audio

ccPublisher & Internet Archive

ccPublisher is out in a new version. ccPublisher is an application that helps you select a CC license for your audio and video files. It then helps you tag your files and upload them to the Internet Archive for permanent free hosting. If you prefer to host elsewhere ccPublisher will generate some HTML for you that lets others validate the license it embeds in the file.

By the way – If you haven’t done so already then you should take a nostalgia trip on the Internet Archive’s wayback machine. Here are some examples of what the web used to be like in the olden days…

Chalmers Technical University 1996

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Göteborg University from 1997

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Finally, this is my website in 2001 thankfully my earlier aesthetic experiments seem not to have been saved for the afterworld…

Posted on by mklang

What is Google?

Google is many things. To some its a symbol of the success of the dotcom ideal. To others it has become an activity online (to google), and to others it is almost synonmous with our experience of the Web and maybe the Internet since most people no longer differentiate these two things.

The position of Google has taken such proportions that we no longer remember the time before Google. Not many years ago the main search engine was Altavista – its still there, but it no longer commands the position it once did. Google has been moving in all manner of interesting directions. Just to menation a few: Google desktop, Gmail, Google Scholar, Google Maps and Google Earth.

Google’s position has spawned some interesting spoofs: for example Googlism – which shows what google “thinks of you, your friends or anything”. Another example is the mirror version world of elgooG. A final example is Woogle which uses the picture search to tell stories in pictures.

Even prior to this diversification there were voices being raised about the position which Google was creating for itself in the everyday online lives of users. The question, stated basically, is what happens if we become dependant upon a private company for our information? Google is not a public office but is a private company whose primary goal is not truth but profit. In this vein we have seen that Google stores vast amounts of information about its users and has acquiesced to Chinese demands to censor information to users in China.

The role of search engines is becoming an important area of research, recently Matthew Rimmer at the Law Department of the ANU has organised a public forum on Google entitled “GOOGLE – Infinite Library, Copyright Pirate, or Monopolist?” (9 December).

The audio files from the Public Forum are online so for those of us who could not make it to Australia in time we can now listen to the presentations.

Posted on by mklang

European Culture Online

The European Commission today unveiled its strategy to make Europe?s written and audiovisual heritage available on the Internet. Turning Europe?s historic and cultural heritage into digital content will make it usable for European citizens for their studies, work or leisure and will give innovators, artists and entrepreneurs the raw material that they need. The Commission proposes a concerted drive by EU Member States to digitise, preserve, and make this heritage available to all. It presents a first set of actions at European level and invites comments on a series of issues in an online consultation (deadline for replies 20 January 2006). The replies will feed into a proposal for a Recommendation on digitisation and digital preservation, to be presented in June 2006.

EUROPA – Rapid – Press Releases

Posted on by mklang

Swedish Radio, Public Service & Internet Technology

Swedish Radio (Sveriges Radio – www.sr.se) is the public service radio broadcaster in Sweden. The company is owned by a foundation and is entirely funded by licence fees. Advertising is not permitted. Swedish Radio is proud of its public service tradition. One of the goals of Swedish Radio is that the programs shall be of interest for a wide audience across the country and made available to listeners in the whole country.

(Programmen skall rikta sig till och vara tillgängliga för publiken i hela landet samt i skälig omfattning tillgodose skiftande behov och intressen hos landets befolkning.)

The purpose of Public Service Radio, as defined by SR themselves is that everyone, independent of sex, age, geographical residence or cultural background should be able to find something of value among SRâ??s programming.

To further fulfil these goals SR has adopted digital technology and the Internet as a mode of infrastructure. It is possible to listen to the radio online and to find and download recent programs, as well as programs from the archives.

Unfortunately SR fallen (inadvertently?) into the trap of using proprietary software. To be able to listen to SRâ??s audio files the user must have Realplayer version 7 (or later) installed on her computer. The user has a choice between using either the free version or buying the program.

However using Realplayer presents the user with something of a dilemma. The first problem arises from the fact that the free version of the software is not entirely easy to find. For those who are unaware that the free version exists the alternative is to purchase the software.

The second problem is that Realplayer has serious integrity issues. They have been sued for privacy violations more than once. For those users who wish to protect their integrity Realplayer is not a viable alternative.

The third problem arises if the user wishes not to support or use proprietary software. Free Software, the alternative approach presented by the Free Software Foundation is an important part of an open technological infrastructure and many who support the need for Free Software alternatives are not able to listen to SRâ??s audio files since they are not available in non-proprietary alternatives.

Audio compression formats based upon non-patented, open source solutions (Such as ogg vorbis – www.vorbis.com) should be the format of choice for large publicly funded radio stations such as Sveriges Radio.

Using such formats Swedish Radio will promote open formats for listening and become part of an open society instead of providing support for a private corporation lock-in.

This post therefore argues:

1. Swedish Radio should not be promoting the product of a single manufacturer.
2. Swedish Radio should not be promoting products which are used to gather data about the user.
3. Swedish Radio should be supporting free and open formats.

Posted on by mklang