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View Full Version : The Spread Open Media Project Needs the Help of all Ubuntu Addicts!



Saoshyant
September 5th, 2007, 03:44 AM
Guys and gals, you have taken one step forward on a Revolution that has been going on for years: you have ditched Windows/OS X for Ubuntu. You have welcomed Free Software!

But are you aware that while Linux is on the rise, Open Media formats are going downhill? People aren't even aware they exist. And since they have no idea of their importance, people lock their media, their files, their music, their films, in proprietary formats. Open Media formats exist to give you an alternative, and it's usually a better alternative.

Are you interested? The logical step after Free Software is Open Media. Be part of the revolution and free your media!

The Xiph.Org Foundation has started an initiative to promote the use of Open Media formats and raise awareness regarding them. It's called Spread Open Media (http://spreadopenmedia.org) and, while it is similar to the infamous Spread Firefox, the goal is much more noble: free your media and get better quality.

You can help in many ways, but the easiest way is to grab a banner and put it in your site, blog, or facebook/myspace profile. You may even use a sig here on the Ubuntu forums, something like "Help Spread Open Media".

yabbadabbadont
September 5th, 2007, 03:49 AM
"Spread Open Media" :shock:

I need to get my mind out of the gutter... :lol:

(but it is just too much fun down here :D)

Seriously though, unless or until the big commercial media software companies add support for open formats to their tools, I doubt that a campaign such as this will help much. Still, it did help with Firefox/Thunderbird, so hopefully I will be proven wrong.

aktiwers
September 5th, 2007, 04:07 AM
I like it.. You just need to fix your link... it says "htto" instead of "http" ;)

Saoshyant
September 5th, 2007, 04:22 AM
I like it.. You just need to fix your link... it says "htto" instead of "http" ;)

Oops.


Seriously though, unless or until the big commercial media software companies add support for open formats to their tools, I doubt that a campaign such as this will help much. Still, it did help with Firefox/Thunderbird, so hopefully I will be proven wrong.

If the people are aware of the problem and the alternatives, then it will be worthy. The big companies are only big because they have lots of customers. If their customers (even a few) demand support for Open Media, so shall they have to provide. Raise awareness, raise demand. Sounds good to me.

Saoshyant
September 5th, 2007, 02:03 PM
I guess I will bump it, before the thread is lost forever in obscurity. It's sad it hasn't got much attention and love. Why is that? Do people really hate the idea of Open Media, or they just don't care?

I just wanted to mention anyway that if you are a member of one of those online communities like reddit, digg, or slashdot, you may want to submit the story there and get some good karma.

Tomosaur
September 5th, 2007, 03:19 PM
I guess I will bump it, before the thread is lost forever in obscurity. It's sad it hasn't got much attention and love. Why is that? Do people really hate the idea of Open Media, or they just don't care?

I just wanted to mention anyway that if you are a member of one of those online communities like reddit, digg, or slashdot, you may want to submit the story there and get some good karma.

I think it's that your website has nothing for people to 'get behind' yet. It looks pretty much just like a blog - same format, same style etc etc. Many people find this format incredibly off-putting (myself included). If you're not a blog, then you shouldn't look like a blog.

The site is about open media, but information on open media is buried in the FAQ. You should redesign your site to have a proper home-page, not just the latest article, and make actual information about open media the first thing the user sees - a few comparison charts with proprietary media (software it is usable in, average file-sizes, that kind of stuff). Basically, make open media the prominent feature of the website, not the articles. Only display the latest article, if at all, and just provide links to older ones.

Yes, open media is a worthy cause, but if you hit people with the politics and articles straight away, you're going to turn them off. At the moment, the only reason I read anything on the website was because open media is something I am interested in anyway, and I could understand what the articles were saying. The people you have to convince to use open media are the very people who aren't really that interested in it anyway, so you'll have to make your site pretty and make the open media formats immediately obvious and available.

bobbocanfly
September 5th, 2007, 03:50 PM
http://digg.com/linux_unix/Spead_Open_Media

Submitted to Digg to see if we can get some more support from the community. Please Digg it.

Saoshyant
September 5th, 2007, 04:26 PM
If you're not a blog, then you shouldn't look like a blog.

The site is about open media, but information on open media is buried in the FAQ. You should redesign your site to have a proper home-page, not just the latest article, and make actual information about open media the first thing the user sees - a few comparison charts with proprietary media (software it is usable in, average file-sizes, that kind of stuff). Basically, make open media the prominent feature of the website, not the articles.

Your comment is pretty head on and will be taken into consideration.

Thanks also for putting SOM in your sig.


http://digg.com/linux_unix/Spead_Open_Media

Submitted to Digg to see if we can get some more support from the community.

Hey, thanks! Let's Digg it.

derekr44
September 5th, 2007, 04:41 PM
ROFL


Internet use policy restricts access to this web page at this time.

Reason: The Websense category "Streaming Media" is filtered.

I guess Websense didn't like the word "media". :(

happysmileman
September 5th, 2007, 05:57 PM
ROFL
I guess Websense didn't like the word "media". :(

I'd say they didn't like the word "open" more :P