Participatory Culture Foundation

The Participatory Culture Foundation (PCF) is a non-profit organization based in Worcester, Massachusetts.[1] Its primary project is a free and open-source software Internet television platform called Miro, formerly called the Democracy player.[2][3] It is also the developer of Broadcast Machine, an open-source video publishing tool.[1]

A 501(c)(3) organization, the PCF's mission is to "develop technology and services that ensure everyone has access to all that the Internet has to offer", because "information is critical to building a more equitable and peaceful society".[4]

History

edit

The organization was founded in February 2005. The Downhill Battle project precedes PCF.[5]

PCF has received financial support from Andy and Deborah Rappaport and Mitch Kapor.[1][6] It has also received support from the Surdna Foundation, Knight Foundation, and other private donors.[7]

As of 2006, Nicholas Reville was a co-director of PCF.[8] That year, PCF led a workshop at YearlyKos on how individual citizens can make professional-quality political ad videos and distribute them over the Internet.[8]

On May 29, 2007, the Mozilla Foundation announced that it had awarded PCF a grant to continue their work on its open-source video projects.[9]

Projects

edit
  • Miro – a free/open-source broadcatching software application which allows subscribing to web feeds of downloadable audio and video
    • Miro Guide – a web-based directory of audio and video web feeds, integrated by default into the application
  • Miro Community – a free web hosting service for user-submitted video; hosts mostly Theora-formatted video in HTML5-compatible web browsers
  • Broadcast Machine – a desktop application allowing easy publishing of video files and updated internet television channels[1]
  • Amara (formerly Universal Subtitles) – enables collaboration on captions and subtitles[10]
  • The Channel Channel – a project to provide one-minute previews of internet channels; last updated in January 2007
  • Video Bomb – a folksonomy-driven video directory
  • Miro Video Converter – an application to convert any video to MP4, Theora or formats compatible with Android, iPod, iOS (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad), and PlayStation Portable devices

See also

edit

References

edit
  1. ^ a b c d Anderson, Mark (December 10, 2005). "Internet TV at a crucial fork in the road". New Scientist. ProQuest 200394121. Retrieved September 20, 2024 – via ProQuest.
  2. ^ "Democracy Internet TV Blog: Announcing Miro". Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved August 1, 2007.
  3. ^ Dibbell, Julian (March 8, 2006). "Mediocre TV". The Village Voice. ProQuest 232289502. Retrieved September 20, 2024 – via ProQuest.
  4. ^ "Our mission is tied to the structure of our organization". Participatory Culture Foundation. Retrieved September 20, 2024.
  5. ^ "About Page, Participatory Culture Foundation website". Retrieved August 1, 2007.
  6. ^ Gonsalves, Antone (September 12, 2005). "Really, Web Video Is For Real". InformationWeek. ProQuest 229167954. Retrieved September 20, 2024 – via ProQuest.
  7. ^ "about PCF". Participatory Culture Foundation. Retrieved October 1, 2024.
  8. ^ a b Cohen, Adam (June 14, 2006). "Could a 15-Year-Old With a Laptop Be the New Campaign Media Guru?". The New York Times. ProQuest 433360321. Retrieved September 20, 2024 – via ProQuest.
  9. ^ "Seth's Mozilla Blog". 2007. Archived from the original on June 23, 2007. Retrieved June 28, 2007.
  10. ^ Spina, Carli (April 2021). "Chapter 6. Video Accessibility Tools". Library Technology Reports. 57 (3): 25–27. ProQuest 2520093115 – via ProQuest.
edit