MetavidFAQ
How can I play back Metavid video
Metavid video is encoded with the open source video codec ogg theora and audio is encoded with ogg vorbis. To play back in the browser you need either the VLC (IE or Firefox 2.x) or the java runtime environment & browser plugin. We use the cortado applet to playback ogg theora. The Metavid "remediator" & sequence builder linked to as "run_metavid" in the site menu, currently only supports firefox and the vlc plugin.
To playback in external applications we recommend using VLC. For editing ogg theora see below
Linux
install the plug-in via repositories or via source install more info here
Windows
install VLC and be sure to highlight the Mozilla plugin during install: File:Vlc install.png
OSX
If you're having trouble finding the mac version of the VLC's browser plugin (a separate download from the popular VLC application), here are the direct links to 0.8.6 (current as of Jan 5 0020070): intel version powerpc version
What problems does Metavid address and how?
check out this blog posting for a short explanation. Check out either of the thesis papers for a longer explanation.
What does METAVID stand for?
Metavid is not officially an acronym rather is a combination word, from the words meta referring to meta data and vid referring to video. That being said in keeping with software project conventions here are a few acronyms: (feel free to add one):
Meta Enhanced Text Audio Video Interface for Democracy. Democratic Interface for Video Audio & Text for Electronic Mediation (backwards)
Why build metavid on all Open Source technologies?
Free software for free society .. more philosophy to follow shortly.
I am a professor and I would like to have my students explore metavid, can you come in and give a workshop / lecture?
YES we can, especially if you`re in the California bay area. We have conducted a few workshops here at ucsc with early versions of the application where we give the students a brief introduction to freeculture and copy-left, DRM(digital rights management) and freely associative participation in cultural production. We then have the students create sequences from searching the database and then share them with the class.
I don't live in the US, Can I set up metavid for my government proceedings?
Yes, remember that metavid is all open source. So just download the code and point it at your government proceedings ;) If you`re not a programmer or need extra technical support you may need to contract or contract us or someone else to customize metavid to your locality. If your country has televised gov't proceedings, we'd like to know about it.
Is this legal?
You bet. While cspan has vigorously enforces their trade mark and copyright[1], footage from the US House and Senate as explained on cspan classroom connection page is in the Public Domain(not subject to copyright). C-SPAN broadcasts this footage with their trademark attached to it, which is different from copyright. In order to not violate their trademark rights, we have removed it from the footage.
Wait.. Public Domain? Huh?
OK, yeah, the Public Domain is a concept that most people don't deal with too often. In terms of intellectual property, it's meant to be a lawyer-free-zone. It's stuff that anyone can do pretty much anything they like with: copy it, publish it, make derivative works, even sell it. Works can fall into the public domain in a number of ways: if its copyright term has expired (if it is a published work from before 1923); if it's made by a gov't employee as part of their work; if it is publicly dedicated to being in the public domain (this is actually a grey area). Since this footage is public domain, feel free to have your way with it. Scope out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Domain for more info.
I want to edit some of this footage, What are my options?
The metavid archive is encoded in theora which is one of the few open source *patent free* video codec. Open source video editors generally support ogg theora natively, for example both linux only cinelerra and the cross platform Jahsaka support ogg theora in their base install. If using non-free editors on OSX there is the codec extension for QuickTime which should allow you to import directly into final cut and others. For Windows platforms there is illiminable Ogg DirectShow filters which should let you bring ogg Theora into Adobe Premier, Windows movie maker etc.
Why are the search results so garbled? Is there anything I can do to help make them cleaner?
The driver issues have now mostly been resolved so future captures should be clean, but for older captures we're working on a way so that people can correct, or even radically alter, the text (while preserving the "authentic" original version just in case).
Why does a day's proceedings start in the middle of a speech?
More driver issues.
Why aren't house votes in metavid?
Because C-SPAN often cuts to their own proprietary content during house votes.
