• WSFTV.NET DEVELOPMENT PROJECT

last modified July 23, 2009 by hildecs

WWW.WSFTV.NET DEVELOPMENT PROJECT 2009

 WSFTV www.wsftv.net, was created to give visibility and connect people and communities across the globe, through video, the events of the WSF Global Day of Action in 2008. Today, this project has been successful in bringing together videos from many events in many countries around issues of social justice movements.  Future visions of this project will allow an expanded network of related channels to allow to express themselves with their specific identity and to have control of their contents, but increasing at the same time the main database and eventually the main site.
The starting idea was to create a digital space, a hub of videos linked to other sites in the FSM, to build an archive of video productions of civil society movements and related issues and events of the social forum to share and distribute.
The original goal remains, which is to distribute the clips filmed during global social forum events and allow the following actions:

a) Download the video for projection, to screen during the meetings of the movement (the same was done at Belem with the Expanded project, developed from the idea of connecting the activities tested with the Global Day of Action).
b) Allow further editing of videos, post-production, and DVD creation.
c) Download the video in high quality for broadcast, mass-media use via dedicated server access

Through the production and sharing of videos made on 26 January 2008, 26 groups of film and video activists were able to use the WSFTV site as a public space for video distribution.

During the Social Forum in Belem 2009, WSFTV, which had the participation of new collective videomakers' groups, contained more than 40 videos, including 4 video highlights of 10 minutes each, which were specifically made for the daily distribution via satellite for the international circuit television of the World Feed.

A pre-existing archive  that the group FocusPuller has created over the years has been made available to WSFTV. The archive of WSFTV, called Forum Memory Archive, continues to expand the coverage of different events as now with the videos of Belem.

In anticipation of future mobilizations we believe in the need to consolidate and develop a working group through the use of digital technology and network to participate actively in the communication and dissemination of our content, in collaboration with a larger group of organizers from local social forum events and mass movement organizations.

We think that the next step is to develop a community around WSFTV that can collectively produce and is therefore able to be self-sustainable. 

The development of WSFTV: A community web portal

The development of www.wsftv.net is in our opinion the creation of a Web Portal Community for the collection, archiving, and distribution of multimedia products on demand, as it is integrated with other sites coordinated and facilitated by the communications committee of the International world social forum.

WSFTV intends to be a free space within the network as an alternative to Youtube (which uses proprietary software, controls user content, perpetuates the hierarchy of copyright and fair use laws, and displays huge billboard advertising). Its vision is to be available for the movement to facilitate the distribution and sharing of video without these intrusions.

What do we mean by community Web portal?
We believe it is important to consolidate and expand the site wsftv thinking about the possibility of working in groups in several parts of the world. Using the site and the network it is possible to facilitate the work of production, post production, catalogation and distribution of contents by groups of videoactivists scattered around the continents.
Usually during the forums or other events, a large amount of raw video material is produced, which for the majority is not edited for lack of resources, lack of time or others.
With the Internet this becames quite simple, the movies can be uploaded to a folder on FTP, as we have done for GDA, and editors can download and edit movies.
All this still following the idea of sharing as was done for the project ForumTV in Belem.
The same system can be applied to audio content, opening up a portion of the site for this. The audio portion will have a specific space in order to enhance this aspect of the Memory of the social forums.

Items consolidate and develop:

1. Management and fundraising
2. Editing, hub's archive and translations
3. Production and post-production content
4. Software development and site maintenance
5. Promotion/distribution and use of content

1. Management and fundraising
The website was originally created and coordinated by the founding collective group FocusPuller/Accesso with the help of a small working group comprised of several members of the Communication Committee of the International World Social Forum, Ciranda, and technicians from Mediatria. Since Belem 2009, it has expanded to include the NGO Cepepo. There is an increased need to expand this project to include local organizers that represent local social forum events to contribute to the growth of this project as a way to fulfill its goals within the WSF process.

There is the need to identify a form of organization that allows two levels of management, a general and a local one.
A) General/global management must acquire funds in order to ensure the maintenance and the technical functionality of the site, such as development and server costs, and to ensure the production of content for major international events. As for the fundraising, we think that on the site it should be included the chance to make donations.

B) Local managment must independently organize self-productions using wsftv.net as a tool for content delivery and organize local media activists.



2. Editorial policy, archive and translations
It is necessary to create a editorial staff that can systematicaly and continuously dedicate time for recording material and updating the site and making it accessible and enjoyable by keeping fresh and interesting the contents of the portal.

The editorial staff must generate an editorial policy which dictates the rights and fair uses of posted content. Although the principles of video production on WSFTV.net assume unrestricted use, the (intended or accidental) violation copyright laws can invoke negative attention and therefore must be made clear to users and enforced by the editorial staff.

There are many opportunities for collaboration. Projects in universities and trade unions are already working to systematize and archive media production in social movements and civil society. Some contacts have already been opened but many more can be made allies in collaboration.

A major failing of the site is the lack of language versions of the portal, but above all, the failure to translate (with subtitles or voiceover) video content. We are evaluating some ideas about how to attach voiceover in multiple languages to the videos. For this problem we must understand how to find and deal with software application and activate the right community for the translation.

3. Production and post-production of content:

There are two main sources of video content that is available on WSFTV:

A) Productions coordinated internally by the group manager/editors of the site, which provide coverage of events considered significant and important. Often these pieces provide alternative perspectives to mass-media coverage of important world events in progressive movements.
B) Productions provided by individuals, organizations, and users in the larger, external community, which cover all other major events around the world.
C) Productions collectively filmed, edited, and translated by TV/Video forum participants during WSF events.

Post-production can be implemented in the community by finding existing editing tools, finding available editors, and using server access to transfer raw video material.

4. Site maintenance and software development

WSFTV is a site that uses Plumi software, an application of Plone. Plumi has been developed and created by Australian Engagemedia.org group who helped with the birth of the video site of the World Social Forum. In Italy a group of software engineers called Mediatria built the site and continue to work at the technological and creative development level of WSFTV along with the collective FocusPuller/Accesso.

For future work on the site, a set of tools, such as language and translation, must be implemented. Also, as website technology continues to advance, development and software integration will become increasingly important in order to continue to reach a global community. Additionally, developing software solutions for media distribution can also contribute to Free and Open Source Software which can be reappropriated for progressive, non-propriteary software alternatives for organizations.


5. Promotion, distribution and use of content
It is necessary to:
• Enable the participation in the creation of a web community that works for the production of content, the technical management and development of the site, the translations.
• Seek and identify partnership relations with other information structures on the Web, to organize the amount of information coming to the portal
• Communicating and promoting the actions of the calendar of events, forums, etc..
• Promote the visibility of the site to expand the number of new entrants through the promotion of the distribution of content.

THE BUDGET

    •    software development and maintenance site
    •    General Video Production (air-food-lodging + daily minimum for 2 operators)
    •    local video production (stimulate the production with the possibility of micro finance projects or hedges events selected)
    •    Editor staff
    •    archive cataloging, editing content
    •    development and creation of distribution networks
    •    Administration
    •    training
    •    materials
    •    Audio archive