Quoting Thomas Morton morton.thomas@googlemail.com:
On 15 Aug 2013 12:03, "Andy Mabbett" andy@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