NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - April 1, 2009) - A host of organizations announced their
support today for the Open Video Conference in NYC, a high-profile event to
explore the future of online video. The event, slated for June 19-20 at NYU
Law School in Manhattan, brings together partners from all over the online
video spectrum to ensure that the medium continues to develop
characteristics of openness, interoperability, and decentralization.
The Open Video Conference brings together creators, entrepreneurs,
technologists, policy-makers, hackers, academics, and others to share their
insights on how open video enables creative expression and technical
innovation. Speakers include professor Yochai Benkler, who has been called
"the leading intellectual of the information age," best-selling author Clay
Shirky, and filmmaker Nina Paley, whose self-produced film "Sita Sings the
Blues" highlights the creative potential of small, self-distributing
producers. Mozilla, a major conference sponsor, will showcase its
commitment to open video with new video features in its popular Firefox
browser. A full schedule of presentations and workshops will be announced
in early April.
Conference participants will also examine the challenges that keep online
video from reaching its full potential. For one, online video playback is
beset by a mess of proprietary formats, license fees, and plugins that
segment viewership and complicate self-publishing efforts. Unlike blogs,
email, and other staples of the open web -- which rely on open standards --
most online video content is delivered through proprietary codecs and
player technologies. Some say such concentration is harmful to the
long-term health of the online video medium.
"Internet video can flourish as a central front of Internet innovation,
creativity, and political expression only if based upon the open
infrastructures that have been the hallmark of the Internet," said Laura
DeNardis, Executive Director of the Yale Information Society Project.
"Changing these Internet principles now will slowly strangulate innovation
and restrict online expression."
Yet "open video requires more than functional open standards," said Dean
Jansen of the Participatory Culture Foundation. "The Open Video Conference
is also about the legal and social norms surrounding online video. It's
about giving creators the ability to specify the rights they reserve to
their content. It's about fair use of copyrighted works. It's about a lot
of things, which is why this conference is guaranteed to stimulate."
In addition to talks from internet luminaries, screenings of video art, and
demonstrations of the newest internet video technology, the event will
serve as the inauguration of the Open Video Alliance, an umbrella coalition
dedicated to furthering best practices in online video.
The conference is a production of Yale Internet Society Project,
Participatory Culture Foundation (creators of the open source Miro internet
TV player) and Kaltura (developers of a full open source video platform),
in partnership with Mozilla, Creative Commons, and the Berkman Center for
Internet and Society at Harvard University.
"Kaltura is excited to help coordinate a conference that will bring
together, for the first time, hundreds of people that care about the future
of open video on the web," said Shay David, co-founder and VP of Business
and Community Development at Kaltura.
Full details and conference registration options are available online at
http://openvideoconference.org.
Details:
Open Video Conference
June 19-20, 2009
New York City
40 Washington Square South (NYU Law School)
-- Brings together stakeholders in the online video space (video makers,
coders, lawyers, academics, entrepreneurs, etc.) for cross-pollination and
development of the Open Video movement.
-- Raises public interest and awareness around the Principles for an Open
Video Ecosystem, a community effort to define best practices in online
video.
-- Raises the public profile of video creators and artists.
-- Strengthens a narrative -- why should video artists and creators value
openness? How does it affect their work?
-- Confirmed participants include writer Clay Shirky, professor Yochai
Benkler, and others
On the web: http://openvideoconference.org
Contact: Ben Moskowitz (conference@openvideoalliance.org)
Twitter: @openvideo
Contact Information: Contact:
Lisa Bennett
212-981-3965
lisa.bennett@kaltura.com