Home Lands Media Delivery Platform

From apc.au wiki

This is a draft and incomplete document prepared at a time during which the Homelands project was under-going institutional changes. As such, the completion of this report was pending an outcome that would seed further enquiry based on a revised governance frameworks.

Contents 1 Producing Video 1.1 Requirements 1.2 Equipment 2 Video Delivery 2.1 Requirements 2.2 Scaling the System 2.3 Recommendation 2.4 Recommended Hosting 3 Rationale

Producing Video

Requirements

Equipment

• Camcorder
• Laptop
• Storage / backup
• Editing software (eg. iMovie)

Video Delivery

A key component of the Home Lands projects will be the Media Platform, the engine behind the project's website. Hosting video clips created by the Home Lands community, the Media Platform will also allow members to upload their videos so that any site visitor can view them.

Requirements

• Easy to use interface
• Multilingual capabilities
• Rights managements (eg. support for CC licenses)
• On and offline viewing
• Integration with mobile devices
• File sharing (eg. RSS feed)
• Comment management

Scaling the System

When the Home Lands web site is first launched, it will expanddremahost.com/ over time as additional refugee groups are included. The Media Platform must be able to grow as required, allowing a small pilot site to become a full production site and grow from there.

Recommendation

It is recommended that where ever possible Home Lands utilise existing tools that fill the requirements. While this could entail using an existing online service (eg: YouTube), we recommend establishing a dedicated delivery platform for the project. We also recommend that the Plumi video sharing system be used as the basis for the Media Platform for the following reasons:

• Quality
  • While still using a Flash driven playback mechanism, videos uploaded to Plumi are of a higher quality than those found on YouTube
  • In use with multiple sites aroud the world, Plumi is proviing itself to be a reliable system

• Licensing
  • Includes Creative Commons license management built into it – other popular video platforms (such as YouTube) do not

• Open Source
  • Released under an open source license which provides the following benefits:
    • Free – no purchase cost
    • Can be modified if required
    • Open to more developers than one organisation can provide

• Solid Foundation
  • Based on the Plone Content Management System, itself an open source product that is widely used on many websites

• Australian
  • The core developers and drivers of the Plumi project as Australian, facilitating access to technical support and guidance

More information about Plumi can be found at the Plumi website

Recommended Hosting

We recommend using DreamHost to host the HomeLands site and server, for the following reasons:

• Start Small
  • Their smallest hosting account will provide sufficient space and bandwidth to allow a pilot project to be trialled without requiring significant investment in dedicated servers.

• Grow as Required
  • As the system grows, the hosting account can be upgraded to higher levels that provide additional space & bandwidth to meet increased use, eventually transitioning to its own dedicated server.

• Good Support
  • Responsive and helpful support staff are available 24 hours per day

• Value
  • Hosting plans that are competitive with those offered within the USA and significantly cheaper than those from Australia

• Green Hosting
  • Certified carbon neutral hosting provider

For more information about DreamHost, visit their website

Rationale

• Why support open source
• Rights management support
• Supporting local / regional initiatives (eg. Plumi)