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Online Video Overview

Highly regarded Web2.0 blog Read/WriteWeb has posted a good roundup of the various companies providing online video services including search, editing, storage, etc. There are a surprising number of players in this market space.
www.readwriteweb.com/archives/online_video_index.php

Next Vista

Following the trend for user-generated video, New Vista is hoping to be the open-source UnitedStreaming for teachers. UnitedStreaming is the Discovery Channel’s popular video streaming service that slices up video content into small chunks and identifies their congruence with school standards for approximately $2,000/year. Developed by a ex-educator Rushton Hurley, the videos look good but are not tied to standards and there is no formal ratings system.
http://www.nextvista.org/

formatpixel – Online Publishing

This is an absolutely beautiful Flash-based tool for publishing high-quality presentations on the web, weaving text, vector and raster graphics into very slick online presentations that look kind of like the printed books you can make in iPhoto, but online. The details are amazing, with little touches (the page turns for example) that make this an incredibly well designed tool. There are a number of plans from this UK-based company, ranging from free to $80/ year.
http://formatpixel.com/

Adobe and Photobucket to Make Online Editing Site

Veteran video application developer Adobe and upstart web-based photo/video sharing site Photobucket have announced a joint effort to produce a simple video editing web app to merge video, pictures, and sounds using effects. According to Tim O’Reilly’s Radar blog, the site will be live next week.
http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2007/02/photobucket_to.html

Blackboard.com Plays Nice on eLearning Patent

After receiving a seminal and very broad patent for online learning management systems, 800-pound gorilla Blackboard.com says they will not pursue open-source potential infringers such as Moodle and Sakai. Their patent, 6,988,138 appears to be very broad and could have had a stifling effect on innovation, although the Sakai Foundation still has some lingering concerns. There is a nice translation from patent talk into English here.

Online Image Editing Webapps

Web 2.0 blog TechCrunch ran a review of a half-dozen Ajax or Flash based online image editors, including Fauxto, Picnic, Picture2Life, PXN8, and SnipShot. Looks like the largely free, web-based webapps may give Photoshop a run for its money soon. Most of these webapps allow you do edit a picture already up on Flickr, eliminating the need for multiple uploads.
www.techcrunch.com/2007/02/04/online-photo-editing-overview

BubblePly Video Annotator

BubblyPly has an interesting product that posts a new spin on copyright issues on mashed up media. It’s free site allows you to point at a video somewhere on the web and without copying it, allow you to add text bubble-style annotations to it, and republish it as a new URL.
http://www.bubbleply.com

Mux Video Conversion

Video artist promotion site Cruxy had introduced a free online service that will convert video from one format to another. Mux uses Amazon’s S3 data services to store and process the video, so it’s kind of the poster child for a Web 2.0 application. It can convert QuickTime, MPEG 1, 2 & 4, Flash, WMV, and AVI files.
http://mux.am

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Audio of the Week

Douglas Rushkoff: Renaissance Prospects. Rushkoff is the author a many great books about media and culture, in particular, Playing the Future, and Coercion: Why We listen to What They Say. This presentation looks at media in context of the influence of values and culture.
47 minute Presentation at the 2004 Pop!Tech Conference
www.itconversations.com/shows/detail243.html

Book of the Week

Douglas Rushkoff’s most recent book, Get Back in the Box: How Being Great at What You Do Is Great for Business and encourages people to focus in on their core competencies rather than succumbing to the mass hysteria of “thinking outside the box.” It’s more interesting than it sound and while it’s about business, the lessons apply to other endeavors too. I’ve enjoyed all of Rushkoff’s books.
www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060758708/stagetoolscom

Got News?

If you have any items you think fits this NewsWire, please feel free to email me at bferster - @ - virginia.edu (remove the dashes and spaces).

Thanks!

Bill