mwEmbed is great! there is no problem with that. i love it. i more than
appreciate michael dale for his work on mv_embed. it is a great added value for
theora.
webM is also great. it is the prize of the war won.
but what i am talking is just about "network economies" and
"economies of scale". the more people are in the network, the more
people will be willing to be a part of it.
it is also about the idea of copyleft. free software/formats/works supporting
other free stuff.
if someone using a safari browser can see my videos, then they will not
need/want to switch to another browser. they will not even be aware of the
problem with their browser. safari doesn't even render my fallback message
about the problem of their browser and advice to use firefox to watch the
videos. users may not even notice mv_embed enables them to watch the videos and
covers the problem with their safari browser.
mv_embed is great for projects with huge traffic that doesn't want to choose
between using proprietary formats or loosing their visitors. but i have nothing
to loose. if someone wants to see my videos, if they really really want to see
them for any reason, they need to choose a "free" browser and
contribute to the network of it and to the idea of "freedom".
creating added value is important. if you create added value, people may want to
switch, be a part of that "network" as in the theory of "network
economies". my projects doesn't create added value for many people,
even for nobody. but i am ok if it does even for one single person and if i make
him/her think once more on the idea of "freedom" and free culture. for
some people, "viral" status of the copyleft may be considered as
limiting the freedom of people, but it is not about "freedom", it is
just about "power" as Stallman and eben moglen describes it.
i find theora valuable and politically important for my works and for the idea
of free culture. mv_embed is great but it is weak copyleft. if people who can
create more added value with their cultural works choose ogg theora as the only
option to experience the value created, then we will benefit from the positive
effect of the economies of scale. mv_embed is very important for the period
until theora becomes more popular. but not necessary for my case which is not
practical but political.
the same ideas are also valid for my approach to webm.
whether i use it or not, there will be many many people who will use it just for
"practical" reasons and it will be a popular standard eventually. this
is great and since the goal is to make free/open formats popular to benefit from
the positive effect of economies of scale for all human kind. it will be popular
because google is behind it. they will use it for youtube. in a week, more
people will be aware of webm than that of those who have been aware of theora
till now. but those people will not possibly be aware of the politics of webm
for free culture. they will not be the supporters of other free
software/standards/works as in the idea of copyleft... most people will not even
be aware of the fact that the added value created for them with webm was made
possible because of the idea of "freedom". they will not even know
that what they watch in youtube is in webm format. i didn't see any notice
on html5 page of youtube about webm and the politics and
benefits of it... it is just "practical" for google, not
"political". in the end they will not have to pay a licensing fee to
mpeg la. they also know that the "bazaar" model is more
"practical" than the "cathedral" model. but for me, free
software is not only "practical" as "open source" but also
"political". since webm uses a bsd-style license, it will not
contribute to the network effect of "free culture" as it should.
all the choices about webm is practical, not political. this is also ok. we are
on the same side but i am not that close to the "middleway". we
shouldn't forget about the politics of free culture and some should
tell/remind it to the masses.
the political idea of "commons-based peer production" has been reduced
to being a practical method calling it "crowdsourcing". neo-liberal
politics rendered the idea of "crowdsourcing" popular and made
"peer production", the importance of being peer and creating commons
invisible. it is the same for free software and open source. it is the same for
creative commons which misses the importance of derivative works and commercial
usability for the idea of a "free culture".
if "people don't have a *choice* as to what browser they can use"
as you say they must be at least demanding it form those who control their
"software" and their "freedom". this is also a field of
battle. don't worry, there will be "the more people
behind the free standard" and "the more momentum it will
gather." there will be other people who will do that. google will make it.
other supporters will make it. corporates will make it. they don't need
peers for that. it will eventually be popular. but who will keep supporting
theora? webm deosn't need us, but theora will, as we will need it as peers.
nobody knows if google will use a modified version of it for youtube and make
that version proprietary (bsd style license allows it) when there will be no
competitors like theora in the feature. in the network economies, once a product
reaches a critical mass, it renders the competitors invisable. that's why
theora must stand tall. there will be many others who will support/use webm. i
will not speak ill of webm but will support theora. even if it will have the
worst quality among others in the future, i will still use it. because it is
"political" for me, not just "practical"
.-_-.
http://httpdot.net/.-_-./
From: Basil Mohamed Gohar <abu_hurayrah at hidayahonline.org>
Subject: Re: [theora] Guess everyone saw this already?
Orton,
Your enthusiasm for Theora is great, and we'll definitely need to keep
supporting it moving forward, but I don't see why using mwEmbed would
compromise any of the freedoms that Theora has brought - the latest
version ONLY supports Ogg Theora video, it just allows rendering that
video either through the browser natively, through the OS natively, or,
as the last option, through a Java applet.
Perhaps it's that last option that you dislike, and I can totally
understand that. But some people don't have a *choice* as to what
browser they can use, for whatever reason, and tools like mwEmbed will
at least grant them access to your content and that of others.
Additionally, WebM, at a cursory glance, IS as free as Ogg Theora is,
for all practical purposes, so for the same reason we've been using Ogg
Theora, we can also use WebM. In fact, supporting it moving forward is
important because the more people behind the free standard the more
momentum it will gather. There's no reason not to support both, but I
don't think WebM should be abandoned just because it's not Ogg Theora.
**********