Digital Signposts

Help save the BBC...

Image credit, Eyedropper  CC

...from, Microsoft and itself?  I am pleased to be able to pass on this warning, received via Euan Semple.  Are you happy with the following?

"The BBC Executive proposes a digital rights management solution which would require consumers to be using Windows XP (or above) and Windows Media Player 10 (or above) to be able to access seven-day TV catch-up over the internet."

If these proposals from the BBC's On Demand, Public Value Test report  (pdf download), concern you; then please take a few minutes to respond to the online consultation here (especially Q5) about the On Demand service, and the proposed BBC iPlayer. (Wonder where they got the i from?

The document also raises issues of ownership and accountability. These were clearly highlighted by Sam Nelson, Computer Science, Stirling University and he has been kind enough to allow me to quote from his posts to a JISC newsgroup:

"If there isn't an open standard good enough yet, the BBC should put the whole thing off until there is.  Any on-demand content they produce now needs to be entirely accessible in several decades' time using methods we haven't even thought of yet. 

"it's barely a generation since it was OK to wipe and reuse master tapes of programmes after broadcast.  What will we fail to foresee this time?  Are we going to make that sort of mistake again?  This stuff is part of who we all are, whether we like any of it or not, and we shouldn't be handing over any element of control over it to any commercial concern."

There is a glimmer of  hope on the horizon, in the  PVT report, the Market Impact Assessment by Ofcom states:

"A platform-agnostic approach (i.e. not reliant exclusively on Microsoft’s DRM solution) would lessen the adverse impact of the proposals on the market for media player and DRM software and would increase the consumer benefit.

and also:

"We propose to require the BBC Executive to adopt a platform-agnostic approach to rights management within a reasonable timeframe. The MIA notes an expectation that the BBC Executive plans to develop a Real Player alternative in the near future. Our understanding is that the BBC Executive aspires to offer an alternative DRM framework, which would enable Apple and Linux users to access the service, but has yet to identify a satisfactory solution. In either case, we will expect this to have been addressed within 24 months.

Whilst the above is to be welcomed, the reliance on DRM is of great concern, as is the proposal of the Executive to develop an alternative based on the media player from hell.

The BBC is one of our greatest national assets and is of world significance.  Recently it has made great strides in the provision of digital assets, such as the pilot of the Creative Archive. It is vital that this status is not undermined by those who have no real interest in our cultural archives and promote restrictive digital practices. After all it's us wot pays the licence, guv.

Very useful indeed!

Downloading  FLV files from YouTube et al  isn't always straightforward.   Up till now I have used a combination of  the Firefox Video Downloader extension, and iSquint to capture the FLV files for viewing offline, or on other devices.  I have been experimenting with the Vixy FLV Converter which makes this a one step  process... and it is fast.   The browser based service converts the FLV files to a useful selection of formats, including 3gp for mobile phones.

Would you like to see some interesting pictures?

With a keen interest in visual ephemera and historical graphics, I was delighted to come across BibliOdyssey, on Boing Boing. The picture above is one of many included in the Fauna category. BibliOdyssey is veritable treasure trove of historical illustrations and ephemera. The hundreds of lithographs, engravings and drawings range from scientific studies to the absurd.

Although many of the images are quite small, this blog; (with a Creative Commons license),  makes a welcome supplement to the hundreds of thousands of photographic images, you can (legally) use, from sources including Flickr's  Creative Commons search or Robin Good's extensive listing. Plenty here then for educators, students and others to to re-use, re-mix and develop.  Keep us posted with the results.

How much information can you handle?

Over the top?

I thought 10x10 was an amazing and innovative way to keep up with the news, until I came across the Blinkx  video wall on BeetTV earlier today.

"Blinkx is the world's largest and most advanced video search engine. Fed by automatic spiders that crawl the web for audio video content and content partnerships with over 60 leading content and media companies, blinkx uses visual analysis and speech recognition to better understand rich media content. Users can search for content, create personal TV channels that automatically splice relevant content together and even use our download feature to automatically download content to mobile devices."

Its still a bit slow to load, but well worth the wait and some time spent playing with it. You can view the channels and embed it in your web pages or blog, customising the size of the video matrix to suit.  It asks some interesting questions about how we absorb and assimilate information. How much can we cope with? Is it it over the top? Perhaps  the answer depends on our experience, perhaps its the sort of interface we may all be using sooner than we think.

Its already got me thinking how we could use this technology in an education and learning context. 

Digital Media & Learning

If you are interested in the future of learning, I recommend you have a look at the MacArthur Digital Media and Learning Project website, and add the feed of its Spotlight blog  to your newsreader. The foundation has recently awarded  $50 million in grants to launch a digital media and learning initiative that will:

"help determine how digital technologies are changing the way young people learn, play, socialize, and participate in civic life."

In addition to the blog, the site links to youth comment and content  and a white paper on Media Education for the 21st Century, by Henry Jenkins, (Director of MIT Comparative Media Program and Professor of Humanities).  I will be following this one closely.

Space

Whilst searching for examples of  student work to add to the On-line Video wiki I set up in response to feedback from a presentation I gave at TeachMeet06, I came across this excellent video made by P5 pupils from Dingwall Primary School.  I was amazed to learn it had been made using a  Digital Blue camera. This really confirms my belief, that digital creativity is not dependent on expensive equipment

So thanks to Sandra Nesbitt for alerting us through Becta newslist and congratulations to P5 for their exciting video blog.  I can't wait to see more!

Grab it while you can

The sad news is that the BBC Creative Archive,  featuring hundreds of clips from the BBC archives, freely available  to watch, download, edit and share is going to close  temporarily, on September 29th, 2006.

Under the terms of the Creative Archive Licence, It appears the  download site was only a Pilot and that the BBC now have to meet certain terms.

"As with all its new digital proposals, the BBC’s Creative Archive will be submitted to the Governors for a public value test. While the test lasts, we have to temporarily withdraw the service."

If you use digital assets  personally ,or in education, it may be worth spending a few hours looking through the content and downloading anything you think might be useful.  Although I have not read the paper in detail since the notification last night, it's not to clear when it will re-open and in exactly what form. In a previous post  I mentioned not everyone is happy with the BBC's digital adventures.

Of course, it is possible that the archive will offer an even better service in the future, but in the meantime, there's only 9 days left.  

Another way to read video

Simple but cool.  QT Movie Notetaker  is available as a free download for PC and Mac at the excellent DV Creators site. Although designed for video professionals it is really easy to use and should add value to any lesson or course involving digital video and media.

The idea is very simple, you upload one or more QuickTime video clips and add  text notes as you watch.  This creates a set of notes with hyperlinked video time-codes and the software   also adds movie length and  name. These can be exported as a text file.

This offers lots of creative opportunities for learning and students,  classes and teachers could use it to annotate video clips to

• record cuts and scenes
• record shot types
• write a possible voice over
• tell the story of the movie
• tell an alternative story for the movie
• scripting
• critique the movie
• and many more ... ideas in comments please..

DV Creators are promising a Pro version which hopefully will provide the ability to save a file in progress and export as HTML.

Watch Out!

Sharks about...

Recently, there have been rumblings and mutterings in the press, and from opposition politicians, arguing that the BBC is overstepping itself in the provison of the digital resources and services it offers.

George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor, will suggest that the BBC should be blocked from dominating online and local media in order to safeguard independent innovators who cannot get a foothold.

Mr Osborne will build on the warning from his leader David Cameron last week that “we need to look at ways of making sure that the BBC doesn’t overextend itself”.

The argument seems to be that the BBC is giving away free content (at license payers expense), creating a  digital network and resources that the private sector can't compete with in terms of qaulity, and are going out of business as a result.

Osborne's tactics are to emotively equate the licence with tax, and promote the assumption that TV licence payers are all of one mind,  content with a diet of  bread and circus broadcasting that includes; home makeovers, celebrity gossip and a whole genre of confrontational broadcasting such as Big Brother. Anyway  Rupert Murdoch (another complainant) seems to be doing quite well with MySpace...

What Osborne, Cameron and the press don't seem to have realised is:

• Broadcasting these days is digital.
• Digital media is changing the nature of the market for media.
• Anyone can produce digital content  today, a fact that the BBC are well aware of and addressing positively.

Osborne continues

As new forms of media develop, I believe that the BBC must be very careful about not abusing its privileged position and huge resources to crowd out smaller players

Digital technologies (can) allow everyone to participate in broadcast and media. I suspect what he means is, that it is not as easy for the 'get rich quick merchants' to have sole control of the media distribution and production. He includes education as an example where business and ventures have been affected. However the smaller players' with a real interest in education are beginning to have a (positive) transformational of education

So, as a licence payer, I say - enough of the bread and circuses, lets have some quality digital content, the BBC is happy to work with us, let's work with them.

Free Open Earth Archive

The BBC have made some superb natural history content available for free download on the Creative Archive. Many of the video-clips are are from the Planet Earth series and have not been seen before. If you don't have video editing software or want to develop your editing skills, then you can use the site's 'Easy Edit' online editing tools to create your own unique asset.