Video Articles

On Monday (I know – sorry Im late on this), the Google News team put up a blog post titled, “Making your video news more discoverable: best practices for news publishers.” with some tips and best practices on how to optimize your YouTube videos to show up well in YouTube News and Google News. To begin with, in [...]

Heh, that’s one of my better titles right there. Plus, it’s extremely accurate in both meanings. Adify has recently implemented a new VAST 2.0 network that spans the globe and expands their previous offerings. Adify is pretty big stuff in the online advertising realm. One might even call them a titan. They are, if you’re not [...]

Comcast is set to release their own social networking site for TV viewers.  The service, named Tunerfish, will be launched in beta sometime in the next couple weeks, and aims to let users share with their friends and families what they are watching on television and online.    Comcast is calling it a “social discovery engine [...]

Our pals at eMarketer (well not sure we’re exactly pals) have done some new research pertaining to how retailers see the value of online video panning out. From all indications, it seems to be quite good. According to the report, Video E-Commerce: Innovative Models Drive Sales, retailers know what consumers want and that is online video. [...]

A recent study from the Yankee Group found that one in eight consumers plan to cut back or ditch entirely their pay TV service this year and live off the Internet only. In this week’s New Media Minute, I take a quick look into why consumers are going cable-free and what challenges this choice will [...]

The Re/Mixed Media Festival 2010 is this Sunday, May 30th at the Galapagos Art Space in Brooklyn. The first of its kind, the festival is devoting an entire day to film, music, fine art, and fashion related to remix culture and creative fair use. From the festival’s producers, The League of Independents:

“The RE/Mixed Media Festival is a means of contributing to the ongoing conversation about remixing, mashups, creative appropriation, copyright law, fair use, and the freedom of artists to access their culture in order to add to and build upon it.  While there are several conferences and events addressing these issues, they tend to be discussion-based, featuring lectures and panel discussions about policy.  LOFI believes that one of the best ways to make the public aware of these types of issues is by demonstrating the types of art and culture that remix touches. To that end, on May 30th they will transform Galapagos into a multimedia art space for a full day/evening of remixed film, video, music, performance, sound, painting, photography and fashion.  Panel discussions will include artists talking about the pros and cons of appropriation and collaborative art, moderated by social media activist and author, Deanna Zandt; a talk about DMCA takedowns with Elizabeth Stark and Kenyatta Cheese; and a panel on ‘Extending Game Culture’ featuring Jesper Juul, Paul Jannicola, and Kerria Seabrooke, and moderated by Josephine Dorado.  The event is free and will also be streamed live on the festival’s website at www.remixedmedia.org.”

We spend a ton of time on this site talking about video SEO.  And with good reason.  Video is on a meteoric rise that shows no signs of stopping—heck, YouTube took 4.5 years to reach a billion views a day, and then doubled it in the next eight months to two billion.  Video isn’t a [...]

Video is becoming ubiquitous in corporate marketing – being used for communication with both external and internal audiences. However, in an age of flip cams, low-cost editing software and tight budgets, many companies think they can easily produce video themselves and as a result, are not creating final products that are as impactful or professional [...]

If you have a great idea for a panel, presentation, workshop, or other programming for the Open Video Conference, be sure to visit http://openvideoconference.org/proposals and submit your idea before June 7th.

That’s two weeks away!

It’s Friday again, and time for another Viral Video Round Up, where we take apart some viral successes and dissect them for clues on how we ourselves can go viral.  Lots of good stuff this week from all kinds of content creators.  We have an amateur video, an established viral creator, and a major brand… [...]

These days, it’s not just web video publishers who are marching to the HTML5 drumbeat.  Email marketers want in on the game, too.  We’ve covered email video marketing in the past, but the advance of HTML5 video has again caused marketers to focus on possible email implications.  We already know that HTML5 video is supported on [...]

Google, Mozilla and Opera made waves this week with a brand new open video standard called WebM. WebM may be in developer beta, but the latest nightly builds of four major browsers play WebM files. And starting today, you can very easily convert your videos to WebM…

Miro Video Converter 2.0 is now available, on the very cutting edge with support for WebM. MVC will take basically any existing video file and convert it to VP8+Vorbis inside a .webm container. From there, you can embed it in any web page using the HTML5 video tag.

Keep in mind that since WebM is so brand new, your video player of choice might not play back your new file. If you’re brave and want to experiment, make sure you’re using one of the latest nightly builds of VLC, Firefox, Chromium, or Opera.

WebM is still in very early stages, but with a impressive range of partners (including OVA members Mozilla, Kaltura, and PCF) expect WebM to quickly accelerate. If you’re interested in WebM and open video, make sure to check out the Open Video Conference, this October in New York City.

More and more information about Google TV is coming out today, as the company continues unveiling details at the I/O event.  One major reveal this morning is YouTube Lean Back. YouTube Leanback is a new interface for YouTube, intended to be used on Google TV, while the user “leans back” on their couch.  Cute. Here’s a screenshot [...]

Last week, LongTailVideo announced that they have created and released the open source JW Player in a new HTML 5 version (Beta) that features PNG skinning, Javascript API, fallback to flash and more. Perhaps this could become the new standard for sites looking to implement an open source HTML 5 video player solution. This means that [...]

Google announced the would open VP8 up as WebM, an open source video codec in a Matroska package with Ogg Vorbis as the audio encoder. So I thought it would be good to have a news round up of who’s in, who’s out and what Apple thinks (we all know that without a 500-page letter [...]

Google, Mozilla and Opera announced a new open video format today called WebM. As part of the WebM project, Google is is freely licensing the VP8 compression technology. This new open video format will use a modified Matroska video container (.webm). WebM format support is available today in Firefox, Chromium, and Opera development builds. All videos that are 720p or larger, uploaded to YouTube after May 19th, will be be encoded in WebM. This is very important news for HTML5 and the future of open video. What does this mean for the web, broadly, and the development of next-generation video applications?

Enter Google and WebM

As many predicted, Google made the announcement this morning at the I/O developer conference. “A key factor in the web’s success is that its core technologies such as HTML, HTTP, and TCP/IP are open for anyone to implement and improve. With video being core to the web experience, a high-quality, open video format choice is needed.” reads the WebM project page.

HTML5 video options in 2010

What was announced

-WebM is a new open-source project sponsored by Google.

-VP8 is now a royalty-free video compression technology (“codec”), like Theora. It’s licensed using a BSD-style license. “WebM and the codecs it supports (VP8 video and Vorbis audio) require no royalty payments of any kind. You can do whatever you want with the WebM code without owing money to anybody,” reads the project blog.

-VP8’s audio companion is actually Vorbis, Theora’s sister codec.

-Chromium, Firefox, and Opera builds are available today. Chrome builds will shortly follow. No statement yet from Microsoft or Apple regarding support in their platforms.

-Some WebM-formatted videos are now available for users who are in the YouTube HTML5 beta. so Google is already leveraging its position to advance open video. All videos that are 720p or larger uploaded to YouTube after May 19th will be be encoded in WebM as part of its HTML5 experiment. Google will continue to offer H264 files as well.

-WebM support in Android is expected in the Gingerbread release (currently planned for Q4, 2010)

-Google engineers are working closely with the ffmpeg project, Sorenson, and others to ensure that a wide variety of software packages and embedded devices will play VP8 video. DirectShow filters are available today for Windows users to try, and GStreamer plug-ins are coming soon for Linux users. Many existing devices will support it through future firmware upgrades—Google is going head-to-head with H264 for set-top boxes and mobile devices. Google is also funding research for hardware decoding. “We’re working closely with many video card and silicon vendors to add VP8 hardware acceleration to their chips,” reads the project page.

-Interestingly, Adobe will also be incorporating the VP8 codec into the Flash player.

HTML5 and the next generation video web

First, a little background. Most videos on the web today are delivered using a combination of proprietary technologies: Flash and H264. These technologies were essential to early innovation with video on the web, and they will be here for some time to come. But for the continued evolution of the medium, free and open video technologies must be made available to developers, businesspeople, and creators.

HTML5, like Flash, enables developers to write advanced web applications, including video. But HTML5 has a significant advantage over Flash: applications written in HTML5 are woven into the fabric of the web. Content delivered in Flash is usually stuck in a silo. Flash apps generally don’t talk to the rest of the web. It’s hard for search engines and other apps to talk to Flash apps. It’s hard to integrate Flash apps with other web services.

By contrast, content delivered in HTML5 has an easy time talking to other pages and services. That’s because HTML5 is made of the same stuff as the open web. HTML5-delivered content will connect seamlessly with the social web, creating new opportunities for creators to connect with audiences. In the not-too-distant future, HTML5 video will be the foundation of amazing and ubiquitous features like audio and visual search, conversational video, and automatic subtitles. Since the next generation of rich media web applications must be integrated with the rest of the open web, it’s clear that HTML5 is the future of online video. But there is a catch: which video formats will be universal across browsers?

Split formats

Since HTML5 video began shipping in browsers last year, video format support has been split. Firefox, Chrome and Opera support the free and open source Theora; Safari and Chrome support the proprietary H264 (as will Internet Explorer sometime later this year). With such inconsistent format support, HTML5 has been slow to supplant Flash video as the preferred method of video delivery on the web. Apple’s mobile devices (iPhone and iPad) have accelerated deployment of HTML5, but Apple’s format of choice is H264. The proprietary nature of H264 has been a hard pill for open web advocates to swallow. Software and devices which use this technology must pay royalties to MPEG-LA, a licensing body which represents the interests of patent holders. This is a major problem for downstream innovators, who must wrangle with unpredictable fees, terms and conditions to use web video.

Developers must have the latitude to create new applications and business models, without asking for permission or bowing to the whims of platform vendors. Web video must not come attached with a tax.

Yet—as critics of H264 point to the unpredictable licensing fees associated with its use, and critics of Theora argue that it is technically inferior—web video formats have been in a stalemate for about a year. With the introduction of a freely licensed, high-quality codec, Google may help break this stalemate and quickly advance HTML5 adoption.

Open source v. royalty free: what’s the difference?

Open source usually connotes transparency and shared development in a given software project. But equally important is the freedom to use the technology without paying for it or asking for permission to use it. VP8 is both free in price and free to adapt and use. Though H264 video is free for end users, and free for certain distributors through 2016, many vendors and businesses must pay millions of dollars to use the technology.

Further, MPEG-LA has a large patent pool, and has frequently intoned that all modern video codecs infringe on these patents. It will be interesting to see this position tested, now that Google has entered the fray with a high-quality royalty free codec.

What’s the catch?

Google wants to own its own destiny. As the largest distributor of video online, simply relying on the goodwill of the H264 patent licensors puts Google in an uncertain position. But Google is also interested in seeing more video online and across the web; that means more data to analyze, more stuff to search, more stuff to run ads against.

There’s also the possibility that the industry will be slow to adopt WebM based on submarine patent fears. A few years ago, Microsoft released the proprietary WMV9 as the open VC-1, which they claimed to be royalty-free.  Shortly after this benevolent gesture, dozens of companies emerged from all corners claiming patents on VC-1.  Within a year, a VC-1 licensing company was set up, and its “patent-free” status was rolled back.

The WebM project page acknowledges this possibility: “These licenses are revocable only if the licensee files a patent infringement lawsuit against the VP8 code that Google released…. standard BSD license and the VP8 license is that this license grants patent rights, and terminates if patent litigation is filed alleging infringement of the code.”

What happens to Theora?

It’s possible that this decision by Google will create an environment where there are several popular video formats (as there are currently several popular image formats). Google, in fact, has advocated for Theora as an alternative codec for mobile devices, and recently funded research for native decoding on ARM processors. As with other web formats, choice and competition are good.

Wikipedia is currently the largest site currently serving Theora video. Wikimedia Foundation’s head of communications Jay Walsh has said that the site is open to hosting multiple video formats, just as it currently hosts multiple image formats. “Ultimately, this isn’t so much about switching formats as it is about making more options available for more web users,” he said to NewTeeVee.

What about Apple iPads, iPhones, and Safari?

Apple’s mobile devices have so far been the biggest motivators in the marketplace for HTML5 adoption, as they don’t support Flash. But VP8 support is not likely, at least in the short term. The Apple ecosystem is highly dependent on H264, and all current Apple devices have on-chip decoding optimized for H264. This and custom routines in Apple operating software help preserve battery life, harmony with iTunes Store purchases, and more.  It will likely be possible for users to enable VP8 support in Safari with a Quicktime component, but native support is unlikely for the foreseeable future.

Big picture

This is excellent news from Google, Mozilla, and Opera, and will help catapult web video into the next generation. We will continue to report on these developments and share our perspective.

These developments will also be a major point of discussion at our annual Open Video Conference, this October 1-2 in New York City. To learn more, follow us on Twitter, and visit http://openvideoconference.org.

We are tremendously excited to share that Michael Wesch is giving a keynote address at Open Video Conference 2010.

Dubbed “the explainer” by Wired magazine, Michael Wesch is a cultural anthropologist exploring the effects of new media on society and culture. After two years studying the implications of writing on a remote indigenous culture in the rain forest of Papua New Guinea, he has turned his attention to the effects of social media and digital technology on global society.

Dr. Wesch is not only a fascinating speaker, with deep insights into the budding online video culture—he’s also a talented videographer. His videos on culture, technology, education, and information have been viewed by millions, translated in over 15 languages, and are frequently featured at international film festivals and major academic conferences. If you haven’t already seen The Machine is Us/ing Us, we strongly recommend you spend the next few minutes watching and be amazed. Or visit his YouTube channel to watch his illuminating talks (especially An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube, presented at the Library of Congress in 2008).

Wesch has won several major awards for his work, including a Wired Magazine Rave Award, the John Culkin Award for Outstanding Praxis in Media Ecology, and he was recently named an Emerging Explorer by National Geographic. He has also won several teaching awards, including the 2008 CASE/Carnegie U.S. Professor of the Year for Doctoral and Research Universities.

We can’t wait to hear what Dr. Wesch has to share at this year’s OVC. For updates on the Open Video Conference, including agenda and speaker announcements, please visit http://openvideoconference.org.

Have a great idea for OVC? Want to give a talk? Visit http://openvideoconference.org/proposals.

This year’s Open Video Conference is October 1-2 in New York City. We’re pleased to announce that independent film strategist Saskia Wilson-Brown will be giving a talk on curation, and the future of the film festival.

Saskia has served as co-director of Los Angeles’ fiercely independent Silver Lake Film Festival, and as a programmer, film juror, advisor and panelist for organizations such as Slamdance, Gen Art, NewFest and IFP. At Current TV, she was head of filmmaker outreach and development for the participatory television and web programming initiatives. She also contributes to the WorkBook Project’s New Breed as a guest writer.

Today, she supports DIY filmmaking by producing and supporting events and educational initiatives around new models in filmmaking—including most recently the OVA/Workbook Project Filmmaker Summit at Slamdance, the TEDActive Innovation Lab, and special film programs like 2009’s Ultra Fabulous Beyond Drag. Her recent projects include helping develop a crowd-sourced fundraising campaign for the Yes Men and exploring unique distribution models with OpenIndie. Finally, she conceived of and runs a roving guerilla screening series called Cinema Speakeasy, which she currently runs from Los Angeles.

Saskia will join a host of other speakers to discuss the future of filmmaking, fundraising, and independent distribution at Open Video Conference 2010.

Have a great idea for OVC? Want to give a talk? Visit http://openvideoalliance.org/proposals.

We are now accepting proposals for panels, presentations, workshop sessions, demo sessions, and other programming for the next Open Video Conference in New York City. Join us and over 1000 participants during our groundbreaking two-day conference and take part in the discussions that are driving the future of the online video medium.

Travel funding is available. Visit http://openvideoconference.org/proposals/ to make a submission.

What Types of Proposals are You Seeking?

We are requesting proposals and ideas for panels, presentations, workshops, and other sessions that will address how we can shape online video or take part in the public debates around the medium. Proposals may be intended for the main conference track, or for more focused unconference-style sessions. Proposal topics may be legal, technical, or cultural in focus, though we encourage proposals in all relevant areas. The more complete and fleshed out a proposal, the more likely it will be accepted—but we welcome the submission of all good ideas.

We also welcome your recommendations on relevant speakers or projects. OVC is a big tent—if you have a person or project to recommend, we want to hear from you!  To make a submission, visit http://openvideoconference.org/proposals. The deadline to submit a proposal is June 7th, 2010 at 11:59 PM EST (GMT -5).

What do you mean by “open video”?

In the narrowest technical sense, open video is the idea that basic video technologies must be available in free and open source implementations. But more than that, open video is a vision for a participatory medium, in which individuals are empowered to wield video to share their message as powerfully as they can with text. For its potential to be fully realized, online video must be a dynamic medium that invites clipping, archival, remix, collage, repurposing, and other transformations that are currently inhibited by law or by lack of tools.

How does the conference work?

OVC is a bit like a festival. Over two days, we will host a continuous main track in the auditorium. These sessions are designed to have the widest appeal, and will interest anyone with a stake in online video. In addition, workshops and other events will take place on an ongoing basis. The conference schedule is a product of this call for participation, so we want to hear from you!

Do you provide funding?

The OVA selection committee will award travel grants to the most promising sessions, in accordance with need and other factors. Since OVC is a non-profit event, we kindly ask that you seek funding from your company or institution before accepting a travel grant.

When will you notify me about the status of my submission?

We will be in touch no later than June 21th about the status of all submissions.

Questions? Let us know! Write to conference@openvideoalliance.org. We look forward to seeing you this Fall!

We’ve made a torrent compiling all the videos of speakers and presentations from the first ever Open Video Conference in 2009! Click to download the complete set in OGG Theora or MP4.

While we gear up for the second ever Open Video Conference, we thought we’d celebrate with a special release. With the help of our friends at Vodo, we’re publishing a comprehensive torrent of the inaugural Open Video Conference. Click for the free download in your choice of format– OGG Theora video and MP4 video are both available. You’ll simply need your choice of bittorent client such as Transmission or Vuze to download the files, and a media player like VLC to watch your new library of videos. Or, get the open-source Miro Video Player, which lets you both download torrents and play videos at once.

That’s right– you can download a full compilation of all the speakers, panels, and presentations that made OVC09 such a huge hit. This includes Yochai Benkler, Jonathan Zittrain, Xeni Jardin, Mark Tribe, Lauren Cornell, Amy Goodman, Ted Hope, Lance Weiler, Eclectic Method, and many more. The entire collection is licensed CC-BY, so please share and enjoy the videos, freely, on behalf of the Open Video Alliance.

Enjoy reliving last years event, or tune in for the first time if you weren’t able to make it. We hope to see you in New York for OVC2010 on October 1-2!

Thanks to Vodo for their help sharing free, legal torrents, including the complete OVC09 library.