[Imc-uk-process] Some proposals out of video activism gathering

[Ben]

This weekend, 20th - 22nd there was a video activism gathering in 
London. During the process several ideas were generated that relate to 
indymedia and the way it handles video. I promised I would pass on 
these proposals. I have cross posted this list to global video as well 
as UK tech and process since the ideas may be relevant beyond the UK 
site

1. having all uploaded videos automatically transcoded into the most 
popular mobile video codecs
     such as 3GP, PSP etc for video capable mobile phones, ipods, psp 
etc.
     The idea would be that as well as the option to download or view 
the videos in the format provided
     by the person who uploaded them, there would also be an option to 
download a version for your
     mobile device which could then be passed on virally by bluetooth 
etc and increase the audience
     beyond those who come to indymedia or have internet access. Such 
devices are increasingly common
     and there is apparently little worthwhile content.

2. Have a specific publish page for video (linked to from the current 
publish page). This new publish
     page would  be more focused to helping the user provide decent meta 
data and also promote good
     practice in terms of which wrapper, codec, bitrate etc are used. It 
would also provide links to how-to-guides
     codecs, free software tools etc.

3.  Additionally, the publish page should allow people to specify a 
link to a video file stored elsewhere
      instead of or including uploading a video file. Articles posted 
that contain links to video files should be
      automatically flagged as video files just like those that actually 
contain attached files.

4. Articles with video content or links to video content should be 
identified by mir when generating the
     html pages and add a prominent box which contains the links, 
perhaps with multiple options as
     appropriate for watching or downloading specific file types. It 
should also contain brief help information
     and links to further info for users who may experience difficulty 
viewing the video files and may need
     to install additional codecs or free media player software.

5. Ideally there would be much better intergration between UK (or any 
local IMC such as indymedia.ie)
      and the video.indy site. One idea was to have a specific publish 
page for video on IMC UK which
      contains more specific fields for video and actually uploads the 
video file to video.indymedia.org
      rather than UK but also places an entry into the newswire which is 
flagged as being a video
      containing article but infact just links to the file on video.indy
      The advantage to the uploaded is only needed to do one upload. The 
advantage to indy UK is less load on
      bandwidth and servers. The advantage to video.indy users is a one 
stop shop and the advantage to UK
      indy users is there get to hear about stuff uploaded to video.indy 
even though they might not know of the sites
      existence. The problems include the fact that video.indy is 
currently not capable of relating more than one
      uploaded version to a specific record. (in other words you can't 
have a .mov and a .avi of the same video
      without generation two records which is a real pain in the arse).

6. UK indymedia needs a video newswire. Ideally generated on the video 
projects page and given links from
     any page containing video and perhaps also linked to from a little 
video camera icon near the current
     newswire column.

Note: Most of what has said here also applies to audio content. Ie. 
Separate publish pages, more help info,
more prominence, better integration with radio.indy etc.