Fwd: [OSOR-news] OSOR Monthly Open Source News Service - October 2008
From:
Steven Clift
Date:
Oct 31 18:41 UTC
Short link
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: <email obscured>
Date: Fri, 31 Oct 2008 17:25:29 +0100 (CET)
Subject: [OSOR-news] OSOR Monthly Open Source News Service - October 2008
To: <email obscured>
Open Source Observatory and Repository for European public administrations
Monthly Open Source News Service — 31 October 2008
Welcome to the Monthly Open Source News Service of the OSOR project!
This monthly alert keeps you updated with news related to the use of
Free/Libre/Open Source software (FLOSS) in the public sector in
Europe. It includes the latest FLOSS software-related news,
activities, initiatives and insights from across Europe and beyond.
Since June 2008, the OSOR project has its own dedicated new generation
portal with a broader scope and enhanced features. Please visit at the
new address: http://osor.eu.
Launch of Osor.eu at the Open Source World Conference
The Open Source Observatory and Repository for European public
administrations (OSOR) – the site devoted to the re-using, sharing and
collaborative development of E-Government applications for European
public administrations – was officially launched at the Open Source
World Conference in Malaga on October 20th 2008. As Mr. Francesco
García Morán – the Director General for Informatics of the European
Commission – highlighted in his keynote presentation, the Osor.eu
platform is one of the results of a long process led by the IDABC
programme in the Commission. Through various programs and projects,
the European Commission provides the basic foundations and structure
of an open source ecosystem to support public administrations.
20 October 2008 | Malaga, Spain
Draft Guidelines on Procurement and Open Source Software Study
presented at the OSOR launch event
One important function of OSOR is to provide a space for publishing
and sharing ideas and experience related to using open source in the
public sector. Many public administrations, however, feel uncertain
about where and how to start implementing open source solutions and
are looking for advice and guidance. Therefore, the European
Commission's IDABC project presented the first version of its set of
guidelines at the OSOR launch event in Malaga, Spain on 20th October
2008. This study aims to provide practical help to policy makers, IT
managers and procurement officials in their procurement processes.
Since this is still a draft version, OSOR will welcome your comments
through the forum linked to the study. Comments and suggestions will
be used in preparing the final version of the guidelines.
20 October 2008 | Malaga, Spain
Case Study
| View all cases
Rock solid: School servers in Powys county, Wales, UK
To provide its pupils with Internet and email access, Powys county
council in 1999 implemented an open source-based server solution in
schools. Council staff were already familiar with free software, since
the council had used LAMP web servers since 1997. The solution was
upgraded for greater capabilities in 2004/05.
27 October 2008 | United Kingdom
Latest News
| View all News
EU: Hidden cost of proprietary standards may lead to illegal tenders
| 27 October 2008 | European Union
RU: Open Source installed in more than a thousands schools
| 27 October 2008 | Russia
DE: Foreign ministry: 'Cost of Open Source desktop maintenance is by
far the lowest'
| 27 October 2008 | Germany
EU: Updated guide on Open Source for SMEs
| 27 October 2008 | EU
EU: Commission tailors GNU/Linux server specialised in blogs
| 24 October 2008 | European Union
FI: City of Oulu: "Open Source offers very competitive alternative"
| 24 October 2008 | Finland
ES: Government publishes Open Source mobile phone text reader
| 22 October 2008 | Spain
EU: Many software tenders in EU maybe 'illegal'
| 21 October 2008 | European Union
FR: April decries lack of Open Source in government multimedia plan
| 19 October 2008 | France
LV: Finance ministry cautions considering Open Source
| 19 October 2008 | Latvia
NL: Amsterdam approves Open Source desktop
| 19 October 2008 | The Netherlands
EU: 'European Public licence preferable to GPLv3'
| 17 October 2008 | European Union
IT: Sardinia to reduce spending by switching to Open Source
| 17 October 2008 | Italy
ES: Cenatic: 'Training critical to government uptake of Open Source'
| 16 October 2008 | Spain
IT: University starts Open Source master course
| 15 October 2008 | Italy
CZ: Administrations keen to use Open Source document management system
| 14 October 2008 | Czech Republic
FR: 'Changes to GPL beneficial for government's use of Open Source'
| 03 October 2008 | France
ES: Extremadura's Open Source system offers first web services
| 30 September 2008 | Spain
EU: GNU celebrates 25th birthday
| 30 September 2008 | European Union
LT: Education Ministry supports schools using GNU/Linux
| 30 September 2008 | Lithuania
NL: Patent Office begins migration to Open Source
| 29 September 2008 | The Netherlands
EU: FSFE to release copyright assignment tool in ten languages
| 29 September 2008 | European Union
ES: Catalonia presented plans to increase its Open Source use
| 29 September 2008 | Spain
SE: ODF made national standard in Sweden
| 25 september 2008 | Sweden
UK: Open Source company in list of schools software suppliers
| 25 september 2008 | United Kingdom
Upcoming Events
| View all events
3rd Free Software Congress. Region of Valencia
| 05 - 07 November 2008 | Alicante, Spain
NL: Embedded and mobile use of GNU/Linux
| 06 - 07 November 2008 | Ede, The Netherlands
GNU/Linux is increasingly being used in mobile equipment. On Thursday
November 6 and 7 two conferences are jointly taking place on this
topic in the city of Ede, the Netherlands.
Linux 2008 - Conference and Tutorials
| 07 - 09 November 2008 | Manchester, United Kingdom
Linux 2008 will take place at the Manchester Conference Centre, part
of the University of Manchester, from Friday 7 to Sunday 9 November.
The organisers expect the talks and discussions to cover a variety of
subjects, including kernel and desktop development, tools,
applications, networking and security.
NL: Procuring Open Source Software
| 13 November 2008 | Utrecht, The Netherlands
A workshop by experts in the field of procurement and Open Source
applications is organised in the city of Utrecht, The Netherlands. The
expert will share their experiences and give advice on the
possibilities offered by this kind of software.
BE: Open Source ERP solutions
| 18 November 2008 | Belgium
A conference on Open Source ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) will
take place in Brussels on 18 November and 2 December.
BE: Workshop on intellectual property rights and ICT standards
| 19 November 2008 | Brussels, Belgium
The European Commission is organising a one-day workshop on
intellectual property rights and ICT standards on 19 November 2008 in
Brussels. The conference is meant to address the issue of patented
technologies included in IT standards and specifications.
IT: Open Source conference on Geographic Information Systems
| 28 November 2008 | Pontedera, Italy
Gfoss.it, a conference on Open Source Geographic Information Systems,
is taking place in the city of Pontedera, Italy on November 28.
FR: Forum Mondial du Libre
| 01 - 02 December 2008 | Paris, France
At the hub of the FLOSS movement, the Open World Forum provides an
international venue where FLOSS community members, politicians, IT
decision makers, software project managers and leading-edge
researchers and academics can meet.
ES: 4th International Conference on Geographic Information Systems
| 03 - 05 December 2008 | Valencia, Spain
The 4th International Conference on Geographic Information Systems
(GIS) will be organised by the Government of Valencia on 3-5 December
2008. The conference aims to demonstrate that the integration of Open
Source technologies could offer professional solutions in the fields
of GIS and Spatial Data Infrastructure.
PT: Open Source Software Workshop OSEHC 2009
| 16 - 17 January 2009 | Porto, Portugal
A workshop "Open Source in European Health Care" aims to demonstrate
the potential of Open Source in health care.
BE: FOSDEM 2009
| 21 - 22 February 2009 | Brussels, Belgium
The ninth edition of the Free and Open Source Software Developers'
European Meeting (Fosdem) will take place in February 2009.
NL: Netherlands Open in Connection Congress
| 05 March 2009 | The Netherlands
The First Netherlands Open in Connection (NOIV) Congress will take
place on 5 March 2009. The conference aims to inform and advise the
Dutch public sector about the possibilities of Open Source software.
The location of the conference has not yet been decided.
The OSOR.EU project is a pan-European information platform on
Free/Libre/Open Source software in the public sector, and is intended
to promote and spread the use of best practices in Europe. It aims to
provide a comprehensive overview of Free/Libre/Open Source Software
policies and activities in the public sector, especially in current
and future EU Member States.
You can click here to unsubscribe or to modify your subscription.
Please feel free to forward this alert to any other interested
persons, and to send us your comments and suggestions. We also welcome
your contributions and we invite you to send in news items,
announcements for events and other stories related to FLOSS and of
interest to public administrations to the email address mentioned
below. Moreover, if you belong to a public authority or a public
sector organisation and would be interested in being the subject of a
case study for best practices regarding open source software, please
contact us. All emails should be sent to info[at]osor.eu.
(c) European Communities 2008.
Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged.
The views expressed are not an official position of the European Commission.
Free eParticipation software from Gov2u
From:
Steven Clift
Date:
Oct 14 12:19 UTC
Short link
While I don't know the details, what I like conceptually about this effort is
that their tool is building off the open source Joomla platform. This seems
like a much more sustainable route than building stand alone software in the
e-democracy space. - Steven Clift
Subject: free eParticipation software Gov2u
Date: Tue, 14 Oct 2008 13:18:42 +0300
From: Evika Karamagioli <<email obscured>>
*Dear Steven, *
*Following the discussion we had in Krems I am sending you a small
description of the free eParticipation software we are providing.*
*It could be great if you could distribute it further*
*Gov2u is happy to present Gov2DemOSS light, which is a new version of
the award- winning Gov2DemOSS platform. Gov2DemOSS light is a much
simpler version and can be downloaded for free. It can prove to be
useful for municipalities and public authorities as it provides an
efficient channel for them to keep their communities informed, manage
their information repositories, interact directly with their citizens
and involve them in the decision making process. Gov2DemOSS platform
serves as a proof of concept of how ICT can facilitate communication,
knowledge sharing and modernization of government services. It is an
open source, customizable, informative and collaborative e-participation
platform. The Gov2DemOSS platform is now the most advanced platform of
its kind, awarded with the European Good practice Label in 2006, and
already being provided to local and regional authorities all over Europe
and North America.*
*For more information please refer to the Gov2u website
http://www.gov2u.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=86&Itemid=96
... clip ...
*Kind Regards*
*Evika*
**Evika Karamagioli**
*<email obscured>
**Á**: Anavriton 20, Marousi 15124, Athens, Greece
**T**: +30-210-6121340
**F**: +30-210-6121332
**www.gov2u.org **
OneWebDay - Seeking a Developer to Build the E-Democracy Time Capsule
From:
Steven Clift
Date:
Aug 12 11:46 UTC
Short link
From:
http://groups.nten.org/vb/showthread.php?p=677#post677
Make History! Seeking a Developer to Build the E-Democracy Time Capsule
#1
Old Yesterday, 08:04 AM
Do you believe in the power of the Web to give ordinary people better access to
the political process? Can you develop a smart-looking blog using WordPress?
Would you like to make some history? If so, please read on...
The DC OneWebDay Planning Committee is seeking a savvy developer to build and
launch a new initiative -- the E-Democracy Time Capsule.
OneWebDay OWD) is a global event held September 22 celebrating the Web and
highlighting key issues about the future of the Internet. The theme for this
year’s event is online political participation with a focus on what we have
called a new “town square.” In line with this theme, the DC OWD Planning
Committee is creating an E-Democracy Time Capsule that will go live online on
August 22, one month before OWD. We envision a site where anyone, from all
corners of the United States and the world, can make history by contributing
text, images, sound, and video to a WordPress blog describing their favorite
E-Democracy tools, letters to the future about their hopes for Web-powered
politics, and profiles of E-Democracy Heroes.
On One Web Day, we will "close" the virtual Time Capsule. We are working to
find a partner, such as the National Archives, who will receive and archive the
Capsule until it is opened again on OWD 2020. If all goes according to plan,
thousands of people will visit the site while it is open, hundreds will make
deposits, and the closing ceremony will draw wide local and national press and
blog coverage.
We stand at a crossroad in the history of online political participation. The
future is uncertain. Policy decisions concerning digital inclusion, net
neutrality, and online privacy and security will be made in the coming months
and years. We would like to ensure that when the virtual Time Capsule is
reopened on OWD in 2020, the new town square delivers on its promise to become
a thriving marketplace of ideas where anyone can participate unhindered by a
lack of access to the tools and skills they need to add their voice to the
political dialog.
What we need to make this happen: 1-2 WordPress developers to build the Time
Capsule by August 22. We believe this will take less than 20 hours. Currently,
we have a modest but growing budget to compensate our developers, who will
enjoy wide exposure as we promote the initiative, including a full page on the
Time Capsule site to showcase their work.
What we have: a domain and server space; a fully developed marketing and
outreach plan, requirements list, and wireframe; and a dedicated planning
committee of 14 individuals representing organizations including
BroadbanCensus.com, Center for Democracy and Technology, COmmon Cause, Media
and Democracy Coalition, New America Foundation, Public Knowledge, and Sunlight
Foundation, dedicated to making OWD a big event, supporting and promoting our
developer.
To learn more, contact Vicky Pinpin-Feinstein at 301 404-8570 or
<email obscured>.
Help Redesign Democracy - Join E-Democracy.Org's Design Sprint
From:
Steven Clift
Date:
Jul 29 19:17 UTC
Short link
Help Redesign Democracy - Join E-Democracy.Org's Design Sprint
July 29th, 2008
Over the coming months I hope to engage designers in an effort to vastly
improve the look and feel of E-Democracy.Org starting with our forums -
http://forums.e-democracy.org .
E-Democracy.Org has a small grant that we using to support new features on
GroupServer - http://groupserver.org , the awesome GPL open source platform we
use for our Issues Forums. Some of that budget will be used to implement a new
look and feel that will then spread across our site. However, the more we
engage our supporters and volunteers to articulate a design vision, create some
story boards and actual art/design templates the more we can do with our
limited resources (like make it easy to embed YouTube videos in GroupServer! -
Example - http://forums.e-democracy.org/r/post/eL1LKPDptZl2eIfHUJFzo ).
To this end, we propose a design sprint (in-person in Minneapolis and virtual)
sometime in the next few months to see what kind of talent we can bring to
bear. Indicate you interest, RSVP via our wiki and drop us an e-mail:
<email obscured>
http://pages.e-democracy.org/design_sprint
We won’t consider a meeting until at least five people agree to get involved.
To assist, or perhaps confuse :-) the process, I’ve created two video
screencasts that share some of my hopes and dreams for the new site. One of my
main goals is to ensure that our forums remain competitive in the “minds
eye” with citizen media and blog sites in terms of first impressions without
losing the barebone usability that people really need. The screencasts are
available from:
http://pages.e-democracy.org/design_sprint
As a “virtual” participant, you can feel free to see what you can whip up
anytime or ask us questions now to guide your contribution.
Feel free to leave comments on the blog about the site redesign.
Steven Clift
E-Democracy.Org
P.S. If you are a developer, check our GroupServer's Development online group
and chip in some code:
http://groupserver.org/groups/development
GroupServer 1.0 Alpha Released
From:
Steven Clift
Date:
Jun 16 21:41 UTC
Short link
Our friends with GroupServer/Online Groups.Net have released an alpha
version of GroupServer for download.
This is the tool used to host this exchange as well as forums.e-democracy.org.
I'd like the more technical among us to kick the tires and offer me
very frank feedback. E-Democracy.Org has stuck with GroupServer in the
face of the giant Drupal sucking sound. Key to our decision is our
absolute insistence on a tool that provide equitable and robust e-mail
participation.
E-Democracy.Org is about to invest in an updated look and feel and a
some features including integrating photos and YouTube videos into
posts when viewed on the web. Users only need to know how to attach a
photo to an e-mail or paste in a link to a YouTube video and
GroupServer will do the rest. Very simple.
Strategically, we want to connect with others willing to shape open
source tools for democratic civic engagement purposes. We also want to
encourage more developers to add code to a tool which works very well
(if you've wanted to host your own Google/YahooGroup style groups on
your own domain without ads and include some basic social networking
this tool is for you ... if you do not imagine hosting this oun your
own box, see the hosting options from http://onlinegroups.net ) for
two-way online participation and community building.
Anyway, read on below and pass this on to the more technical in your
organization. Send any feedback to my request to: <email obscured>
OR http://e-democracy.org/contact
Steven Clift
E-Democracy.Org
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Richard Waid <<email obscured>>
Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2008 15:32:56 +1200
Subject: [GroupServer Announcements] GroupServer 1.0 Alpha
To: <email obscured>
Well. Finally we're announcing the GroupServer 1.0 alpha release: Cream
Freeze at the Beach. If it seems like it's been a long time since the
last release... it has. The previous release was April 10th 2006.
To try it out right away, you can find the buildout here:
http://www.groupserver.org/downloads/
I'll give a rundown on what's changed, but first I think a bit of
background on why the release has taken us so long is in order.
The previous release was pretty good, but it was quite difficult to
test, and had dependencies on a lot of 'through-the-web' code and
templates (code stored in an object database, for those not familiar
with Zope). This made it tricky to provide an upgrade path, and
customisation for our different clients wasn't the easiest thing either.
So we held back the release till we could get to the stage where
upgrading was possible (because it's in our best interest for people to
be able to upgrade to the latest version as easily as possible), and the
code base allowed us to easily integrate changes from contributors.
Obviously in all this time we've made other changes to the system. The
one word summary of what has changed could be "Everything". Here is a
longer version, in no particular order:
- Much of the system data (but not yet all) is now stored in a
relational database.
- Still using Zope 2, but with extensive work undertaken to shift
towards Zope 3 using the Five bridge.
- The XML/XSLT processing framework has been all but completely removed
from GroupServer. This was an interesting idea that was, for the most
part, somewhat premature.
- Performance has improved at least an order of magnitude in every area,
and in some cases several orders of magnitude.
- Many, many bugfixes and refactorings have occurred -- over 2900
revisions since the last release, including crushing some particularly
annoying unicode bugs.
- Chat feature -- a simple, AJAX based web chat client.
- Skinnable using Zope 3 style skins
- Complete rebuild of the message rendering interface, using search,
AJAX for progressive rendering.
- A huge number of other interface refinements, and many more management
screens
- Replaced the underlying javascript library. Twice. (now using jQuery:
http://www.jquery.com)
- Site and user-configurable timezones with support for Daylight Saving
Time
- Total rewrite of the registration, email verification and user
profiles
- The beginnings of a content management framework -- more of this will
land before the beta release (based on WYMEditor:
http://www.wymeditor.org -- an awesome editor)
- Refined bounce handler
- More extensive logging of user actions
- Group participation statistics
- Rewritten file library, now using search and fully integrating files
with messages
- Completely new search framework
- Keywording of emails to produce automatic email summaries
- More atom feeds
- New redirection framework to allow shorter links to several types of
content
- Buildout based environment, making it easier to get a consistent
development (and production) environment
You can find more information about the direction of GroupServer here:
http://www.groupserver.org/groupserver/roadmap/
As always, we are open to bribery when it comes to our roadmap -- Beer,
Vodka and Money all work particularly well.
At this stage we want feedback, bugfixes, feedback, documentation and
feedback. Feedback would also be good.
If you'd like to participate in the development process (encouraged!)
we have two groups:
GroupServer Development (discussion about new features, improvements to
existing features, general ideas):
http://www.groupserver.org/groups/development
GroupServer Team (invitation or by request only, for those with commit
access):
http://www.groupserver.org/groups/groupserver_team
This release has primarily been supported by:
Advanced Business Education Limited
http://www.abel.ac.nz/about/abel
E-Democracy.org Forums
http://forums.e-democracy.org/
Onlinegroups.net
http://www.onlinegroups.net
An extra special plug for OnlineGroups.net, without whom releasing
GroupServer would not be possible -- Start your free hosted GroupServer
public site today at http://onlinegroups.net/sites/start_a_site/
--
Richard Waid
Technical Lead
Onlinegroups.net
-----------------------------------------
Full text of this topic in GroupServer Announcements:
http://groupserver.org/r/topic/2b9Vbmci2bc7aIMD9HfmSN
To leave GroupServer Announcements, email
mailto:<email obscured>?Subject=unsubscribe
GroupServer Announcements is powered by
OnlineGroups.Net http://onlinegroups.net
Good Linux/CPanel hosts
From:
Steve Magruder
Date:
May 28 22:26 UTC
Short link
http://www.alwayswebhosting.com/ has been very good to me the past year
and a half. They are *very* responsive to my technical support
requests, and the performance is very good too.
Steve
Steven Clift wrote:
> E-Democracy.Org is looking for a good webhost for our
> http://www.e-democracy.org where we run our wiki and blog and archives
> of older static pages. We really like the CPanel package for e-mail
> accts, short referring urls, e-mail aliases etc., but our current host
> isn't that great when things go wrong. Note: We run our
> forums.e-democracy.org completely separately at the current time.
>
> Any suggestions?
>
>
> Steven Clift
> E-Democracy.Org
>
>
> Member profile for Steven Clift:
> http://groups.dowire.org/contacts/stevenclift
>
>
> -----------------------------------------
>
> Group home for Democracy Code - The Open Source and Technology Exchange:
> http://groups.dowire.org/groups/code
>
> Replies go to members of Democracy Code - The Open Source and Technology
Exchange with all posts on this topic here:
> http://groups.dowire.org/r/topic/7KCBzFSa04whBlgfFuvvCC
>
> For digest version or to leave Democracy Code - The Open Source and
Technology Exchange,
> email <email obscured>
> with "digest on" or "unsubscribe" in the *subject*.
>
> Democracy Code - The Open Source and Technology Exchange is hosted by
Democracies Online - http://dowire.org.
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> No virus found in this incoming message.
> Checked by AVG.
> Version: 8.0.100 / Virus Database: 269.24.2/1471 - Release Date: 5/28/2008
5:33 PM
>
The following file was added to this topic:
Good Linux/CPanel hosts
From:
Steven Clift
Date:
May 28 21:20 UTC
Short link
E-Democracy.Org is looking for a good webhost for our
http://www.e-democracy.org where we run our wiki and blog and archives
of older static pages. We really like the CPanel package for e-mail
accts, short referring urls, e-mail aliases etc., but our current host
isn't that great when things go wrong. Note: We run our
forums.e-democracy.org completely separately at the current time.
Any suggestions?
Steven Clift
E-Democracy.Org
Mobile presentation gear - what would you use today?
From:
Dave Witzel
Date:
Apr 25 13:58 UTC
Short link
I was going to mention the Flip. I played with one at Christmas but
we dropped it in the ocean. not so waterproof...
dave
On Fri, Apr 25, 2008 at 9:51 AM, Steven Clift <<email obscured>> wrote:
> Thanks Graham.
>
> We are definitely for a new projector that does well in all sorts of
lighting situations. One with decent speakers would be useful as well. Any
suggestions?
>
> Two interesting items that we've picked up to hopefully more systematically
record decent audio at events is a Pyle Pro PDWM4300 or a four mic wireless
system (two lapel mics for presenters and two regular mics for the
audience/panels) (we managed to find it for around $100 ... haven't tested it
yet. I could see us connecting the audio to one our personal Video Camcorders
with the right adapters. We also pick up for $50 a LightSnake which allows you
to connect a XLR microphone to USB. So even if we don't us a public address
system we should be able to grab podcastable audio from our events.
>
> Because we are zooming around rural Minnesota we are trying to figure out
which mobile provider provides higher bandwidth across the state at the right
price. Unfortunately, it looks like datacards require a 2 year contract - BOO!
While I always assume with presentations that the Net connection just won't
work and put everything in PowerPoint, we'd like the ability to bring in a
remote guest via video Skype or Sightspeed (or others two video services you
might recommend) as well as the demo some stuff in real-time when we use a
workshop format.
>
> It would also be fun to webcast some discussions live around the state and
far beyond. Has anyone tried http://www.mogulus.com or http://www.flixwagon.com
or http://operator11.com or http://www.ustream.tv ?
>
> Cheers,
> Steven Clift
>
> P.S. We so have 6 month old FlipVideo recorder. It works great in lower
light compared to other tools. Now all we need is David Wilcox's short
interview style talent!
http://partnerships.typepad.com/civic/2006/03/for_collaborati.html
Mobile presentation gear - what would you use today?
From:
Steven Clift
Date:
Apr 25 13:49 UTC
Short link
Thanks Graham.
We are definitely for a new projector that does well in all sorts of lighting
situations. One with decent speakers would be useful as well. Any suggestions?
Two interesting items that we've picked up to hopefully more systematically
record decent audio at events is a Pyle Pro PDWM4300 or a four mic wireless
system (two lapel mics for presenters and two regular mics for the
audience/panels) (we managed to find it for around $100 ... haven't tested it
yet. I could see us connecting the audio to one our personal Video Camcorders
with the right adapters. We also pick up for $50 a LightSnake which allows you
to connect a XLR microphone to USB. So even if we don't us a public address
system we should be able to grab podcastable audio from our events.
Because we are zooming around rural Minnesota we are trying to figure out which
mobile provider provides higher bandwidth across the state at the right price.
Unfortunately, it looks like datacards require a 2 year contract - BOO! While I
always assume with presentations that the Net connection just won't work and
put everything in PowerPoint, we'd like the ability to bring in a remote guest
via video Skype or Sightspeed (or others two video services you might
recommend) as well as the demo some stuff in real-time when we use a workshop
format.
It would also be fun to webcast some discussions live around the state and far
beyond. Has anyone tried http://www.mogulus.com or http://www.flixwagon.com or
http://operator11.com or http://www.ustream.tv ?
Cheers,
Steven Clift
P.S. We so have 6 month old FlipVideo recorder. It works great in lower light
compared to other tools. Now all we need is David Wilcox's short interview
style talent!
http://partnerships.typepad.com/civic/2006/03/for_collaborati.html
Mobile presentation gear - what would you use today?
From:
Graham Lally
Date:
Apr 24 09:03 UTC
Short link
I'm afraid I don't have any experience in this except for media consumption,
but it might help to get the ball rolling anyway.
I guess it depends on the context (i.e. citizens' technical abilities, indoors
or outdoors coverage, who's going to be consuming the media, etc), but
Laughing Squid (http://laughingsquid.com/) springs to mind for its recent video
coverage of the Olympic Torch in San Francisco (see
http://flickr.com/photos/laughingsquid/sets/72157604458841560/). This was
mostly done with just one of these Flip Video Ultras
(http://www.theflip.com/products_flip_ultra.shtml) and Flickr's new Video
service (http://www.flickr.com/help/video/).
The Flip Ultra looks very smooth and usable (and I'm wishing they were
available over here in the UK too now), while Flickr's 90-second limit on video
length keeps things short and sweet - although this is probably only useful if
you want to limit yourself to "snippets" (edited or otherwise). Again, I think
this depends partly on the audience, and partly on how much effort citizens
want to put into editing and the like.
For streaming, you might want to take a look at Qik (http://qik.com/) - I've
not used it, but it seems fairly popular with people.
Hope that helps, sorry it's not more specific :)
- Graham
Mobile presentation gear - what would you use today?
From:
Steven Clift
Date:
Apr 23 18:55 UTC
Short link
E-Democracy.Org will be hosting 5 citizen media and online engagement outreach
events across rural Minnesota.
We have a modest budget for gear. I am interested in what we can demonstrate
that makes citizen media production highly accessible as well as what we need
to capture decent quality video/audio for on-demand or even live webcast
access.
What would you put together for $2,000 US (assuming you already have a laptop)?
Assume the location used has electricity. :-)
Steven Clift
E-Democracy.Org
Feeding my inner politech geek
From:
Steven Clift
Date:
Apr 23 18:49 UTC
Short link
I've opened the "Code" group on DoWire.Org to posting.
Do you remember joining?
I've broadened the scope a bit to feed my selfish need to a place to talk about
using gadgets in e-democracy projects as well open source code.
See:
http://groups.dowire.org/groups/code
Democracy Code - The Open Source and Technology Exchange is an Online Group for
those building e-democracy, e-participation, e-community, e-advocacy and
e-government projects using open source technology as well as "politech" geeks
who like to trade tips on gadgets and gear.
There are roughly 50 of us here.
Cheers,
Steven Clift
E-Democracy.Org and DoWire.Org