Saturday, May 30, 2009

2ed IPTV training day - Programme

10.00

(Applications you need – editing software, Audacity, a skype account and visionOntv – install them now)

Intro

This is our first induction to "the project" – the ambitious goal of creating, collating and distributing high-quality media to make an entire alternative IPTV station, which can take a million forms and be disseminated to every corner of the web. Most importantly, at its core, it aims to liberate people to do the same themselves, to take any part of the project or infrastructure, and make it their own.

1. The infrastructure of an IPTV station

The delivery mechanisms - streaming and peer-caching – soon the CMS (content management system)

Distributing by download (p2p = peer-to-peer = peer-caching)

The VOTV player app at visionOntv – built on miro

There are 5 main channels at the moment:

- Grassroots – for UK-based, direct action and environmental stories

- Friendly Fire – US-based stories – "the news you don't see on NBC"

- Globalviews – "Another World is Visible" – international stories not based in either the US or the UK.

- Headmix – culture and counter-culture, dramas, soaps, music vids etc

- Plug and Play technology for social change

There are also an ever-growing number of subject-specific channels , which can also be embedded in websites and blogs (see below).

Each channel needs looking after – we need people to be channel controllers.

Content comes into these channels as either original or syndicated:

Syndicated content:

1. rss feeds – trusted series or shows which we take every episode of – examples: Ted Talks / Rocketboom / Threadbangers

2. rss feeds which we monitor and selectively re-publish. - Mosaic / US indymedia - http://feeds.visionontv.net/ToBeLookedAt

3. single films which we re-publish (if longer than 10 minutes, usually in "youtube-length" sections of less than 10 minutes) – eg "The War of 33". There are visionOntv titles available for anyone planning to do this the "VOTV video titles folder" in the image gallery here.

Original content:

1. animotos

2. short video reports

3. studio shows – the technical means - we need presenters and technicians – purpose of studio shows

Distributing by streaming - via tubemogul to 8 different sites, including youtube. And via blinkx to 10 search engines.

Embeds and using metadata:

This potentially distributes the films massively, by allowing people to view the films on numerous different portals.

Marketing and publicity – currently we are in Phase 1, which has 2 stages:

a) Outreaching to activists

b) Outreaching to NGOs

This is being done via embeds, and links to short urls on websites and blogs.

Phase 2 goes to mainstream media and uses a wide range of techniques such as “celebrity endorsement”!

Plans for the future – seasons, series, playlist generator, everything running through the cms, groups, marketing very widely of the cms project. Encouraging people to use the CMS and open media feeds as “mashup” for their own sites.

The distribution challenge – the goal of getting views – 1st goal: 10k viewers per film.

11.00

Coffee

(Participants to start thinking about what they might want to do)


2. How to Do Stuff

11.15

1. How to find creative commons images – at flickr

or at sitepoint

2. Make an animoto in one hour:

From one of these stories:

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/05/430052.html

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/05/430278.html

http://bristol.indymedia.org/article/690427

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/05/22/18596917.php

http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Church_of_Scientology_indefinitely_banned_from_editing_Wikipedia

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/05/431042.html

12.30

3. Transcoding – how to make a film ready for the web.

Full-spec (dv quality) avi/mov to mp4 following the guide here.

Transcoding DVDs to mp4 and youtube films to mp4 at the bottom of the same page.

13.00

LUNCH – A Korean vegetarian meal will be served. Donations welcome.

14.00

4. How to publish – tubemogul.com account:

username: publish@visionon.tv

password:*******

Practical workshop: publish the animotos to visionOntv via tubemogul

5. What to publish - quality control or "smart aggregation" (the aesthetics of alternative media)

6. What not to publish - Copyright/copyleft – creative commons licences – music - legals

15.30

TEA

15.45

7. Using rss for new films– checking our mash-up of rss feeds for quality films.

8. How to search elsewhere for new films – our youtube subscribers etc

9. How to make a studio show – (not a practical workshop – which will be a separate session)

10. Promoting the channels – on your social media networks – promote the channel rather the film - write reviews in appropriate places – put an embed in your blog or campaign website.

11. How to argue for an embed – the two blocks to getting an embed on a website, the owners and the admins.

12. How to implement an embed - taking an embed code off visionontv.info or creating a new one.

16.45

3. The next step

How we can help you to realize your goals and ambitions.

18.00

4. Sundowners
Enjoy a cocktail with visionOntv!