<videovortex> Open Video Forum in Berlin (13/14.12 2012)

[Geert Lovink]

Open Video Forum

http://openvideoforum.xmlab.org

#ovforum

ovf at xmlab.org


13-14 / 12 / 2012 Supermarkt Berlin Germany

African developers have become key players in mobile

technology innovation. There is wide spread uptake of mobile

phones, the use of micro payments using cell phones has gone viral,

cheap unlimited data plans for social media services and email

are generally available. At the same time, the situation for

developers remains complex, as broadband availability and

network strength varies widely across the continent.


The Open Video Forum Dec 13-14, 2012 brings European and African

developers active / interested in the Mokolo project, a

pan-African initiative driven by a vision of supporting the

online distribution of African film / visual media,

together with open video developers. Questions of streaming

in bandwidth-diverse environments are as central as the role of

semantic analysis and the collaborative creation of

content/metadata:


Stream I

Development for Diversity: The African Hub Experience


Villa ACT, Senegal and Activespaces, Cameroon, will share their
experiences or working as IT / Software Developers in

Africa. Their invaluable input includes the following areas of

research for Mokolo.Labs: accessible open source solutions

for African video producers; low-cost server side solutions

for video distribution semantic search based on increased

availability of metadata; connection of audiovisual work

with cultural metadata; location-based video compression.


All of the work is open source, and the outcomes will be available

as Open Educational Resources.


Stream II

Crowdsourcing Metadata: Exploring Bandwidth Diversity


For Mokolo.Labs, the development challenge for innovative

video distribution is not low-bandwith, but bandwidth

diversity and resource efficiency. A generalized user

experience can only be achieved when a realistic bandwidth

picture is known to the developers. Often network carriers

market their connection plans with max bandwidth xyz. We aim to

assist developers through the creation of an African Video

Bandwidth Observatory and invite partnerships with the

MolokoLabs project in this effort. Areas of interest: social

viewing experience; crowd-sourced metadata & content

curation; progressive download & adaptive bitrate

streaming; test frameworks & user feedback strategies.


Live-streaming of all sessions is provided by Streampark.


A detailed schedule / list of participants will be made available soon.


Your Involvement


If you are an open video developer or generally interested in  
supporting the project, please consider the following:


use the #ovforum hashtag on Twitter

sign up for the mokolo-video mailing list to stay involved

share your own research with us, and let us know if we can include it  
on the event website

attend the event

register as a contributor for the Open Video Handbook I (frameworks)  
or Open Video Handbook II (end-user technologies)

And, of course, contact us with questions and suggestions!

Sincerely,


Mick Fuzz

Vincent Lagoyete

Emeka Okoye

Quirin Pils

Jan Tretschok

Fua Tse

Soenke Zehle


Open Video Handbook Mini-Sprint
15-16 / 12 / 2012 Supermarkt Berlin

The Open Video Forum will be followed Dec 15-16, 2012 by a mini-sprint  
for an Open Video Handbook, organized in cooperation with FLOSS  
Manuals and facilitated by Mick Fuzz. The Handbook will be available  
as an open educational resource (OER) and address the needs of African  
IT developers interested in the future of online video.