Alex, David and Danbee are three MIT students with an awesome new web show called This American Summer. They’re driving a van all over the country and recording their adventures for all of us to see. They really do a great job learning and showing what the rest of the country is like, and for those of us who live on the geographical (and sometimes ideological) edges of the country, their experiences are both enlightening and entertaining. The best part, though, is the stories of the towns and the people they encounter. You can subscribe to their program in Miro by clicking here.

The three personalities, like the show they produce, can be funny, thought-provoking, and endearing. We’re glad to have their support (shout-out to the Miro subscribe button!), and we’re proud to announce that we’ll be discussing their program with them live on IRC this upcoming Tuesday. Once again, that’s:

This American Summer live on IRC

Tuesday, July 1 at 4:30 PM EST (20:30 UTC)

Chat here or at #miro-event on irc.freenode.org

Technical difficulties aside (freenode blocked our embedded IRC on the website at the worst possible moment) I thought this was a really interesting chat with Jay and Ryanne. Spirits were high, and the adrenaline rush that followed a few panicked emails between Ryanne and myself had somewhat subsided by the time everyone started chatting at about 5pm. We talked about why they started Ryan is Hungry, favorite episodes, how they decide what to tape, and neither confirmed nor denied the existence of super-secret projects in the future ; )

More episodes are in the works, and I know I’ll be keeping an eye on their Miro channel as time goes by. Jay also mentioned they’ll be doing some workshops in Washington D.C.  sometime this summer, so I’d definitely check out their blog for updates if you’re in the area.

Kyle, Parker and myself (also interns) will be coordinating future events in the Video Creator series we’ve got cooked up for this summer, which will of course be mentioned on this blog and the Team Miro mailing list as well.

And just in case you’re wondering, no I haven’t forgot about the Get Satisfaction page I so highly lauded weeks ago – I’m still working on the fine details as far as stylizing our embedded wigets for the website. This is in part due to some borked local configs I had going on in my system and finding out I’m definitely a CSS white-belt when it comes to working with a preexisting web-site.  No worries though. With time, and the help of great Miro content I’m sure my Kung-Fu will reign supreme.

Edit: Transcript Link

A week and almost a dozen emails later, I’ve got bumpkus.

I’ve received a few (two) responses to my initial inquiries and none to my follow-ups.

At first I thought maybe people weren’t interested, but then I thought some more about it and it occurred to me that if I had a video related site, I’d be stoked about the prospect of having my site both featured in the guide and profiled in a pretty well read blog…for free.

That’s when it dawned on me, maybe I just suck.

There are a handful of obstacles that stand in the way of a truly open video environment, and we’re working on addressing all of them. One category of these obstacles is technological, and Miro already does a great job overcoming those problems; Miro can play almost every kind of video, and sticks to the open standards in terms of RSS feeds and the like. Another set of problems that open video faces is legal. As any observer of the music industry for the past few years can tell you, copyright laws were not written with digital technologies in mind, and people are still ironing out those issues.

Some video creators are not waiting for copyright law to catch up to the state of technology, and are releasing their videos under liberal licenses, such as Creative Commons licenses. Many prominent video creators have chosen this path, including those behind Boing Boing TV, TED Talks, and geekbrief.tv. Some of the most popular content on the Miro Guide, though, is not subject to copyright at all, because it is in the public domain.

The public domain content on Miro is either so old that it has fallen out of copyright, like the Archive Classic Movies channel or the Classic Cartoons channel, or it is produced by an organization that claims no copyright on their work, like NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab channel. Various laws, especially those that have extended the length of copyright terms, have weakened the public domain, but it’s still a valuable source of cultural work. And not only are Miro’s public domain channels chock-full of interesting and classic materials, but because they are completely free of copyright restrictions, everything can be remixed, reconfigured, and reworked to your heart’s content!

Though opinions were varied, I think one thing we all agreed upon was the necessity of user input or feedback within the system, whether it be “flagging” or sorting. This is undoubtedly a continuing debate, but for those interested the chat is an excellent look into the history of Miro’s relationship with the subject.

This coming Tuesday  (June 17th) we have a live chat interview planned with the duo from Ryan is Hungry, so take a gander at their channel, watch some really cool videos,  post a question and vote for your favorite with the Live Question Tool, and mark your calendars! This is the first interview in a series I’m heading that will focus on Content Creators, so look forward to a more detailed profile very, very soon! That’s 4:30PM EDT / 20:30 UCT!

So now that I’ve been in the US, the promised land of Internet TV, the situation has really improved! I have a great selection of entertainment at my fingertips, simply for having the ‘right’ IP address. Although things may be working well for me know, I know that when I go back in a few months, I will get demoted again. Thanks a lot Hulu!

The cool thing about Miro is that it doesn’t discriminate against certain viewers. That’s why I will continue using it when I return to my home country, along with the old school TV channels that are available online, such as CNN.

I appreciate content providers who make their videos easily accessible through legal and free channels such as Miro. Even Flavor of Love has earned my respect - who knew!

In our continuing series of focused weekly chat meetings, today the debate will center on the handling of explicit or “adult” content in Miro, specifically the MiroGuide system.

This is a opportunity to have your voice heard on the matter and help our developers make decisions based on the feedback provided. That being said, we cannot guarantee the viability of any one idea over another until individuals begin coding and resources are limited.

Transparency and openness are one of our core assets as a community and really what sets Miro apart from a majority of online video distribution software platforms. Please take a moment today to join us, post in our Live Question Tool, or leave a comment on our blog.

As always, transcripts of the event will be made available on our Wiki to those who cannot attend.

Right now, I’m primarily working on setting up the open video website. We want to push for open video standards, rather than restricting viewers to “walled gardens,” without much participation, such as Joost and YouTube (though I hear participation’s starting to change at YouTube!) In addition, at some point in the future, we’re aiming to have a conference dedicated to open video. Keep your ears peeled for updates!

As a summer intern at the PCF, I was responsible for organizing last week’s chat event. I’m proud to say that it was a great success. About twenty people attended, some of whom were active and asking great questions. In my first blog post of many, I’ll detail the process behind organizing Tuesday’s event, and how it could have been done better.

Planning started approximately a week prior to the event. I drafted the mass email and blog post advertising the session on a legal pad during the week, but didn’t have them ready for users’ eyes until the weekend. I would have liked to get the date/time out there a little earlier… I will make sure to keep this in mind for the next event. Giving only one day’s notice is probably responsible for the absence of many users who would have otherwise attended.

We chose the Live Question Tool for question entries. It was a perfect match for this type of event; it almost seemed as if it was designed for it! The tool accepts prior submission of questions and, as the name implies, live submission while the event is in progress. I couldn’t have asked for a better means of taking questions.

Last week’s featured guest ,Will Guaraldi did a great job responding to the several questions that were posed to him (transcript available on our Wiki ).

As far as IRC discussions go, the session was structured and under control. Operator privileges were unnecessary, as everyone was self-moderated and respectful. Hopefully we get a larger audience next time around (the discussions are weekly, held Tuesday’s at 4:30 EST), and I thank everyone who attended on Tuesday!

While Miro has some great technical and aesthetic changes coming with the next iteration, we’re trying not to limit this inertia strictly to the client and are making some pretty sweeping changes elsewhere.

What this means for Miro fans is not only a friendlier, more interactive experience across our offerings, but a more responsive and transparent PCF. These changes come primarily in two areas:

1. Design: A number of our sites will be getting make overs so you definitely want to check back often to see the changes.
2. Communication: Chris has already talked a little about what we’re doing with Get Satisfaction and Kyle has hinted a little to how we’ll be blowing up IRC, you can also expect more frequent updates to our mailing lists, blogs, and Facebook group.

Lastly, we’re planning on starting a series of posts on the main blog profiling video creators and publishers in conjunction with the channel features we’re already doing using the Miro Guide.

I’ll be posting more about it this week but if you know anyone that would be interested in the free publicity (or are interested yourself), feel free to email me directly at rick.kenney[at]pculture.org.