Going back to school

iTunes U
http://deimos3.apple.com/indigo/main/main.xml
You need to have iTunes installed for this URL to work properly as it links to a section in the iTunes Store.

YouTube EDU
http://youtube.com/edu

MIT OpenCourseWare
http://ocw.mit.edu

NPR Open API

This is exciting stuff. I sure hope other radio broadcasters will embrace this Open API.

NPR looks to developers for help distributing shows
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-9993420-93.html

What NPR wants is for developers to help make it easier to share its content on Web sites and blogs, including those owned by the 860 NPR member stations.
[...]
"This launch represents one of the first comprehensive Open APIs introduced by a major national media organization"

I'm eager to learn more with what they will present this week at OSCON.
http://en.oreilly.com/oscon2008/public/schedule/detail/3366

UPDATE: woah! Go check it out:
http://npr.org/api/

Video Captionning

update: YouTube Video Captions
http://help.youtube.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?answer=100079

Nothing super new here but interesting stuff from Google.

Google's Video Captionning
http://video.google.com/videocaptioned

Subtitles Search only closed captioned videos
http://video.google.com/videoadvancedsearch

How do I enter captions or subtitles for my video?
http://video.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=26577

Google supports the following captionning formats:

SubRip
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SubRip

SubViewer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SubViewer

YouTube Video Annotations
http://youtube.com/t/annotations_about

What are video annotations?
http://help.youtube.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?answer=92709

kewl examples:

Magic Card Trick
http://youtube.com/watch?v=tbEei0I3kMQ

Interactive Shell Game
http://youtube.com/watch?v=SzEvcS01Cl0

My 22nd Skydive
http://youtube.com/watch?v=GM02Hejw02s

Object/Embed Start Playing From Current Frame

Just in case you haven’t seen this yet.
A neat little feature about Viddler. It allows you to share its video clips with object/embed code (nothing new here). It gives the user the option to Start Playing From Current Frame. Kewl.
http://viddler.com

Live UGC

It seems to me like more and more ventures are trying to surf the social networking wave with live UGC.
http://live.yahoo.com
http://justin.tv
http://ustream.tv
http://kyte.tv
http://qik.com
http://selfcast.com
http://flixwagon.com
http://comvu.com
http://mogulus.com
http://operator11.com

reporter : When are you guys gonna do live video on YouTube ?
Steve Chen : 2008

BBC Radio Usage

Interesting numbers from a very large webcaster. BBC Radio has committed to releasing monthly figures detailing the performance of its online sites and services.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/siteusage/

Real Ripper

Interesting follow up article about this questionable feature introduced in RealPlayer a year ago.
http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/08/06/16/1420233.shtml

[...]its real impact will be not on piracy but on the perceived legitimacy of ripping programs.

Codecs vs. Container Formats

I'm fed up with people mixing up the concepts of codec and container format. I've seen that mistake so many times and not just from newbies. Whitepapers written by large companies (names intentionally omitted here) carry that confusion.

For example, VP6, VC-1 and H.264 are codecs.

MP4, MOV, AVI, ASF and FLV are examples of container formats.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Container_format_(digital)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codecs

I will gladly help anyone who needs a hand trying to use those terms correctly.

nextMEDIA, Banff, June 6-8, 2008

This weekend I had the chance to attend the nextMEDIA conference in the magnificent Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel.

So on my way to a session room on Sunday morning I walk across Leila Boujnane, CEO, Idée Inc..

Phil : Leila!
Leila (intrigued) : Yes?
P : You went to the Milia in Cannes a while back?
L : I believe so but it was a long time ago.
P : Indeed. 10 years ago, my masters' thesis won the Milia's Young Talent contest and they invited me to present it in Cannes. I was a broke grad student having the time of his life. You and I met there and you bought me a sandwich.

I know I'm not the only delegate at the nextMEDIA who was extremely impressed by the technology your company develops.
Thank you Leila.

VLC Port to Neuros Linux

I'm eager to see what this device will be capable of. 

http://open.neurostechnology.com/content/vlc-porting-neuros-open-internet-television-hdplatform

[...]porting will be carried out in phases, from basic multimedia platform bring up, to full playback and full recording support, with complete system integration done in Q3 of 2008[...]