I recently brock my sholder bone while flying a BIG kite.

Here is the exray, hummm not so good, might have to have a metal plate to bring it back togather.

Got to re-think a littel the implantation of the project

The original idea is still sound, but the path has changed.

To create a coherent TV look and feel out of all the jumble of Creative commons video content out there….

* there is enough content spread about

* the software tools exist – BM and DP

* the producers for new content exist – every thing from film students to activists to archives

How to add value to this and make a sustainable living from it for the content producers?

First thing to realize is that few successful dotcoms had a way to make money when they started out… the profit either came from selling out to a bigger company or by bringing in profit making in later to monetarise their user base. So with this in mind the key to dotcom success is lots of users very quickly – this is done by business buzz and good user interface design. Good content is of course essential as well.

One of the key ideas is to take something that people already use – such as a book shop and put it online – such as Amazon – or a public auction such as e-bay. The key to these two company success was that they used users interaction to create value. By reviewing and recommending in the case of amazon and interactive trust building in the case of e-bay.

Nobody has achieved this yet with online video – youtube and its copycat sights are a early precursor of this development. What they don’t do is use an existing working model – they are just the web with video, no more. The big success will be the one who provides reliable full screen SD (or HD) video. For our project the key to success is TV like look and feel environment so that the user just turns on and sits back.

This is not to say that all the interaction of IP TV shouldn’t be there just that for IP TV to outreach beyond a tecky getto the is a need to give people what they are used to – just as Amazon gave people a book shop and e-bay and on-line auction – visonontv aims to be the cross over that gives people TV.

Nobody else is doing this:

* teckys are hopeless at creating what people will use

* TV people are wrapped up in their high paid dog eats dog world of statues

* new media is just that innovating rather than evolving thus misses more than it hits

* activist are inward looking ghetto people – and most wouldn’t see a new idea if it hit’em on the nose.

NEXT

We have the software, we have the content, we have the expertise.

WHAT WE NEED

We need funding and commitment – and to build/nurture a global network of producers. We need some people to sieve the global CC video output for content

Most importantly we need channel branding segments/inserts and logos.

TEC

We don’t need any new hardware – we have it already.

We shoot and edit standard wide-screen DV and broadcast in 800x480P web HD in a standard MP4 format – this will be equal or better than tradition digital TV (which uses and outdated MPG2 format and very limited bandwidth). For archive we use 640x480P MPG4 format.

The question of power?

Did you ever wonder about Solar video editing, here is a page about one of my trips to the beach for a month to edit a film on Solar power:

http://www.undercurrents.org/Vagabond/

Have a look here for folding solar panels

http://www.solarequip.co.uk/

Here is a good web sight for battery's for your Solar experience:

http://www.batteryspace.com/

It works (:

Sound and Video

H4 - Handy Recorder

This looks interesting for film making, a WAV/MP3 recorder that works and isent too expensive.

Though the are still some problems with the user interface so would hang back till version 2

More info Here

IPTV update

Good posts summing up state of video online from the point of view of the "major players"

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/online_video_index.php

http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/10/15/itunes-movies-v-the-rest/

RSS as a TV channel?

The use of RSS feeds as TV channels in democracy player really isent working as the just isent anufe content on any one RSS feed to have any connection to the look and feel of a traditional TV channel. The use of “one click installs” provides a much better metaphor for the look and feel of traditional TV. One install will bring in 5-10 RSS feeds on the subject of the “channel” including a feed that provides the look and feel of traditional TV that is the in-betweens logos and coming next week teasers etc.

We hope to be producing a custom skin for Democracy player that will make this happen. But the use of a single RSS feed terminology throughout the app is a bit of an obstical to creating a co-hirent look and feel. Anyone any ideas how to change this? Please post comments (:

New program torrent

check out our latist adition of underreview: Our pirate finds the edge in animation, videos, websites and other media. This show shows the hilarious Bush & Blair love duet and the Voice from Johan Soderberg. Produced by undercurrents

The torrent is here

Source 'n' Chips (Show 01)

A show giving a grassroots expert insight into technology.

Presented by Hamish Campbell of Undercurrents UK we follow him as he uses solar power to edit a film on the beach and explores peer to peer TV.

click here for torrent file

More to be programed

We need a budget to pay a programmer a $ bounty to write this, $250 might do it.

Customized Democracy Player install

We need to customize the Democracy Player app by making it much less like a computer app and more like TV.

* Take out the menus, channel bar and the search box in the default view

* add a button “TIVO” at the bottom corner that returns DP to the current interface state.

Thus as a defaults install you get a TV box with a VCR controls that starts a Channel template play list when you hit the on-button.

You can get interactive TV by clicking on the on the “TIVO” button.

We don’t use the word TIVO anyone think of a better icon-word.

Programing to be done

We need a budget to pay a programmer a $ bounty to write this, $500 should do it.

The Playlist generator

We need a generalized set of set of rules so we can tweak them, its important NOT to write hard coded solution otherwise it will not work.

Loads all the meta data into a database then parses a channel template through the database of content meta data to create a “fuzzy logic” playlist every time you press the play button.

- with hardcode play links

- subject and gonra

- quality

- etc....

When you press the play button it creates a playlist depending on what time/day you are in the channel template so that you can have a full 7 day schedule.

* We need some way of “embedding” the video meta data into the video file or RSS feed?

* We need a way of creating a channel template – we need a data format

* We need a playlist generator which takes the meta data from the videos and the template and creates the playlist.