Quoting Thomas Morton <morton.thomas(a)googlemail.com>om>:
On 15 Aug 2013 12:03, "Andy Mabbett"
<andy(a)pigsonthewing.org.uk> wrote:
> I must confess I have mixed feelings about use of
video for this.
> While it is generally a richer media, a "talking head" adds little
> over a still image and audio. The files are larger and one of my aims
> with the project was to have something light and easily and cheaply
> downloadable.
Id say there is space for both. As well as being
ligjtweight audio also has
the advantage of being simpler to record and get sorted - but if someone is
willing to do video then audio at the same time should be trivial to
achieve.
Video is, then, perhaps value added?
Not exactly well-thought-out, but we'd a rather nifty collection of
"software duct-tape" for Wikinews' Paralympics work. I rented a VPS
for that month, installed a dropbox client on it, and our reporters at
the Paralympics simply dropped their media into Dropbox.
On the VPS? It picked up all non-free media formats (audio, and video)
converted them to free formats, then pushed them where was-appropriate
via NewsieBot (Commons, Wikinews, or our closed Wiki).
OwnCloud is the 'libre' alternative, but I've simply no time to do
this justice. (You try being frontline support when the 800lb gorilla
on the other end of the line is British Telecom asking how their
£5milln is being spent :P)
I'd say that I have a general idea of how to build a workflow and
tool-chain several generational iterations ahead of Andy's ideas - one
that would support what he's proposed (at the low-end); but, at the
end where I want to work, multiple resolutions would be output (from
720p down to 'works with the original 8Mbps ADSL').
Splitting audio off from video is pretty trivial, and "simple
cross-edits" are easier than you might think (look for some of the
'teaser' stuff on
facebook.com/wikinews).
I'm delighted Jimmy took advantage of the Wikimania keynote to raise
news coverage, but saddened that our work was not mentioned. The
Signpost's editors continue to attack Wikinews - with the obvious goal
of installing themselves as Wikimedia's Fourth Estate.
But, no avenue exists to call for closure of their "trashy tabloid".
A bit of a hectic email, as I need to get back to work. I hope to be
in Iceland, end-Sept or begin-Oct, for setup of The Wikinewsie Group.
That, thanks to a few handy contacts, will include a tour round the
likely home for any TWG servers - those will not be cheap, largely
because I'm going to stamp my feet and demand we're set up to be
mostly NSA-proofed. And, running their preferred operating system
(yes, it can host linux VMs).
Brian McNeil
--
Wikinewsie.org
"Facts don't cease to be facts, but news ceases to be news."
> On a positive note, BBC presenter Evan Davis
(Today Programme;
> Dragon's Den) has just supplied a cracking voice recording which is
> now on his article:
>
>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evan_Davis
Nice :D