Video Goes Open Source on Wikipedia: New Format, New Player, New Editing/Sharing Tools

by admin July 20, 2009 at 5:04 pm

In a Beet.tv interview posted yesterday, Wikimedia deputy director Erik Moller gave a few clues as to the Foundation’s train of thought when it comes to video editing and distribution.

In the interview clips, included below, Moller hints at the site’s upcoming suite of editing tools and sharing options. He compares video to text and image content, subtextually posing the question: If other kinds of non-video content are so easy to grab, remix, and reuse, why not video, too?

“The typical video that we see on the web is basically a black box format in a Flash container. I can’t easily manipulate it; I need to buy proprietary tools to really do things with it or even to rebroadcast it.” All these factors go harshly against the free-as-in-beer, Creative Commons grain of Wikipedia/Wikimedia, so it should come as no surprise that the Foundation’s video player and tools are to represent a dramatic shift from current web video standards.

Read more: readwriteweb.com