WorkshopsThursday

How do activists write the ground rules of the next dominant mass medium?
KITCHEN - 9.30 - 11.00
What kind of online video space best serves our social goals, and how can we intervene as activists and tool-makers to make that happen?

I think this is a very important discussion to have... these reasons jump out at me:

* We know video is the dominant mass medium and it's moving online.
* As a group we share some deep, broad social and political aims.
* We know the space is being defined right now, and that it could shake out in a lot of different ways.
* We know some of these ways will better serve art, culture, activism, and global public discourse than others.

We're confronted with a window of opportunity (possibly a small one) and as a group we have most of the instincts and skills you'd need to make a mark on this space. That places us at the front lines. So we sort of have a duty right now to hustle like crazy and make sure that when the dust settles, online video is as empowering, disruptive, democratic, and open as it possibly can be.

Here are a few questions we can use to put together a strategy:

*How can online video contribute to our social aims?
*What characteristics in the medium (openness, open source, etc) maximize this effect?
*What technologies best embody these characteristics?
*What should we do to push these technologies?
*What's the difference between what VC-backed for profits will naturally do and what we want to see happen?

To throw out a title: "How do activists write the ground rules of the next dominant mass medium?" or maybe a shorter version is "Activism on online video" (as opposed to activism with video).

Introduction to Command Line Encoding
PUB - 11.30 - 1.00
A basic introduction on how to use command line encoding tools such as ffmpeg to encode your video.
Proposer: And_
Facilitator: Jaromil, Gerbrand
Type of Session: workshop.
Time Needed: 2 hours
Equipment Required: a text console, mencoder, ffmpeg
Comment: automating audio/video encoding for storage and streaming.

'first - do no harm'
KITCHEN - 11.30
FACILITATORS : Zoe & Bryan
organisations such as Witness have been providing video cameras and training to people whose serious plights might otherwise go unreported, unwitnessed. but when it comes to distributing the footage thus created, what ethical and other boundaries are, or should be, in place? when others
too start establishing open ended free video distribution projects for sometimes highly political, challenging material, what can we learn from each others' experiences of working with people who wish neither to be 'revictimised' by endless repetition of their abuse, nor ignored by the record of their situation being left on a shelf?

NoTes: http://italy.indymedia.org/news/2004/06/566833.php
(in italian)

Possibilities for Collaboration on CMSs
PUB: 2.30 - 4.30
At present almost every online video distribution project is using their own content management system. This means more work for everyone and less effective tools. What are the possibilities in terms of collaboration and what tools might be used. Gavin would like to aid this by giving some examples on "how do to stop dupliating effort" gained from working with 500 indie record labels...
Proposer: And_
Facilitator: And_ , Andy, Gavin
Type of Session: Discussion + 10-15 min presentation from Gavin
Time needed: 2-3 hours (this is a major topic to might be eventually split into several discussions)
Equipment needed: your brain

TELESTREET WORKSHOP
PIAZZA: 5.00 - 7.00
An introduction to the telestreet network and a demonstration of how a micro tv transmitter works
Facilitator: InsuTV
Type of Session: presentation/workshop
Time Needed: 2-3 hours Equipment Required:your attention

Comments: the microtransmitter can keep transmitting for following days to have our own small forte tv station. We can also do live streams from the workshops/conferences Rama offers to stream from his laptop.