Need for Open Standards Video on the Web
An article in Technology Review reports on the current state of video on the web, its drawbacks and limitations, and what the future may bring.
- OurTube, By David Talbot, Technology Review (September/October 2009). (3400 words)
Dale and Stern's difficulties offer one small glimpse into a larger problem with online video: unlike much of the rest of the Web, it is accessed through a collection of closed, proprietary formats, such as Adobe's Flash and Microsoft's Silverlight. (Try a video search engine such as Blinkx; you'll get plenty of videos pulled from around the Web, but to watch them you may need to download or update software.) Certain websites, led by YouTube, convert uploaded content to Flash for ease of viewing. Today, however, a growing number of technologists and video artists want to see Web video adopt the kind of open standards that fueled the growth of the Web at large. HTML, the markup language that describes Web pages; JavaScript, the programming language that allows forms, graphics, and various special effects to be added to them; JPEG, the standard for images--all these building blocks of the Web can be used by anyone, without paying fees or asking permission. This openness was indispensable to the creation and then the explosion of blogs, search engines, social networks, and more.Talbot quotes Chris Blizzard, director of technical evangelism at Mozilla, as he explains why open standards are so important:
Open standards create low friction. Low friction creates innovation. Innovation makes people want to pick it up and use it. But it's not something where we can guess what 'it' is. We just create the environment that lets 'it' emerge.Too much government information (not just video) suffers from being locked in to proprietary formats and proprietary means of delivering that information. (See: What is wrong with this picture? and lots more at the open formats tag here at FGI.) Blizzard says that we need to take "video out of the plug-in prison." Talbot says, "The goal isn't to make any one application possible but to bring about the next Internet revolution--one whose specific form is hard to foresee, except that it's likely to be televised." Continue reading
Student video contest
In conjunction with the President's speech to students on Tuesday, Sept. 8, The Department of Education is sponsoring a video contest for students. More information will be available at http://www.ed.gov/iamwhatilearn/index.html . From the announcement :
To further encourage student engagement, the U.S. Department of Education is launching the "I Am What I Learn" video contest. On September 8, we will invite students to respond to the president's challenge by creating videos, up to two minutes in length, describing the steps they will take to improve their education and the role education will play in fulfilling their dreams. We invite all students age 13 and older to create and upload their videos to YouTube by October 8. Submissions can be in the form of video blogs, public service announcements (PSAs), music videos, or documentaries. Students are encouraged to have fun and be creative with this project! The general public will then vote on their favorites to determine the top 20 finalists. These 20 videos will be reviewed by a panel of judges including U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. The panel will choose three winners, each of whom will receive a $1,000 cash prize.Continue reading
President’s speech to students
President Obama will deliver a national address to the students of America at 12:00 p.m., Eastern Time (ET), September 8, 2009. Information about the speech, teacher handouts for classroom activities, frequently asked questions, and additional information are all available here:
- President Barack Obama to Make Historic Speech to America’s Students, U.S. Dept. of Education.
Kentucky Shows How to Publish and Deposit Government Documents
The State of Kentucky has developed a best-practices manual for publishing -- and depositing -- government documents digitally.
- Kentucky State Government Publications Handbook, Kentucky Department for Libraries & Archives. Frankfort, KY (June 2008) Edition 1.0
The Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives (KDLA) has been the official repository for Kentucky state agency publications since 1958 ...Kentucky state agencies are required to send their publications to KDLA. The Public Records Division (PRD) and State Library Services (SLS) at KDLA work together not only to provide access to the valuable information contained in state agency publications, but also to preserve the publications for future generations.The handbook says that "Electronic publications should be forwarded in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF)." We would love to see all U.S. government publications in PDF format deposited in FDLP libraries. It would be a great first step toward digital deposit of all government information. Continue reading
NARA Nears Completion of Ingesting Bush Records
NARA Nears Completion of Ingesting Bush Records, National Coalition for History (Sept 4, 2009).
The National Archives and Records Administration announced this week that the agency has nearly completed the process of loading the electronic records of President George W. Bush into the Electronic Records Archives (ERA) system. To date, more than 85% of the total volume has been ingested. ...The intake of these records is expected to be complete by the end of September, 2009. Currently, the use of the system is limited to Presidential Libraries staff...See also: Archives reports progress on road to digital ERA, by Max Cacas, Federal News Radio, (Sept. 3, 2009). Continue reading