On 7/20/07, Ben McIlwain cydeweys@gmail.com wrote:
If we put a bit more effort into improving this system we will have a very robust way of displaying videos to readers that does not violate our core mission.
As one of the people who wrote our mission statement, I can confirm that it doesn't say ".. to push patent-unencumbered formats even at the cost of user experience." Indeed, it doesn't mention free formats at all, though I consider that an oversight.
What it does say is that it is our mission to "to disseminate [educational content] _effectively_ and globally" (emphasis mine). I don't believe that the current practice is in line with the goal of _effective_ dissemination of educational content, and that we can promote patent-unencumbered codecs while significantly increasing effectiveness by supporting a Flash player and FLV video as _one_ of multiple video playback methods. I am willing to put this to both a community & a Board-level vote. But first we should collect data on how many people currently have trouble playing video "out of the box".