Here is a humble additional opinion from newcomer Gene-loeb. I agree that we should try it according to the suggestions of Wayne, Patricia and others. I believe we need to stay with our systems of value ande which will simplify things by having set parameters for choices which is, for inexperienced me a big help. We need to keep up with these advances. Thanks for the conscientiousness and caring of all of you. gene
On Thu, Feb 18, 2010 at 6:26 PM, Wayne Mackintosh < mackintosh.wa...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi Everyone, > > In the past we've received requests from many community members to > implement the functionality to embed links to video hosted on third party > sites (eg Youtube, BlipTV Vimeo etc). Now that WikiEducator is hosted > independently by the OER Foundation, we have more flexibility and autonomy > to take a community decision concerning on third party video. > > - Do WikiEducators want the ability to embed links to video clips? > - What is the best way for us to take this decision? > - Should we have a trial period to see how this works? > > We need and invite your feedback -- so please post your replies to this > list. We will consider all feedback posted over the next two weeks, before > deciding on the next steps. Apology for the long email -- but I provide some > discussion points below. Third party video is not a simple matter when it > comes to the values and meaning of freedom as interpreted by our community > values. > > *Discussion* > > Embedding video is not a simple question of turning a switch to enable > links to third party hosted video. Technically speaking, this is relatively > easy to achieve. However, there are many issues associated with digital > video and our core values of the WikiEducator project which we need to > consider, most notably the essential freedoms. > > WE subscribe to the free cultural works definition and WE need to find a > solution which aligns with what we believe as a community OER project. I've > been sound boarding a few ideas with colleagues and friends and would > appreciate your input and feedback on a few baseline requirements and > suggestions. > > - *Licensing.* We must be able to identify and search for > appropriately licensed video content. This is to ensure that video content > we embed adheres to the requirements of the definition of free cultural > works. In practice this means we can only use video hosting sites which > clearly tag their video content with the relevant copyright license as well > as corresponding search functionality to identify resources which are > appropriately licensed (eg. CC-0, CC-BY, CC-BY-SA, GFDL and the public > domain declaration), Therefore, Youtube (for example) would not meet this > requirement as their existing conditions of service would not enable the > implementation of license tagging. Currently WIkiEducator users would not > be > able to differentiate openly licensed videos from all rights reserved > content. However, BlipTV allows users to choose from a number of *Creative > Commons* licenses to apply to their work, and videos are searchable by > license. This would enable WIkiEducators to use the Creative Commons search > (http://search.creativecommons.org/) facility to easily identify > appropriately licensed video on BlipTV. > - *Open file formats. *This is a requirement to ensure that our content > is stored and accessible in formats which can be edited using free/open > source software. In addition this means that source files should be > available for download. No WikiEducator should be forced to purchase a > license for non-free software in order to remix and create a derivative > work > from our site. Most video sites (with the exception, for instance, of the > Wikimedia Commons) encode video for web delivery using the Flash Video > Format (flv) which is a proprietary file format. BlipTV provide a service > for their registered users who also have an account with the Internet > Archive (http://blip.tv/prefs/archiveorg/ ). In short this facility > enables archiving of downloadable video files including the open file > format > (ogg Theora). Therefore, WikiEducator users who upload video files to > BlipTV > could register for the Internet Archive service making it easier for > educators to download video in the formats of their choice for remix > purposes. However, this feature would not solve the problem of open file > formats for the video uploaded by BlipTV users who do not register for the > Internet Archive service. Fortunately BlipTV provides the functionality to > download the video files, even though these are generally supplied in the > flv (proprietary file format). The open source FFmpeg project ( > http://www.ffmpeg.org/) provides tools to convert flv files into open > file formats. Therefore, all WikiEducator would have access to free > software > tools for remixing source video, thus meeting the requirements of the free > cultural works definition. > > Therefore the BlipTV hosting site would provide a service which aligns with > our values. There are also Mediawiki wiki extensions available for embedding > BlipTV video on WikiEducator pages. > > Pending a positive assessment of the stability and security of the BlipTV > extensions for WikiEducator -- Would the community consider moving forward > with providing capability for embedding BlipTV video on the WikiEducator > site along the lines suggested above? > > > Thoughts? > > Cheers > Wayne > > > > -- > Wayne Mackintosh, Ph.D. > Director, > International Centre for Open Education, > Otago Polytechnic, New Zealand. > Board of Directors, OER Foundation. > Founder and Community Council Member, Wikieducator, www.wikieducator.org > Mobile +64 21 2436 380 > User Page: http://wikieducator.org/User:Mackiwg > Skype: WGMNZ1 > Twitter: OERFoundation, Mackiwg > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "WikiEducator" group. > To visit wikieducator: http://www.wikieducator.org > To visit the discussion forum: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator > To post to this group, send email to wikieducator@googlegroups.com > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > wikieducator-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com > -- With Best Wishes for an Even Better Day Gene-loeb Gene-loeb Aronin, Ph.D. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "WikiEducator" group. 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