Video Culture: 的 Potential Reshaping Of 的 Online Video Landscape

的re's a curious event going on at the New York University School of Law 今天 and Saturday.

的 开放式视频会议 is a newly-formed event series focused on the 免费的 and Open Source Software (OSS or FLOSS, depending on who you talk to) that addresses both the technical and social impacts of video on the web. 的 开放式视频会议, sponsored by the 开放视频联盟, is a bit of a clarion call to all those who have been working away at open source video applications but have not had a chance to speak to one another.

As with open source software, proponents tend to run a bit toward the counter-culture side, with the crowd leaning more toward body piercings than suits: A typically hyperbolic t-shirt, put out by 创作—one of the prime movers behind the 开放视频联盟—shows the progression from free speech (1791) through to free voting (1965) and free software (1983) up until the current year, proclaiming 2009 as the year of 免费的 Video.

I remember early 流媒体 shows, back in the 1997-1999 timeframe, had similar discussions and a similar clientele, but those events have morphed over the years into mainly a business/enterprise focus, prompting others to start up shows like NewTeeVee Live and this newer Open Video show. Yet for all the counterculture vibe in the halls of NYU, the fact that this event is being held in a law building on the south side of Washington Square in New York City means that the Creative Commons topics and copyright are being being discussed widely, even within the open source community.

Other topics covered are fairly diverse, 虽然, ranging from how to compete with piracy ("copy them, 免费赠送, build something they can't copy, live close to the border as William Fox did when he and a few friends created Hollywood,马特·梅森说, 的作者 海盗的困境) to open source metadata projects that are being pitched as partially-completed visions that need additional hands to grow into completion, 或者至少是0.9日发布.

All that to say that there is an underlying sense of the need to simultaneously addressing the "business" issues as well as the social issues.

One presentation encapsulated all of this quite nicely. 罗斯哈雷, Head of School of Media Arts, University of New South Wales (Sydney) presented a session titled "Open Circuits to Open Video: Can Video Artists Adopt Open Video Srategies as 的ir Own?"

Harley started out with a quote from 1973, attributed to Nam June Paik, 早期的录像艺术家, 说, in part that the video "cassette will diversify the video culture from. . . . three networks, one-way communication to . . . mobile two-way video communication."

Harley went on to talk about the early Open Circuits and Participation TV concepts from the 1970s and 1980s, which were about sharing and openness, and his position that these early attempts helps clarify the Open Source movement and find their echo in FLOSS or open source, 今天.

"Creative Commons is one of the best tools we have, 今天, to address open source video distribution,哈利说。. “困难在于, 在非常现实的情况下, about the assignation of rights and ways for the distribution organizations and artists alike. What will it mean if we make art freely available via the web, if artists make no money?"