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Apture is a new tool for bloggers and online publishers that can add interactive multimedia links and embeds to their site with a single click. Apture takes the traditional act of linking to a whole new level and provides your site with greater functionality and depth by providing your reader with the opportunity to browse related off-site content without ever having to leave your site. So in essence, Apture can potentially increase your reader engagement. And best of all, it is completely free.

Photo credit: Apture edited by Andre Deutmeyer

Links are the currency of the web. Any self-respecting blogger… independent publisher… website owner knows this. But when you are trying to maximize your readers engagement with your site, linking (and sending them away) to content elsewhere on the web seems to be a counterproductive process.

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could link to outside content, but still keep the eyeballs on your site?

That is where Apture comes to play. Apture gives independent publishers the power to find and incorporate relevant multimedia items, such as video clips from YouTube, photos from Flickr, Wikipedia articles, music, podcasts, and much more from around the web directly on to your site with a single click of a button. You can also bring new life to old content you created by using Apture to upload that content from your computer and embed or link to it on your pages. Readers can then access these linked items without ever having to leave your site.

By doing this, you can increase reader engagement time with your blog or site by providing your readers with a deeper, richer web experience. This in turn can help you monetize your content by keeping your readers on your blog.

Still have questions about Apture? Continue reading below for the full review.

Here all the details:

Apture Overview

Apture is a free next-generation linking tool that allows you to add a wealth of multimedia links to your site. Once installed on your site, you can create Apture links by simply highlighting the word or phrase that you want linked and then selecting the relevant media.

Traditional linking creates a link that opens up in another tab / page, sending visitors away from your content if they want to view that link. But Apture changes the game. Rather than sending visitors away, links built using Apture open up in new interactive windows that can be repositioned anywhere on the page, or enlarged to fullscreen, allowing your visitor easy access to the content behind the link without ever leaving your site.

Apture further extends the traditional linking by allowing you to combine multiple sources of multimedia content together in one place. Each Apture link can be associated with content plus related media, enabling you to build a web of off-site information accessible without ever having to leave your site, and help your users learn more about the topic you are writing about.

If you have existing links to Wikipedia articles, Flickr photos, YouTube videos, and other common web destinations on your website, Apture can automatically go through your site and create Apture links out of them with Apture Auto Link, saving you time and effort.

However, Apture is more than just a linking tool. Apture allows you to quickly and easily embed new media to your post / existing content. Using Apture you can add new videos, pictures, documents into a page without having to log in to your CMS backend. Once embedded, you can resize the content to best match your page layout, and add a caption to introduce it.

Installing Apture is as easy as pie. And if you use Blogger or Typepad then it is even easier - one click will set you up with Apture. For other CMS platforms (like WordPress, Drupal, MovableType) installing Apture is a straightforward process if you follow the step by step instructions provided to you by Apture. You only need one line of code to bring the Apture experience to your website.

Finally, Apture offers unique advantages for large publishers. For publishers like The Washington Post, Apture can serve as a new opportunity for commerce and advertising because you can display advertising within the Apture window that pops up when a visitor hovers over the link. By virture of the way Apture works, these ads are guaranteed to appear at the center of your visitor’s attention - an Apture window only appears when a visitor hovers over the link, indicating interest. Apture splits the revenue from these ads 50/50 with the publisher.

Key Features

Apture key features revolve around their next-generation linking service, providing your site visitors with a wealth of information without ever having to leave your site. Apture succeeds admirably. And the approach Apture takes is so innovative that there really is no direct competition for their service at the moment.

Features include:

• Wikipedia Links
• Video Links
• Audio Links
• Image Links
• Document Links
• Easy Media Embeds to published pages
• Related Media option allows you to connect multiple sources of media to a single link
• Auto Link
• Content Monetization (Advertising) for large publishers

Below is a graphical tour of these key features with details about how they work.

Wikipedia Links

Apture allows you to easily link to any Wikipedia article. Link any article that you want by highlighting the word or phrase that you want linked. Apture will then open up a pop-up from which you can choose the Wikipedia article that you want linked to the term. Apture tweaks the display of the Wikipedia article so that it displays beautifully within the pop-up box.

Video Links

YouTube is by far the easiest video sharing site to grab videos from, but as long as you have a web address, you can link to any video that you want and share it through Apture. If the video you want linked is sitting on your local drive, Apture also has an option to upload content and link that instead.

In addition to the ease with which you can link video, Apture also provides a nice feature that allows you to select the video playback start time and end time so you can show your visitors only the part you deem the most relevant.

Audio Links

Audio links work similar to video links. As long as you have the web address of the audio file, you can link any bit of audio that you want through Apture. Like video links, you can also choose to upload audio and link that instead.

Similarly, with audio links, you can select the start time and end time of the audio track so that the portion of the track that is most relevant to your reader automatically plays.

Image Links

Apture makes linking images simple too. Like video and audio linking, you can link any image to Apture if you have the web address for it. If you don’t have a specific image in mind, Apture’s built in search of Flickr, Yahoo Images, and Wikipedia Images makes finding and linking images a painless task. Or if you choose to, you can upload content from your local drive and have that display instead.

Document Links

Apture allows you to easily link PDF or other documents using Scribd iPaper technology. This allows your reader to access the article you are linking and read it without ever having to leave your site. The one problem that I noticed with this is that if you set up the Apture link for the document, there is no easy way for the reader to directly download that document anymore if you would like them to be able to do so.

Media Embedding

If you want to quickly embed media (video, audio, images) into your already published article without logging into your CMS backend, you can do so with Apture. Apture allows you to embed new media almost anywhere into your article with a single click of your mouse. You just point to the spot on your page that you want that media embedded, click, choose the media that you want (via search or web address), and presto… you are done. Although the media you embed through Apture will probably not fit your site layout as well as, say, one that you do through your backend, Apture is an excellent solution for embedding media quickly and easily without having to work with HTML.

Related Media

The capability to link multiple resources to one term or phrase is, perhaps, your greatest advantage with Apture. Traditionally, when you link something you can only have that link pointing to one location. But now with Apture, you can provide multiple types of media for you reader to enjoy… all linked to the term or phrase. So if there is a picture, video, and a Wikipedia link that you want pointing at the same term, you can do that with Apture.

Auto Link

Apture Auto Link is exactly what it sounds like. Rather than having to manually go through your old posts and create Apture links for your content, Apture automatically goes through your post and changes popular linking destinations (like Wikipedia, Flickr, YouTube, and more) to Apture links. You can control which types of links that you want Apture to automatically convert through your Apture Dashboard. By default, all the links are selected, so if there are certain types of links that you do not want Apture to convert, then all you need to do is deselect those options.

Content Monetization (Advertising) For Large Publishers

Unfortunately, Apture only offers content monetization options for large publishers like the Washington Post (the above image is from the Washington Post) for now. Larger publishers will be able to serve ads within every Apture pop-up.

These ads could potentially have a higher click-through-rate than other display and contextual ads because as Apture argues, these Apture ads are going to be displayed where the reader is focusing his or her attention. The ads are all cost-per-click (cpc) types. And like Google, Apture will take a cut of any ad revenue that the publisher makes from those ads. Hopefully, Apture will soon extend this option to smaller independent publishers as well.

Pros and Cons

Apture Review - In Brief

Apture is a very functional solution. Other similar linking solutions like Snap fall short when compared to the functionality that Apture provides. Snap in many ways works like Apture. Snap provides pop up windows that link to videos, Wikipedia content, photos, etc so that visitors can view that content without having to leave your site. But unlike Apture, Snap previews are much more limited.

When selecting the content that you want the link to point to, Apture really has few limits. Snap is limited to only those ‘Snap Shots‘ that are presupported. Apture allows you to link almost anything, even content that you have stored on your local drive. Furthermore the Apture ‘Related Media‘ function is great. More than once I have wanted to link multiple pages / media / content to the same term. And Apture is the only platform that allows me to combine multimedia content from around the web, together on one link.

Furthermore, I am not aware of another tool that allows you to embed multimedia into your website as easily as Apture does. The ease with which Apture allows you to embed new media into your post is great. The one shortfall of this, however, is that the media you embed may not fit always as cleanly into your page as media you embed through your CMS backend.

One of the major complaints that I have seen about Apture is that it adds unnecessary noise to a web page. That complaint is understandable. I myself hate the unwelcome pop-ups that occur when you accidentally scroll over text-link ads. But the difference with Apture is that Apture actually provides relevant, interactive content to the viewer… not irritating irrelevant advertising. So despite the annoyance that the unsolicited Apture pop-ups may generate, the added functionality and information that you provide to your readers are well worth the cost.

These factors make Apture a unique product and well worth checking out. Apture is free, so go give it a shot.

Additional Resources

• Sign up for Apture
• Official Product Tour by Apture
• Videos of how to use Apture

Do you see any mistakes? Would you like to share your own experiences with Apture? Please leave a comment below.

Originally written by Andre Deutmeyer for MasterNewMedia and first published on December 2nd 2008 as Add Multimedia Links and Embeds To Your Website With One Click: Apture Reviewed.

The Best Online Collaboration Tools 2008, Collaborative Map is a live editable map of over 150 of the best free and low-cost online collaboration tools available, picked and selected by passionate users like you and me.

Click the map to see the full, public, editable version

That’s right. This collaborative map has been created with the live help of over 100 individuals who have participated with me on November 17th in a unique event: This collaborative map has been created with the live help of over 100 individuals who have participated with me on November 17th in a unique event: Corporate Learning Trends and Innovations 2008. During my session at the conference, which took place fully online…. During my session at the conference, which took place fully online, I decided not to leverage my personal knowledge with collaboration tools to show the best and most useful ones, as I have done so many times in the last two years, but to actually involve the participants (over 150 at the time) into creating a visual map of what THEY thought were the best online collaboration tools out there.

And so I kind of played the visual moderator, by providing them first with a basic set of categories that they could attach tools too, and then by helping in moving tools to their best matching categories and removing technologies and services that were either inappropriate or not belonging to any of the listed groups.

Within a week the map has cleaned itself up while growing considerably. It now lists over 150 live online collaboration tools in 13 different categories. All the tools listed are either free or have affordable rates (included only those who have clearly published such prices on their site).

Now it is here ready for you to use.

Whenever you have a collaboration need you may glance at this map and remember in a second which tools are available which could service your specific need.

Note: A special thank you to Jay Cross, Tony Karrer and George Siemens who have trusted my explorative spirit and have gently allowed me to take a live group into a new real-time learning territory. Seeing a mind-map growing under your very eyes, node by node, thanks to the input of a multitude of many passionate individuals is a mind-opening experience.

What This Map Contains

This collaboration tools map has the objective of bringing together the most useful, free or low-cost technologies available today online. Originally the types of tools included by the participants in this experiment, ranged from real-time instant messaging and video conferencing tools to the main social bookmarking resources and microblogging tools as several participants felt that these too were relevant collaboration technologies.

To limit its breadth and provide more specific usefulness to those who are looking for real-time collaboration solutions, I have later decided to sacrifice microblogging and social bookmarking tools, as I would prefer to gather those together in a separate social media and collaborative publishing group.

The official focus is therefore on real-time or near real-time collaborative technologies in the groups that have been already defined.

The Key Categories

These the online collaboration categories covered in the map with over 150 technologies:

• VoIP - Instant Messaging Tools
• Video Conferencing
• Screen-Sharing, Remote-Control
• Web Conferencing
• Co-browsing
• Web Presenting
• Workgrouping
• File Sharing
• Document Sharing and Wikis
• Collaborative Document Reviewing
• Collaborative Event Scheduling
• Mind-Mapping
• Project Management

How You Can Contribute

You can personally contribute to this collaborative effort by accessing the “public” and open version of the map, and by adding new tools or specific information to the existing nodes. (To edit the map you will need to freely register at www.mindmeister.com, which will take only a few seconds.)

What You Can Add

The best thing you can do is to add relevant new tools to the map. The collaboration tools that fit this map are those that can match the following criteria:

• live collaboration and team-work oriented tools
• free or low-cost solutions only

If you are logged into MindMeister, you can add a URL, or some notes to any “node” appearing on the map. Simply select the node and then click on the relevant icon inside the right column dashboard to edit and add more info.

The Live Map Present Version and Future Updates

Click and drag inside the above map to move and see its different parts and / or use the zoom icons on the bottom left part of the map

This above is the live collaboration tools map as of November 25th 2008. You can still go up and update it and in the future I will be releasing new updates to it.

To be able to edit, add and contribute additional information, you need to freely register and login inside MindMeister.

The map integrates a full revisions history feature and therefore it is easy to spot and remove spammy additions or incorrect information just like you would do in Wikipedia.

Disclosure: I am in no way associated or affiliated to MindMeister.com. I have selected their tool and service among others because it is the one that I feel most comfortable with and the one I find easiest to use for novices.

Originally conceived by Robin Good for LearningTrends2008 and first created in real-time with the participation of over 100 hundred different participating individuals on November 17th 2008.

Looking for a solution that allows you to share high definition video with your friends or others? Tired of the restrictions that YouTube places on the quality, size, and length of the videos that you upload? In today’s Sharewood Guide, I will be reviewing eleven high definition video sharing and publishing platforms so that you can choose the YouTube alternative that best suits your HD video publishing needs.

Photo credit: ray222

YouTube is the 800 pound gorilla in the online video publishing space. But there are many alternative platforms to publish and distribute your videos on. Many of those platforms hold distinct advantages over YouTube. In particular, one well known limitation of YouTube is its aversion to offering publishers the ability to share true HD content. YouTube doesn’t allow publishers to upload high definition videos because of accessibility concerns. Many users just don’t have the needed bandwidth because of a lack of available broadband to deliver the HD content.

But recently even YouTube seems to be changing their tune in order to stay competitive in the evolving online video landscape. Word has it that YouTube is testing HD quality video playback. But that move has not made yet been made official.

So for the time being whom do you turn to if you want to publish and share your high definition content?

Here are eleven options from you to choose from. Listed alphabetically they are: Blip.TV, DailyMotion, Exposure Room, Miro, Pandora.TV, Veoh, Viddyou, Vimeo, Vuze, Wildscreen, Wuapi. Each of these video publishing platforms has its own advantages and disadvantages, but every single one of them will allow you to publish and share your videos at 720p HD quality or greater.

Here, all the details:

Reviews Of High Definition Online Video Publishing and Sharing Platforms

See the Full Size HD Online Video Publishing Comparison Chart

The solutions reviewed are by no means the only HD video publishing and sharing platforms that are available, but should none-the-less give you a good idea of what is available to use and what features each should have. Unless otherwise noted, all of the high definition video sharing platforms compared below offers unlimited storage and bandwidth for videos, as well as the capability to embed videos into other sites.

• Blip.TV

  

  Blip.TV is a high definition video sharing site based out of New York, NY. They are trying to focus on episodic content (i.e. series of shows) rather than viral videos in order to differentiate themselves from YouTube and other video publishing platforms.

  Blip.TV allows users to upload videos with any size, quality, or length restrictions. The video playback quality is the same as the quality with which it was uploaded - in other words Blip.TV does not compress or otherwise alter your video to save bandwidth.

  Once uploaded, publishers can also choose to allow their viewers to download content. If the publisher chooses to allow viewers to download their content, viewers will be able to download the video at full quality.

  Further differentiating Blip.TV from its competitors is the 50/50 ad revenue share Blip.TV offers with its publishers. So if you are looking for a platform to serve your high quality videos for free and make a few bucks off of it, check out Blip.TV

  Cost: Free
  Quality: Same as Source
  File Size: Unlimited
  Video Length: Unlimited
  Embeddable: Yes
  Unique Feature(s): Ad Revenue Share, Downloadable Video

  http://www.blip.tv/

• DailyMotion

  

  DailyMotion is a high definition video sharing site based out of Paris, France. DailyMotion is seen as one of the primary competitors to YouTube. Unlike YouTube, however, DailyMotion supports HD (resolution up to 720p) video publishing and sharing. But HD video publishing and sharing is only available to verified users, called MotionMakers by DailyMotion.

  Applying for MotionMaker is a straightforward process. This label merely denotes that the user is the creator of their videos, and that their videos do not contain any violation of intellectual property rights, copyright or otherwise. Once the user has been verified, the videos published by the user are labeled “Creative Content“.

  As a MotionMaker, the user is able to upload videos of unlimited length and up to 1GB in size. However, viewers do not have the option to download that video as they do on some of the other sites reviewed here.

  Cost: Free
  Quality: up to 720p
  File Size: 1GB
  Video Length: Unlimited
  Embeddable: Yes

  http://www.dailymotion.com/

• ExposureRoom (XR)

  

  ExposureRoom is a high definition video publishing platform that is targeted at professionals, those who would like to gain more exposure for their work. ExposureRoom allows publishers to share videos of up to 720p quality. Like Vimeo and Blip.TV, once the video is uploaded publishers can also choose to allow their viewers to download the video at the original quality.

  ExposureRoom plans to provide an e-commerce platform where publishers can sell their video productions. I have not yet determined whether this feature is available, but when I do I will let you know.

  What makes ExposureRoom unique is their focus on the social networking aspect. The goal of the site is to connect professionals to a platform where they can exchange ideas and provide the talent with exposure and opportunity.

  Cost: Free
  Quality: up to 720p
  File Size: Unlimited
  Video Length: Unlimited
  Embeddable: Yes
  Unique Feature(s): Social Network for Video Industry Professionals

  http://exposureroom.com/

• Miro

  

  Miro, Japanese for “Look!”, is an open source desktop internet TV platform / video aggregator managed by the Participatory Culture Foundation. Miro like Vuze delivers high definition content straight to your desktop via a combination of peer-to-peer and direct download. Using Miro, users can subscribe to your video feeds via RSS.

  However, one disadvantage of Miro is that as a desktop application, you cannot embed video from Miro on to web pages. But Miro holds its own unique advantages over web platforms.

  Making Miro unique is the capability to create a co-branded versions of Miro. Miro Co-Branded Players enable content publishers to extend their brand and content onto the desktop. Furthermore, using the co-branding solution, content publishers can run advertising within the player to further monetize their content.

  Cost: Free
  Quality: Same as source
  File Size: Unlimited
  Video Length: Unlimited
  Embeddable: No
  Unique Feature(s): Peer-to-Peer, Desktop Player, Co-branding

  http://www.getmiro.com

• Pandora.TV

  

  Pandora.TV is a high definition video sharing site based out of Seoul, South Korea, so don’t be surprised if you see Korean ads all over the site. It is the leading player in the video sharing market in Korea… the equivalent of YouTube in the US but with high definition. Luckily for those of us who can’t read Korean, the interface is in English (as well as Korean) so the language barrier is not an issue.

  Like most of the other HD video publishing platforms reviewed here, Pandora.TV does not place any restrictions on the file size or the length of the video that can be uploaded. And Pandora.TV supports up 720p quality video playback.

  Cost: Free
  Quality: up to 720p
  File Size: Unlimited
  Video Length: Unlimited
  Embeddable: Yes

  http://www.pandora.tv/

• Veoh

  

  Veoh is another US based high definition video publishing platform. Veoh offers a maximum resolution of 720p for video playback. Additionally, Veoh is one of the few platforms that allow viewers to download content directly to their desktop (with the publishers expressed permission of course).

  Veoh is unique in that it is able to deliver its content in two different ways: streaming which is standard and through a DVR type application called VeohTV. VeohTV is a peer-to-peer desktop video aggregator that allows users to download videos from any website and save them for later viewing (similar to Miro and Vuze). VeohTV works with media center remote controls so viewers can watch and jump through content all from the comfort of their couch.

  Furthermore if publishers upgrade from the free account to Veoh Pro (also free but requires additional verification), they will have access to the Veoh video syndication system, which means that Veoh will automatically publish that same video to YouTube, MySpace, and others. Veoh Pro also consolidates reporting (similar to TubeMogul).

  Finally, Veoh can serve as an e-commerce platform for those who want to sell their videos. Veoh splits the revenue 50/50 with the publisher.

  Cost: Free
  Quality: 720p
  File Size: Unlimited
  Video Length: Unlimited
  Embeddable: Yes
  Unique Feature(s): Downloadable Video, E-commerce platform

  http://www.veoh.com/

• Viddyou

  

  Viddyou is a high definition video sharing site based out of San Francisco, CA. Like Wuapi, Viddyou supports 1080p quality playback of your HD video.

  Unlike Wuapi, however, if you want to publish and share your HD content you will have to pay some money. But at $34.95 a year, Viddyou shouldn’t put too large of a whole in your pocket. If you are a paying (premium) member, Viddyou makes no restrictions on the upload size of your video or on the length of your video.

  Once uploaded, publishers get unlimited storage and delivery of their videos. So should they choose to download their videos, they can do so without restriction. Unfortunately, viewers cannot download the video.

  As a paid service, Viddyou can offer publishers and viewers what other platforms cannot: mainly extensive privacy controls and a lack of both advertisements and trolls. So if you are looking to share your videos in a clutter free, private environment through which to share your home videos or any content that you would like to control access too then Viddyou is well worth checking out.

  Cost: $34.95 / year
  Quality: up to 1080p
  File Size: Unlimited
  Video Length: Unlimited
  Embeddable: Yes

  http://www.viddyou.com/

• Vimeo

  

  Vimeo is a high definition video sharing site based out of New York, NY. Vimeo was one of the first online video sharing and publishing sites to offer HD quality uploading.

  There is no restriction in regards to video playback length. However, Vimeo does enforce a rule that limits user video uploading to 500MB per week. So if you were looking to upload long high definition home movies, this is not the place for you.

  One of the distinct advantages that Vimeo offers is the ability for viewers to download content. Naturally, the publisher of the content can choose whether they want to allow unrestricted downloads or allow downloads by authorized users (via a password) only.

  Cost: Free
  Quality: up to 720p
  File Size: 500MB / week
  Video Length: Unlimited
  Embeddable: Yes
  Unique Feature(s): Downloadable Video

  http://www.vimeo.com/

• Vuze

  

  Vuze does not fit the same mold as most of the other solutions reviewed here. Vuze is a desktop video aggregator that allows users to distribute and / or dowload high definition content. Vuze is a is a “commercial-grade platform” that serves as both a BitTorrent client and content service. Because it is based on the p2p model, Vuze is able to distribute high definition video quickly and efficiently straight to its users desktops.

  However, like Miro because it is a desktop platform, you cannot embed HD videos directly from Vuze on to a website.

  If you are a publisher looking for a way to let your viewers download your content quickly and without straining your own bandwidth, Vuze is an option worth checking out.

  Cost: Free
  Quality: Same as source
  File Size: Unlimited
  Video Length: Unlimited
  Embeddable: No
  Unique Feature(s): Peer-to-Peer, Desktop Player

  http://www.vuze.com/

• Wildscreen

  

  Based out of Berlin, Germany, and launched in April 2008, Wildscreen is one of the newest high definition video sharing sites on the web. But Wildscreen has tried to differentiate themselves by focusing on combining quality content with a social media network. Users will be able to publish and share videos of any size, length, and up to 720p quality.

  Further differentiating itself from its competitors, Wildscreen provides its publishers with the capability to create custom branded channels through which to share their content. Additionally, Wildscreen is the only solution that allows its publishers to keep 100% of the ad revenue from their video channel. This combined with no upload file size or video length restrictions, makes Wildscreen a site worth checking out.

  Cost: Free
  Quality: Same as Source
  File Size: Unlimited
  Video Length: Unlimited
  Embeddable: Yes
  Unique Feature(s): Publishers keep 100% of Ad Revenue

  http://www.wildscreen.tv

• Wuapi

  

  Wuapi is a relatively new high definition video distribution platform based out of Barcelona, Spain. Wuapi claims to have developed a proprietary distribution platform that allows for them to deliver high definition video more quickly and affordably than other sites.

  Backing up that claim, Wuapi offers publishers the capability to upload and deliver full 1080p HD quality videos. Like most of the solutions reviewed here, Wuapi sets no limits on video length, however they do have a file size max of 4GB for uploads.

  One disadvantage that Wuapi has is the inability to embed videos on to other sites. Otherwise Wuapi is a complete HD publishing solution, so hopefully that will change soon.

  Cost: Free
  Quality: up to 1080p
  File Size: 4GB
  Video Length: Unlimited
  Embeddable: No

  http://wuapi.com/

Do you see any mistakes with these reviews? Would you like to suggest other high definition publishing solutions? Would you like to share your own experiences with any of the solutions reviewed? Please leave a comment below.

Written by Andre Deutmeyer for MasterNewMedia and first published on November 23rd, 2008, as HD Video Sharing: Best Solutions To Publish High Definition Videos - Sharewood Guide.

Looking for an open-source alternative to proprietary media center solutions from big brand names like Microsoft and Apple? Tired of buying into their own closed and proprietary business strategies? Here is a report showcasing you all of the alternative open-source media centers available out there.

Photo credit: ishook

A media center is a multimedia hardware/ software combo which gives you easy access to all of your media (whether it be audio, video, images, or text) from one location.

What for?

Managing all of your media is becoming increasingly more difficult as the formats and methods through which they audio, video and other multimedia content are delivered, keeps expanding.

Even today, the number of different media formats you interact with on a daily basis can be overwhelming. You have to have one program to handle your music and video streams from Last.fm or YouTube and Hulu. Then you need another program to store and playback your digital music and video files on your hard drive. You need yet more hardware and software to watch and record live television via the various IPTV providers. Even your newspaper has become digital, and so you need a program to read your latest news via RSS feeds. In addition to all this, you are increasingly unprepared to manage your growing stack of thousands of digital photographs as well as your collection of DVDs and CDs.

To help you re-gain control of your own exploding media assets, new hardware / software devices which take care of helping you organize, select and access all of your media have emerged in recent years under the name of “media centers“.

In this report, from the Telematics Freedom Foundation, the most interesting open-source media centers available on the market.

Each of the media centers reviewed moves beyond the limited, proprietary, closed platforms philosophy offered by iTunes, Windows Media Center, and others, offering a true alternative business model approach.

This report is “not aimed to ‘pick a winner’ [but rather] the goal here is simply to share knowledge about the current state of the art of FLOSS Media Center devices.”

Here, all the details:

Introduction

“Typical, complete media centers offer the following functions to the user:

A media center can be purpose-built, modified or created by individuals by adding media center software to a PC or some other computer, for example an Xbox.”
(Source: Wikipedia)

This paper presents a Comparison Chart reflecting the State of the Art for the most prominent Media Center (MC) projects in the FLOSS (Free/Libre Open Source Software) community at the time of this writing. This document is not aimed to “pick a winner”, nor to promote any of the compared MCs. It also shouldn’t be considered the “ultimate truth” about the Media Centers showcased here. Please do your own research before picking your choice.

The goal here is simply to share knowledge about the current State of the Art done by the community on FLOSS MC projects, and to provide project leaders and developers with enough feedback on which features to focus on next in opposition to other projects, in an effort to discover new synergies with other existing FLOSS projects. Before starting a public survey, we divided projects into two main categories:

1. FLOSS Media Center Projects (with or without PVR features)
2. FLOSS All-in-one solutions (custom GNU/Linux Media Center distributions)

We’ll be focusing and detailing the first category of Media Centers here.

Media Center Comparison

Click on the picture to see the media center full comparison chart.

• Boxee

  

  Boxee is a startup company. It is also a “Social Media Center” that enables users to view, rate and recommend content to their friends through many social networking features. Boxee’s CEO, Avner Ronen, announced the first alpha release on June 16, 2008. The alpha phase is invite-only but anyone can apply for an invitation on Boxee’s website. Boxee is a FLOSS Media Center based on XBMC and currently runs on Mac and Linux platforms. Alternatively, it can run on Apple TV with a patch.

• The CenterStage Project

  

  The CenterStage Project was founded in January 2005 by Neil Curry. In May 2008, Elan Fieldgold, who was working on the Mac OS X port of XBMC, left the XBMC project and started a new project called Plex. On July 13, 2008 Plex and CenterStage projects announced that they had teamed up, with Plex developers focusing on backend and the CenterStage developers working on the GUI. The new Media Center is still under development and currently only an alpha version of Plex is available.

• Elisa Media Center

  

  The first release of Elisa Media Center was issued in July 2006. The private company Fluendo decided to start developing a cross-platform solution, targeted at both Home Theater PC’s and set-top boxes. Elisa runs on top of the GStreamer multimedia framework. The core system is licensed under the GPL version 2. The GPL part of Elisa is also available under a commercial licensing agreement from Fluendo. Elisa core plug-ins are licensed under the MIT license.

• The Entertainer Project

  

  The Entertainer Project was started in October 2007 by Lauri Taimila, as his pet project to learn Python and build something like Windows Media Center for Linux. Entertainer is a very young project and is still in its early stages. It uses GStreamer’s multimedia framework for multimedia playback and the UI is implemented with the Clutter library, which allows OpenGL animated user interfaces.

• Freevo

  

  Freevo started up in 2002, and, as with the majority of other Media Centers, basic functions provided can be extended by plug-ins. Freevo is written in Python, which makes it easy for users to develop new plug-ins. This may also be the reason why many plug-ins are discontinued. Various plug-ins are bundled with Freevo, and they just need to be activated. Freevo offers so many plug-ins that it is almost impossible to know and use them all. Freevo runs on Linux, but there are reports of users using it on Mac and Windows too, though a certain degree of expertise is required to install it.

• MediaPortal

  

  MediaPortal is an XBMC fork started up in February 2004 by Erwin Beckers (also known as Frodo), who was actually one of the founders of XBMC in its early days. MediaPortal is built on the Microsoft .NET framework using C#, and supports a plug-in system and a skin engine allowing users to extend the base software. In 2006, MediaPortal released the “TV server.” For the first time users can now use multiple frontends for viewing and recording TV streamed from 1 or more TV servers.

• My Media System

  

  The project My Media System (mms) was started as “Mpeg Menu System” in the summer of 2002 by Anders Rune Jensen. After a half year of development, mms was rewritten in late 2002, and mmsv2 was released in January 2003. After four years, it was time for a new name, since mms had grown out of its mpeg-only output starting point and into a full media system. The new name, My Media System, was selected with overall consensus from the forum’s users. Versions prior to 1.1.0 do not support plug-ins.

• MythTV

  

  The MythTV project was started up in April 2002 by Isaac Richards. In early 2007 a book called “Practical MythTV” about MythTV and its installation was published. During this time, MythTV grew considerably, and is still growing today, supported by a very active community. There are several other projects which include a Linux distribution bundled with MythTV (“all-in-one” solutions) to make the installation, configuration and maintenance easier and faster. MythTV has a modular structure, so that what can’t be found in default modules is probably available using unofficial plug-ins.

• Neuros OSD

  

  The result of a spin-off from Digital Innovations in December of 2003, Neuros Technology is a private company selling Neuros OSD, a set-top box running an Open Source firmware based on Linux. The next generation (Neuros OSD2.0) is part of the “Neuros Open Internet Television Platform”, a system aimed to bring the freedom of the internet to the people’s living rooms. It is almost ready for shipping, and will support HD.

• XMBC

  

  XBMC initiated in 2002 under the name “Xbox Media Player” (XBMP); it was renamed XBMC a year later, since it was growing out of its “player” name and into a “center” for media playback. It runs on Linux, Mac, Windows, Xbox console and Apple TV. The Xbox version of XBMC has the ability to launch console games. XBMC is not produced, endorsed, or supported by Microsoft or any other vendor. As a result, XBMC for the Xbox console requires a modchip or softmod exploit to run. Apple TV also needs a patch in order to run XBMC. XBMC is a very mature Media Center project, and Boxee, Plex and MediaPortal are all forks from the XBMC project.

A Word About “All-in-one” Solutions

Although not the focus of this paper, we thought it might be important to say a few words about the other Media Center projects providing a full application environment to enjoy video, music, photos and much more…

• LinuxMCE

  

  LinuxMCE is also a Media Center. The best definition would be it is a Smart Home Entertainment Center. LinuxMCE started in mid 2006, initially as a fork of the PlutoHome system from Pluto Inc. to Ubuntu. It bundles MythTV with Kubuntu as the GNU/Linux distribution. It can perform light and climate control, manage home security systems with alarms and stream video to a mobile phone. It blends media center, home automation, telecom control and home security into a single unified user experience. Users can (optionally) control the user interface with a Gyro remote and 3 command buttons. Any peripheral connected replicates across to the entire house, and any media is also available house-wide. Presence detection is also available, and can be implemented with either Bluetooth or RFID technologies, to implement “Follow Me” functionality, so that media, lights, climate, and telecom follow the user throughout the house.

Note: Although the majority of the software is under the GPL license, some key pieces of LinuxMCE (the DCERouter, Orbiter, etc.), are under the PPL license which is not GPL compatible. The PPL is almost exactly like the GPL, except that when LinuxMCE is sold as a bundle of hardware and software, a license must be paid to Pluto on a per-unit basis.

• MythBuntu

  

  Based on Ubuntu and MythTV, MythBuntu is designed to simplify the installation of MythTV on a Home Theater PC. It can be used to install a standalone frontend, backend, or combination of the two. All unnecessary standard Ubuntu applications such as OpenOffice, Evolution, and a full Gnome desktop are not installed for MythBuntu. Users who wish to do so can add a full desktop onto their installation after using the control panel. The development cycle of MythBuntu closely follows that of Ubuntu, with releases occurring every six months, approximately two weeks after Ubuntu releases.

• KnoppMyth

  

  KnoppMyth has been around since August 2003. It is a blend of Knoppix and MythTV. It is a Debian-based operating system using Knoppix configuration scripts and Knoppmyth-specific scripting that installs and configures the MythTV PVR software and a number of add-ons. Similar to MythBuntu and MythDora, the goal is to make the often complex installation and configuration of a MythTV-based Linux Home Theater PC system relatively easy and pain-free. KnoppMyth can also run directly from a LiveCD (i.e. without installation), providing there is a network connection to a PC with a ‘complete installation’ (a MythTV backend server).

• MythDora

  

  MythDora is a GNU/Linux distribution based on Fedora and MythTV. Like KnoppMyth and MythBuntu, MythDora is designed to simplify the installation of MythTV on a Home Theater PC. Unlike KnoppMyth, however, it does not run as a LiveCD yet. The work on a LiveCD is in progress at the time of this writing. Currently, the distribution must be installed on the computer in order to run. The project started in early 2004 as a pet project, with no real intention of going public.

• iMedia MythTV Linux

  

  iMedia Linux is a GNU/Linux distribution used in streaming encoders/servers and Mini-Box embedded systems by iTuner Networks. iMedia Linux distribution aims for a small footprint installation, stability and usability on small disk space and memory restrictions. iMedia MythTV Linux distribution is created as a showcase for the larger commercial iMedia embedded Linux distribution. It is based on MythTV and a freedesktop.org X.org kernel with several modifications and specific drivers. Target hardware are small embedded mini-ITX systems with VIA EPIA mini-ITX mainboards and Hauppauge PVR capture cards. With this hardware configuration, iMedia MythTV distribution will run out-of-the-box after its installation has been performed. Different hardware configurations should use iMedia’s commercial version.

• MiniMyth

  

  The MiniMyth project was initiated in 2003. It is a small GNU/Linux distribution that turns a diskless computer into a MythTV frontend. Originally, MiniMyth was developed to download and boot the root file system over the network, and run on VIA EPIA motherboards. It now supports local boot, runs in several new chipsets, and supports more MythTV plug-ins. MiniMyth was developed to run on a diskless computer. As a result, MiniMyth runs with its entire compressed file system resident in memory, thus requiring more memory than a typical MythTV frontend.

• GeeXboX

  
  
  With a tiny 8 megabyte ISO, GeeXboX can boot from a CD, USB stick, or the network and run totally in RAM. It comes with a utility called ‘generator,’ which allows for the customization of GeeXboX discs, including the possibility of adding custom media files, non-free codecs, extra themes and configuring a wide range of custom settings. GeeXboX can run on diskless computers, and there is an alpha version for the Nintendo Wii console. The project was started in 2002; by 2006 the GeeXboX and Freevo projects decided to work together, redefining a multimedia framework that could be used either as a standalone application on any GNU/Linux distribution or natively built-in with the GeeXboX project.

Originally written by Giovani Spagnolo for the Telematics Freedom Foundation and first published on October 15th 2008. The original PDF can be downloaded from their website. Get the latest version of this file at: www.telematicsfreedom.org/en/flossmediacenter. For information on latest updates: www.telematicsfreedom.org/en/blog. This continues to be a work in progress. Send feedback, notes or corrections to Giovani Spagnolo at: info (at) telematicsfreedom (dot) org

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license. All RAW data collected through survey forms and the most important research links are also available to anyone willing to extend, complement, correct or create a derivative work.

About the author

The Telematics Freedom Foundation was set up to bring in the age of telematics, Internet, mobile phones and the web, all those freedoms and rights that the Free Software Movement has already brought to PC users worldwide. To learn more about the Telematics Freedom Foudation check out www.telematicsfreedom.org.

Photo credits:
Boxee - Avner Ronen
CenterStage - Enrique Osuna
Elisa - Fluendo.com
Entertainer - Laterix on Flickr
Freevo - ComNetSlash.com
MediaPortal - Team MediaPortal
My Media System - MyMediaSystem.org
Myth TV - Team MythTV
Neuros OSD - Mike Kurdziel
XBMC - Team XBMC

Video metadata can break or make your online video success opportunities. By understanding what video metadata is and how it needs to be used, you can significantly affect the way your video content is managed, distributed and found online.

Photo credit: badboo

But should metadata be authored by people, as is most of the video production process, or should it be automated? What are the costs involved in doing this?

Here in the second part of this report (Part 1) all the details:

Intro by Daniele Bazzano

The Currency Of Internet Video - Part 2

The Science - and Art - of Metadata Creation

Given the importance of metadata to Internet video, thoughtful consideration needs to be given to what constitutes good metadata.

While enabling video search and interactivity required for quality Internet experiences, metadata is needed not only to maintain the original intent of the video, but also enhance the experience in ways not possible with traditional video distribution. Beyond that, metadata can enhance the Internet video experience in ways yet to be conceived.

Metadata authoring is a topic unto itself and the subject of many technical papers and industry initiatives, which are beyond the scope of this paper.

In order to convey the essence of what constitutes good metadata, we’ll rely on a simple illustrative example that addresses a common consideration in authoring metadata - should metadata be authored by people, as is most of the video production process, or should it be automated.

Example - Manual and Automated Metadata

Figure 4

Let’s consider searching for a cameo appearance by Brad Pitt in an episode of the NBC sitcom, ‘Friends’. Assuming a number of Friends fans have not already spent their valuable time to do this and post it on YouTube, this requires a few things. It requires metadata for the episode in which Brad Pitt appears.

Given his celebrity, it is most likely that Brad Pitt is listed in the content description metadata that was created during production. This data was entered by someone on the production team.

Thereafter, it is possible that a user searching for this episode may watch the entire episode, and the metadata has done its job. More likely, the user may want to watch only the scenes where Brad Pitt appears in the episode. Since the final packaged video does not have the original time code the editors used to edit the video, this information is lost and must be recreated.

In order to search for Brad Pitt within the episode, advanced facial recognition software may be deployed that is trained to recognize Brad Pitt. Assuming it can do the job, it will identify the first frame and subsequent frames that Brad Pitt appears in. Scene change detection software may then be deployed to detect a scene change before the first Brad Pitt frame and mark that as the start of the clip. It may detect the next scene change to mark the end of the clip.

Theoretically, this seems to do the job - provided the technologies work reliably. The most well developed of such technologies - speech to text - works less than 100% reliably (generally considered to be 95% in the best case, but reportedly at 50% on broader scale), so the first concern would be whether the technology worked in identifying Brad Pitt. Since he is a well known face, let’s assume the system can be trained rigorously in this exemplary case, but it’s still a less than perfect chance. Moreover, training systems to perform voice, face and object recognition is time consuming, requiring tremendous upfront investment of time and resources.

The second concern is whether the resulting clip or clips were watchable from a cinematic experience
standpoint:

1. Are the scene changes correct, in addition to accurate?
2. Did the scene boundaries interrupt key dialog?
3. Do we know the context within which Brad Pitt is introduced into the show?

These are just some of the considerations.

Conceivably, a better place to start the clip was the prior scene, or maybe further into the scene. A person can make this decision very quickly and intuitively, whereas automation can lead to not only a suboptimal result, but it may also be grossly inaccurate. Finally, a person would need to review and potentially edit the work of a machine.

To make a finer point of automated versus manual metadata creation, consider the following:

1. Were we trying to locate Ted Danson in his Hellboy outfit, or Danny DeVito in his Penguin outfit, chances are facial recognition would be hopelessly lost, as even humans cannot sometimes recognize the faces behind the outfits. Nevertheless, a human is better suited to this task.
2. More dramatic contrasts between manual and automated metadata can be demonstrated in sports programming. Sports viewing is a combination of close ups, long camera angles, fast motion and fast camera transitions. The combination of this along with the fact that players are not always facing the camera makes it impossible to apply facial recognition technologies to create clips automatically. Creating clips of Lebron James‘ three pointers or Tom Brady’s touchdown passes can only be done by a person.

In any event, given the less than 100% accuracy of any automated systems, be they speech recognition, image or facial recognition, scene change detection and such, quality end results are derived through human authoring while using automation to facilitate the process.

A second important consideration in authoring meta-data for Internet video discussed next is however impossible to automate.

Video Is More Than The Sum of Its Parts

Beyond the obvious scene, object, face and speech recognition whether done automatically or manually, video is a complex communication medium.

The creative combination of visuals, sounds, speech, emotions and storytelling inherent in any
video makes it so. Inferring the intrinsic appeal of a video program on the Internet for different users can only be done by people.

In the earlier ‘serene seascape’ example, imagine that the music is from Jaws, but the video has a comic audio commentary lampooning the (irrational) fear of sharks.

The emotion associated with the video is humor, as opposed to fear. The commentary could be educational about sharks, the intent being to inform as opposed to thrill. People can immediately establish such intent and capture it in metadata for their audiences.

Among the successful implementations of metadata listed earlier, alternate navigation schemes - including navigation across different video files - is one where human imagination can be applied to create new, lasting user experiences that are not possible with automated metadata schemes.

Consider multi-threaded programs such as, ABC’s Lost, or reality shows with many participants and events such as, Fox’s American Idol and CBS’ Survivor, or sporting events - wherein users can aspire to recapture the experience of the original program in many different ways.

Consider the following examples:

• Lost: Sawyer + Kate + Romantic Scenes: creates a playlist across all episodes of scenes where Sawyer and Kate are together in a romantic setting
• American Idol: Seasons 1-9 + Winners + Finals: creates a playlist of all the American Idol winners’ final performance on the show
• Sports: Tom Brady + Touchdown passes: creates a playlist of all of Tom Brady’s touchdown passes in NFL games.

While the above examples are hypothetical, metadata easily allows users to essentially apply ‘Boolean logic’ (similar to what users do in web searches) to generate attachment through new experiences. In the absence of such metadata, programmers would need to actually edit and re-encode individual clips, which is a formidable task, if not an impossible one. It is also impossible to successfully create such dynamic playlists and alternate navigation schemes using individually encoded clips.

Human imagination remains ahead of technology.

Making metadata choices by what automated technologies allow is inherently more limiting than generating metadata manually, wherein video can be tagged in many different ways, and metadata fields can be created and managed any way that a human operator conceives necessary, intuitive, probable, or even imaginable.

Metadata Has The Lowest Production Cost of All Video Attributes

One of the underlying questions is the cost of authoring metadata and whether one approach is more cost effective than another. This boils down to the question of quality versus quantity.

If accuracy and end-user experience is secondary to processing large volume of video for a basic search index, then automation is likely to help solve the problem better than a human.

Automation, such as scene-change and speech-to-text serve well in the production stage of video. This is because there is a lot of raw footage and people handling the video are professionals. Their task is to manage the video production, not to consume or monetize the video.

In the case of researchers looking to sift through large video libraries, the same argument applies - the video experience is secondary to the objective of locating a video or a clip within a video asset.

At the risk of being redundant, let’s (re)visit some of the commercial applications of video:

• Search at a file or scene level
• Create, display and share virtual clips and playlists
• Create advertising insertion points and advertising logic
• Generate detailed usage tracking and reporting data

Automating metadata creation for each of these exemplary applications will require mostly disparate processes, in contrast to human authoring which allows all required metadata to be created in a single pass. The cost of human authored metadata is, therefore, not only lower than automated metadata, but it is also insignificant relative to the overall video production costs.

Human metadata authoring can typically be accomplished in much less time than the play-out duration of the video.

People don’t have to be trained to recognize speech or images like machines do, reducing upfront investment of time and resources.

Lastly, human authored metadata allows for further human creativity and reasoning to be applied to video programming, bringing new elements of creativity to an already creative process with negligible incremental costs.

Conclusions

Metadata is a critical element to the success of video on the Internet. Publishers need to address metadata creation as an essential part of the video production workflow.

• Video as a complex medium requires human authored metadata to bring the vernacular of Internet experiences to video on the Internet.
• Quality metadata to create audience engagement and monetization should be authored with distinct objectives of creating such Internet experiences for video.
• Such metadata is best authored by people using authoring systems that allow
  1. Flexible and accurate metadata to be applied to video assets, and
  2. Additional creative expression to be brought to the medium of Internet video.

Publishers need to incorporate systems that author and manage metadata towards these objectives as they look to build audiences and advertising with their Internet video strategies.

Check out the first part: Video Metadata Key Strategic Importance For Online Video Publishers - Part 1

N.B.: The implementation examples described earlier in this paper are based on Gotuit’s video metadata authoring and management system. These represent among the most advanced uses of metadata and Internet video implementations. The metadata in each case was human-authored either by Gotuit or its customer.

Originally written by the Gotuit Team for Gotuit and first published as “The Currency of Internet Video” on October, 2008.

Sources

• Approaching the Zettabyte Era, Cisco Systems, Inc., 2008
• Display Impressions: comScore Ad Metrix, Jan -08, Television GRP’s: comScore Estimates
• IAB
• http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/08/26/the-wb-rises-from-the-ashes-as-a-hulu-competitor/

About the author

Gotuit is a developer of video metadata technology. Founded in 2000, Gotuit is privately held and funded by Highland Capital Partners, Atlas Venture, Motorola, and private investors.The company enables users to add metadata to sections of videos that are uploaded to their site. Gotuit powers video for leading brands such as Lifetime, Fox, Sports Illustrated, Major League Soccer and more. To learn more about how Gotuit can help implement solutions to create greater use and monetization of your video programming over the Internet, visit our website at www.gotuit.com, or contact the sales team at: 781.970.5414.

Photo credits:
The Science - and Art - of Metadata Creation - dragerphot
Example - Manual and Automated Metadata - Gotuit
Video Is More Than The Sum of Its Parts - Kuzma
Metadata Has The Lowest Production Cost of All Video Attributes - Aleksey Poprugin
Conclusions - maxxyustas

Video metadata has become a strategically critical factor in the successful creation and distribution of video content on the Internet.

Photo credit: SSilver

As major search engines can’t yet make sense of what is being said inside a video or where and who is being portrayed, unless you take the time to learn how to provide relevant and detailed video metadata efficiently to those services who will distribute your video content, you take a high risk of publishing video content that no-one will ever see.

Two types of video metadata exist:

a) Operational, automatically gathered video metadata, which is typically a set of automatically-generated information about the content you produce, such as the equipment you used, the software you employed, the date you created your content, GPS coordinates of shooting location, and more.

b) Human-authored video metadata, which can be created, aimed at providing more search engine visibility, audience engagement, and better advertising opportunities for online video publishers.

In the following two-part report entitled “The Currency of Internet Video“, Gotuit, a company specializing in online video metadata management, explains why online video metadata is so critically important today for any serious online video publisher.

Here the full report:

Intro by Robin Good

The Currency of Internet Video

Executive Summary

Internet video is all the rage among consumers. Publishers, broadcasters and advertisers are all eager to catch this wave.

Internet video is projected to be the majority of consumer Internet traffic in the coming years, and the Internet is a significant distribution medium for video. Paradoxically, publishers are facing challenges in monetizing Internet video despite consumer demand.

The Internet differs from traditional means of distribution.

Much of the value propositions of the Internet as a distribution medium have not been recognized and
utilized towards the strategic goals of video publishers. Metadata is the linchpin to unlocking this value.

As the title of this paper states, metadata is the ‘currency’ of Internet video.

With quality metadata, publishers can create video experiences integral to Internet audiences and new monetization schemes around these experiences, including advertising.

Metadata enables the following and more:

• Search - both at a file and scene level - that is a key function of the Internet
• Multiple navigation paths within or across different videos in a manner that users are accustomed to in Internet navigation
• Clip and playlist creation for exploiting viral sharing and social networking trends
• Dynamic and targeted programming to create higher user engagement
• Precise targeted advertising tailored to user behavior
• Accurate reporting and analytics critical to advertising and monetization

Publishers, therefore, need to consider metadata as the third key element of video production, in addition to video and audio.

While metadata is critical to the success of Internet video strategies, costs associated with authoring metadata are insignificant to the overall costs of video production.

Metadata quality must be assured for publishers to deploy successful Internet video strategies.

Quality metadata is human authored as opposed to automated.

While automated schemes are neither sufficiently accurate nor reliable, they also do not allow the programming choices possible with human authored metadata. Moreover, human authored metadata is more efficient to create. At the same time, such meta-data can be added to video even after video has been published, creating new use cases and programming options. Such quality metadata cannot be an afterthought, or worse, overlooked.

Publishers need to recognize that successful Internet video strategies may well rest on suitably authored metadata and metadata management systems.

Introduction: The Internet Is About Data, People - and Metadata

Figure 1

Metadata is data about data - it is the connective tissue between people and the large amount of information on the Internet.

Metadata provides usable context to data for users.

For the foreseeable future, metadata will be used to harness the usefulness of the Internet as machines cannot bridge the semantic-gap between people and machines, nor understand the context of information that humans generally take for granted and understand intuitively.

As we enter the era where video is gaining importance on the Internet, the role of metadata becomes vital.

Video on the Internet not only adds to the semantic gap between humans and machines, but also creates a visual gap that machines inherently cannot understand.

Internet video is forecast to comprise 90% of consumer Internet traffic by 2012 (Figure 1). Today, Internet video delivers 70% of the impressions of television. At the same time, Internet video advertising in 2007 was around $400 million compared to $70 billion that television advertising generated.

The industry is abuzz whether the Internet will create monetization of video the way traditional broadcast media has.

Publishing to broad-band with associated advertising like television is not driving desired returns for video.

This paper discusses the role of human-authored, quality metadata as an overlooked imperative of Internet video programming towards this objective.

All Metadata Is Not Created Equal

Figure 2

Metadata itself is not a new concept. It is important, however, to recognize that use of metadata during the production process is very different from use of metadata as the ‘currency for video’ - a new construct that deserves attention. This construct is explored in the next section.

Overall, in the course of video production, a large amount of metadata is created for administrative, compliance, and operational purposes. Most of this metadata does not make it to the final publishing process owing to the various transcoding processes in the production workflow. Even if it did, metadata to build engaging consumer experiences and “>optimal monetization of video must be authored with this distinct objective. Such metadata needs a high level of accuracy and flexibility to serve its purpose (Figure 2).

Amongst the growing need for metadata, the industry is also hoping for a silver bullet to address metadata creation through machine functions such as speech-to-text, facial, and object recognition. As we shall see, such technologies are not sufficiently developed to achieve the quality and accuracy required to engage and monetize audiences that human authored metadata can. Nor are such technologies, even when perfected, suited to entirely meet the needs of consumers, given the man-machine semantic gap discussed earlier.

For publishers, the following considerations are central to this discussion:

1. The limited accuracy of automated metadata can drive basic video search, but cannot be used for the purpose of improving the viewing or advertising experience.
2. Machine functions require significant training by a person, and therefore are not truly automated.
3. Machine functions are limited to the existing data set, and cannot add new information about the video like a person can.

Metadata Is The Currency of Internet Video

Figure 3

Metadata based applications allow the inherent value of video to be unlocked and monetized on the Internet. These applications range from elementary search and discovery, to advanced use cases such as, scene level search, targeting, social networking, advertising and interactivity (Figure 3).

Video is intended to deliver an experience and engage us more than any other medium. People relate to, experience, and consume video on many levels. People develop affinities or characters, storylines, events, special-effects, and many other aspects of information captured on video.

Bringing the vernacular of Internet experiences to video applications is extremely challenging in the absence of quality metadata.

Let us elaborate on some of the features listed in Figure 3 for the purpose of illustration.

More in-depth implementations of such features are described later in the paper:

• Advertising: Metadata defines instream ad insertion points with accuracy. This can be used to create flexible ad logic, targeted advertising, and new forms of advertising supported programming such as playlists, mashups, and viral sharing consistent with Internet user behavior.
• Search: Scene metadata can be used to drive better and more granular search results. Metadata can capture intent of the video in addition to the content of the video to aid more sophisticated search.

  For example, a serene seascape has a very different intent with an accompanying music track from the film Jaws as opposed to a Largo from Vivaldi’s ‘The Four Seasons’.

• Navigation: Video programming, whether news or primetime sitcoms, is being produced in shorter, more discrete segments than before. Metadata allows scene and segment level search, virtual clips, sharing and playlisting without compromising the integrity of the original video asset. With metadata, advertising can be associated with such clips and playlists, in addition to the full length program.

For video publishers and broadcasters, the absence of rendering video without the level of relational information - i.e., metadata - commensurate with the diverse associations people have with video and use cases on the Internet means that consumption, and therefore monetization, of video is compromised.

Applications of Video Metadata

It is also important to understand that metadata is not a single attribute of video, but rather serves multiple purposes. Among these, metadata creates new avenues for creative expression by video publishers and new models of advertising.

The uses of metadata are varied such that metadata creation and applications can continue to evolve much after a video title has been published.

Let us consider a few examples of video programming that has been tailored for Internet audiences using metadata.

Increasing Advertising Options For Advertisers and Publishers

Dynamic ad insertion and flexible ad logic: Implementations of meta-data for dynamic advertising and flexible advertising logic enable broadband video publishers to enhance how they monetize their video libraries by authoring structured metadata describing each meaningful scene within the original source videos. This metadata defines the optimal in-stream video ad insertion points, allowing publishers greater control and flexibility with their advertising strategies. In addition, the ads served in the precise insertion points can be targeted by third-party ad providers based on the scene metadata such as Character Name, Player Name, Topic, Keyword, etc.

Banner or overlay ads can also be targeted based on the rich metadata. As a result of this greater ad logic flexibility, rather than just pre- and post-rolls for each asset, publishers can set their ad logic to utilize the mid-roll insertion points. The publisher sets the ad timer, and the ad will play at the next available insertion point, no matter what asset or scene is being viewed, after the timer has expired.

The result is that the viewer has the freedom to sample more assets and navigate directly to the most interesting scenes, while the publisher is able to monetize that experience in the most effective way possible. This capability has been applied to Flash and Move Networks’ video formats.

Increasing Programming Options For Publishers and Syndicators

• Search, clips and playlists: Extreme Outdoor Network (www.xontv.tv) specializing in outdoor recreational activities such as hunting and fishing realized that regular thirty to sixty minute programming was not suitable for its Internet video audiences.

  In order to maximize the impact of their online video programming, XON choose to author metadata for its videos such that enthusiasts of individual sports could find video segments tailored to their specific interest within their genre of interest.

  Rather than create a large number of individual clips through editing the videos, XON applied metadata to their original thirty to sixty minute programs such that the original video assets can be rendered as virtual clips that can be searched, organized and programmed to meet individual user’s needs.

• Chapterization, skip and search: When Fox Reality decided to broadcast their Fox Reality Really Awards show on the web, the indexed the entire award show in segments so that users could watch sections that were of interest to them. It was unlikely that most users would watch the entire program on the web. However through metadata indexing, users can skip to sections based by award, show, presenter, musician and so on, as well as create playlists and watch them in linear fashion, thereby creating their own highlights of the awards ceremony.
• Dynamic programming and multiple navigational paths: Sports Illustrated uses metadata to create dynamic programming for College Football fans through its FilmRooms™ video portals. Users can navigate through multiple paths to view highlights, which are updated as the games progress and ranking get updated. Users can search by team, player, position and othe ways that give them easy access to create their own highlight clips that can be shared with others and posted on user websites and blogs.

Increasing New Consumer Video Experiences

• Mashups, personalization and sharing: Lifetime uses metadata to allow users to define their own virtual scenes within a video program. These scenes can be shared with others, and concatenated to create user-defined playlists (mashups). Users can also add additional metadata to make the scenes more meaningful and manageable. The scenes are organized by meta data and the underlying video assets are not changed, eliminating additional storage and management costs.
• Reorganize and collaboration: Similarly, Carleton University uses video on demand to create lectures that students can tailor to their needs through indexing parts of video lectures and reorganizing them to their individual requirements. At the same time student notes and annotations make the videos searchable by other students.
• Customize and Self-programming: Sprint has used metadata to create a new application for fantasy football with the National Football League.

  NFL Fantasy Video is the first mobile application that allowed users to watch their own custom video highlight reels of just the players they want. Each week during the season, every play of every game in the NFL is indexed using metadata. Sprint customers can then set up their fantasy team, or favorite players, including a QB, 2 RBs, 2 WRs, TE, K, and a team defense. Once set up, users can see the video highlights of just their players, and even jump to a specific play. In addition, users can scout any other NFL player’s video highlights and choose to add them to their team.

End of Part 1

Originally written by the Gotuit Team for Gotuit and first published as “The Currency of Internet Video” on October, 2008.

Sources

• Approaching the Zettabyte Era, Cisco Systems, Inc., 2008
• Display Impressions: comScore Ad Metrix, Jan -08, Television GRP’s: comScore Estimates
• IAB