[Foundation-l] Format Conversion

[Ivo Emanuel Gonçalves]

On 1/21/08, Erik Moeller erik at wikimedia.org wrote:
> It's worth noting that video on the web was viable for millions of
> users long before YouTube -- the YouTube success story is not
> one of bandwidth, but of usability.

I'm afraid to disagree with you.  It's the bandwidth that made it
possible to create a site where anyone would be able to upload a
video, no matter how crappy, stupid, or idiotic it may be.  And that
drove in the (mindless) crowds.  For instance DivX's Stage6, which
only uses DivX not Flash, is popular, but it only showed up about the
same time YouTube did.  Again, because of the bandwidth.  Me, I can't
play any video on Stage6 and YouTube tends to occasionally crash my
browser.  I wouldn't say my experience on its usability has been
favorable, though I do agree that without some usability YouTube
wouldn't go anywhere.

> Before Flash players became widespread, playing video on
> the web was a constant hassle: one would struggle with Real Player,
> Quicktime, Windows Media Player, etc., and an additional number of
> specialized plugins, all of course proprietary.

Flash players have been widepsread for a while.  Ever heard of a
little corner on the web called Newgrounds?  It's been around since
what, 1999?  Yeah, it does help to have one single plugin that seems
to play everything, but it's not the sole reason why it has become
popular.  The wisdom of the crowds, or something of that sort.  You'll
also note that all those other plugins you mentioned have always had
problems working on different systems.

I believe that some benign entity, perhaps, Wikimedia Foundation
should sponsor two projects: an online transcoding backend to Ogg
Video and an actual plugin akin to the Flash Player.  The Xiph Player
if you will.  The backend would be most useful for the Wikimedia
projects, while the player would in theory be the right fix until
every browser learns the <video> tag which would help both the
Wikimedia projects and other initiatives willing to promote free video
AKA Open Media.

And why doesn't anyone do an Ogg Video player based on the torrent
protocol?  Like what Azureus is doing now?  That's because people are
content with what they have and don't think of the future like Gregory
Maxwell mentioned on an earlier message.

> Whether one believe's Adobe's numbers of 98%+ adoption of Flash in
> "mature markets" (as opposed to 84.6% for Java) [1], YouTube and its
> clones made it ridiculously easy for millions of people to view video
> on the web who couldn't before.

Again, the argument is bandwidth.  Try getting a time machine and--
no, wait, are you outside Europe?  Just get a 56k line and try
watching terabytes of video.  Oh, it doesn't work does it?  So much
for Flash to take away all those problems.

> My fear is that by locking ourselves into Ogg Theora only, we are
> replicating the pre-YouTube experience of video that may or may not
> work, may or may not require installation of additional plugins, etc.

This is a transitional phase.  Prophecy tells of a hero of distant
land and unknown past whom will come forth to save the world from the
evils of bad usability.  Or rather someone will understand that this
situation is not optimal and will actually DO something to fix it.

> I suspect that the only effect a completely purist stance will have is
> simply that people will go elsewhere for video educational content.

Where?  YouTube?  You gotta be kidding me.  Here's a sample of
educational concent from YouTube:

"LOL WAKE UP SHEPPLE"

"omg that cat iz sooooooooooooo cutteeee~"

"wow shes hot!!!!"

"NINELEVEN WAS AN INSIDE JOB!  WAKE UP SHEPPLE!"

> If Ogg Theora is the future, then choosing parallel distribution now
> on a site that is not a significant source of video educational
> content will have no negative impact.

Oh, it is my friend.  You see, humans are creatures of habit.  You
teach them to use this parallel distribution method, and they won't
turn away for "the future" any time soon.  The future is now.  If one
wants to make it work, one has to go and actually do work to make it
as easier to use for the crowds as possible, IF that's what you deem
to be the obstacle.

Me, I think people just don't care about educational content, which
perhaps would explain why for instance Wikipedia has an article for
every one of the 500-something Pokemon's as well as an article about
Star Wars lightsabers being vastly more worked than biographies of
people who did some of the biggest discoveries of their age.  Heck, it
won't stop me from trying to make Wikipedia the best encyclopedia in
the world, but I am one of the _few_, not the majority.

Mr Erik, help Wikimedia go in the right direction.  No backpeddling, please.

-Ivo