Fedora and Video Sharing

[Nicholas Ozorak]

Dear Anyone with an interest in video distribution,

My name is Nick Ozorak, and I am one of the students from Allegheny
College who has just come in to help with the Fedora Project.  My
particular field of expertise is in video creation and distribution,
as I already have my own video-web series.  I'm one of five students
who's looking into the issue of how videos about Fedora can be
distributed online.

I saw in the archives that there was recently a discussion about
Fedora and where videos showcasing the project should be hosted.
Internet Archive was mentioned, as well as Dailymotion.  Based off of
my experience, both of these websites are decent places to host video,
but they don't receive as much traffic as the granddaddy of them all -
YouTube.  As a consumer, when I am looking for videos regarding
technological developments, YouTube is where I go first.

I am aware that some people are uncomfortable with relying on YouTube
and Flash, but there may be a solution to satisfy everyone.  One idea
that I have come up with is:

* Set up official Fedora Project accounts on websites like Internet
Archive and Dailymotion.

* Create videos on these accounts to establish them as being
officially part of the Fedora Project (welcome videos, tutorials,
features of Fedora, etc).

* Designate people to be official Fedora Project Video Account Managers.

* Allow other video creators and content developers to showcase their
Fedora-related work on the official channel(s) by sending their video
to the Account Master(s) for consideration.  If accepted, these videos
would be added to the official channel.

* Open a YouTube account, and ask people if they are comfortable with
having their work(s) displayed on YouTube and/or other Flash-based
websites.

I'd be more than happy to discuss this idea in an IRC chat with those
who are interested.  I would also be curious to find out what results
previous discussions about this issue have yielded and get a sense of
what people's opinions are.

I will also add that I had never heard of Fedora before one of my
professors started discussing it in class.  Once Mel Chua came to
speak with our class and explain how this open-source community
worked, I began to understand.  Having videos that explain the goals
of the Fedora Project to those who have heard little to nothing about
the project would be extremely beneficial with regards to outreach.

Thanks for reading, and good luck with preparing for the big release!

Nick