Panel at the Open Video Conference (photo by ekai: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ekai/3642506635)

The other week I went to the Open Video Conference in NYC. Here’s a round-up of what’s going on right now with open video on the web.

There are a lot of exciting things happening right now with with the evolution of open video standards on the web. A short while ago, the news came out that the next version of Firefox, Firefox 3.5, will support the new <video> and <audio> tags - which are part of the new HTML 5 standard. These new tags will make adding video to a web page as simple as adding an image. It will also allow users to watch video on the web without any Flash at all (players can be built with HTML/CSS/JS). And in a perfect open video storm, the open source Ogg/Theora codec is finally at a point where it can begin to compete with proprietary codecs (see stills here). In addition to this, Mozilla awarded Wikimedia Foundation a $100,000 grant to support the coordination of the development of Ogg Theora.

Why is open video important?

Video currently lags way behind text and other less-rich media on the web in terms of openness, interoperability, findability, and indexing (and creation, but that’s another can of worms). The web is a central part of most people’s daily lives and experience of culture. It’s how we get our news, information and entertainment. So it’s important for it to be as open as possible. Openness helps drive innovation, and it also lowers costs by not having to pay royalties to bodies such as MPEG-LA (internet use is currently royalty-free, but that may change in 2011). Using FOSS (Free and Open Source) products also drives innovation, as engineers can tweak things for their purposes, and give back to the development community of the FOSS products by adding to the codebase.

(Note: To properly view the demos below, you should install Firefox 3.5 beta. If you want to do this but not overwrite your existing install of FF, use the free MultiFireFox app by local developer Dave Martorana)

At the end of May, Dailymotion launched a new R&D platform using these new standards, making it the “…first large video sharing site to participate in and promote open video formats.” Like Dailymotion mentions, these new standards will enable new user experiences along with innovations in SEO and video advertising. Some of this can be seen on Dailymotion’s demo open video page, where you can manipulate both the player and the video itself, on the fly. Another cool thing you’ll be able to do with HTML5 is link to specific parts of a video (both temporally and spatially).

Currently only FF 3.5 supports the Ogg Theora codec natively. The Xiph plugin is available to enable Safari to support Ogg, as well as enable viewing and export of Ogg from the QuickTime Player (gets added to your QT Components Library). So while these open codecs are not ready for prime time yet due to both quality and support issues, the seeds have definitely been planted for browser support to grow.

Another open codec called Dirac is being developed by the BBC in conjunction with the open source community. The Dirac codec can be integrated into many common containers such as transport streams, .ogg, .avi and .mp4. You can download Schrodinger, a x-platform implementation of the Dirac codec.

In addition to open video codecs, FOSS video editing programs are also being developed. Unfortunately, they all only run on Linux at the moment. But they are still definitely worth checking out:

• Cinelerra
• Lumiera (an offshoot of Cinelerra)
• PiTiVi
• Blender (a 3D animation app that could also be used for editing, can run on Mac OSX and Windows)

Some Awesome Demos and Further Reading: (best viewed in FF 3.5)

• Video For Everybody (by UK developer Kroc Camen)
• HTML5 validation with video fallbacks (by videoblogger Michael Verdi)
• HTML5 video demos (by Paul Rouget, Mozilla tech evangelist from Paris)
• Connecting HTML5 Video to the Web (screencast by Chris Blizzard, Director of Evangelism at Mozilla)

Have some more demo links? Add them in the comments. And if you’re interested in helping create open video standards, check out the Open Video Alliance.

PS - Thanks to everyone who presented and spoke at the conference - this post couldn’t have happened without you.

I’m planning on attending the Open Video Conference this June 19th & 20th in NYC, and if you’re interested in free culture, online video, open source or all of the above, I highly suggest attending as well! There’s going to be a lot of people discussing the future of online video and what can be done to encourage and create open standards.

But it won’t be just tech-talk: there’s going to be showcases of work and talks by some awesome cultural pioneers like Clay Shirkey and Yochai Benkler.

Watch the awesome intro video by Jay Dedman and Ryanne Hodson.

New Neighborhood from laureng on Vimeo.

I moved to a new apartment in a new neighborhood in Philly (Bella Vista) last week. I decided to go exploring one night and took along my camera. I also decided to try out Vimeo for hosting this video.

Music: The Moon, the Sphere of Intuition by William Zeitler

Thanks to everyone in today’s Vlog Global Flashmeeting for being so inspiring. This is my first post in way too long. It’s not much - but it’s something - and that’s the point, right?

This is a video of various things I’ve seen around my new neighborhood in South Philadelphia while volunteering to canvass for the Obama campaign. I wish I could have recorded some of the actual canvassing - but that wouldn’t have gone over so well with folks. It’s been a pretty eye-opening experience.

Videographers, videobloggers, and video podcasters: come on down to IndyHall and work on all those videos you’ve been meaning to work on for the last 6 months!

On October 4th, 2008, I’ll be hosting a new event called PHLedit, a video editing coworking/jam session/hackfest event. It will be held at Independents Hall starting at 5pm on Saturday, October 4, 2008.

PHLedit is a free, unstructured video-centric coworking event. Video editors, video bloggers, video podcasters, or anyone who wants to come and edit in a supportive and casual environment are invited to do so. Wifi and power connections, seats, and desks are provided, but you’ll have to bring your own equipment and software.

This event was inspired by similar events across the country-PHXedit in Phoenix, AZ and SF Video Edit and SuperHappyVlogHouse in San Francisco, CA. It is loosely affiliated with Node101, an open-source movement to teach and spread videoblogging.

Some food and drink will be provided, but we’d like to do a potluck of sorts as well. Please bring some snacks (nom nom nom) to share if you are able to.

Please RSVP:
Facebook or Upcoming

Official event tag: “PHLedit” (for vlogs, blogs, flickr, etc.)

TRT: 9:26

The Breakdown:

Experimental

Videohouse Live - 2005 - Co-Producer, Editor

Portrait of the Artist as Conflict - 2003 - Director, Editor, SFX/Music

Documentary & News

Jelilu: Performance Art From Life - 2007 - Editor, Music

Alive in Baghdad - 2007 - Editor

Narrative Film

Dream a Little Dream - 2005 - Writer, Director, DP/Camera, Editor

Will You… - 2006 - Editor

Spots & Trailers

Rapturious spot - 2007 - Editor

Inclinations trailer - 2005 - Editor

I’ve just finished this marketing video for friend and client Jesse Torgerson’s Jelilu psychodrama process entitled Jelilu: Performance Art From Life.

Today I hung out with Jen Simmons. Follow us as we take her awesome dog, Bear, for a walk. I decided it was high time to do a real “navlopomoish” video. Mentioned: David Howell, Clintus McGintus, Yackpacking on Rupert’s site, and why dogs don’t Twitter.

This mashup video is from a sophomore college class in 2003. I’m going to have to re-master it one of these days (some of it uses VHS source) and re-scan the Sandman stills–apologies; they can be hard to read at times.

Despite this, it’s still one of the things I’ve done that I’m most proud of. There’s a short essay (PDF) that goes along with it, if you’re so inclined.

Sources:

The Sandman by Neil Gaiman
Pararealities: The Nature of Our Fictions and How We Know Them by Floyd Merrell
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

The X-Files (episodes excerpted: Paper Clip, Deep Throat, Jose Chung’s ‘From Outer Space’, One Breath, Redux II, The Red and the Black and Ascension)
Sink or Swim by Su Friedrich