take down your video... ...charge YOU for your own video. ...insert ads in the video..." - www.pbs.org)

(03.05.06) Soderbergh: Burn, Hollywood, Burn (www.wired.com)

(07.04.06) Ten video sharing services compared (www.dvguru.com)

(06.04.06) Video Editing, Publishing And Remixing Online Is Here (www.masternewmedia.org)

(14.03.06) Why Ogg Theora Matters for Internet TV (maketelevision.com)

Apple's H.264 Frequently Asked Questions (www.apple.com)

Audiovisual P2P Related Media

Video

Who Owns Culture? by Lawrence Lessig - A talk about copyright and (remix) culture - 20 min. 5 sec. - Google Video via www.videobomb.com

Copyright Criminals Preview by Benjamin Franzen and Kembrew McLeod - A work in progress - 10 min. 29 sec. - www.archive.org

We Are The Media by Josh Leo - A video mash-up about the vlogging movement - 2 min. 20 sec. - www.ourmedia.org

Alternative Freedom (Trailer) by Twila and Shauna - A documentary about the invisible war on culture - 3 min. 54 sec. - alternativefreedom.org

Ourmedia - 21st Century Media, by Valentin Spirik - A 3D animation video for ourmedia.org - 45 sec. - www.ourmedia.org

http://ia310141.us.archive.org/3/items/valentinspirikourmedia-21stcenturymedia_stillfromvideo_/ourmedia_21st_century_media_mini.jpg

The Directory