When we started talking to people about the project, we’d often find that some didn’t get how p2p works.  Not that you have to understand it to use it, but if you do want to, we produced a couple of simple animations that explain how p2p works.  (First, we mean p2p as in peer-to-peer software and not p2p as a philosophy, though there are obvious parallels!.)

Streaming
What is p2p? It’s a method of distributing data.  Where it works well is when you need to distribute large amounts of data, for example a film.  To fully understand p2p you need to first understand the way distribution works for non-p2p online.  Currently for streaming content like, YouTube, this is how it works:

Blip.tv video link 1

In the video you can see that the users (on the right) request the data from the host (on the left) – as each user requests, the host sends each the data, broken up into smaller chunks for ease of transmission.  Notice what happens with the last user, at the bottom-right; as the host’s capacity fills up with the requests from the other users, the final user has to wait.  This is what is happening when a video you are watching pauses mid-way; the host is too busy and all of it’s capacity is temporarily taken.

p2p-ing
By contrast, here is the same distribution requests, but done using p2p:

blip.tv video link 2

In the video, again, the users (on the right) request the data from the host (on the left) – however as the host sends out the data, it sends a different bit to each user.  This means that each user (aka peer) can share this bit of data they have with the other users (… to peer).  Thus the request from the 4th user does not go unanswered as the distribution capacity grows, rather than falls, as users join in.

p2p as a concept…

The above were developed to illustrate how p2p works as software, but you can also see how it might work for non-software related applications. What we would see, rather then a file being share, the workload being shared; imagine each part of the whole image as small task or contribution. Together, the power of the contributions can create a whole shared by the group.

(Based on a post at the CatBot Blog.)

I’m no expert really (note lack of videos by me on this site!), but I am quite a good researcher and this post should serve as a decent sign-posting intro to good video blogging tips and tools

This is the best all round guide I know of:
http://makeinternettv.org/

Another useful resource is:
http://www.ourvideo.org/

Some free software projects worth investigating:
http://blog.plumi.org/ (plone)
http://plone4artists.org/ (plone)
https://wiki.koumbit.net/FilmForge (drupal)
http://showinabox.tv/ (wordpress)

Networks to get involved with/ places to find people to help:
http://transmission.cc/
https://shootingpeople.org/

http://mandy.com/

Places to upload your videos:
http://www.vimeo.com/
http://blip.tv/
(those are the two most film maker people I know use)
(one of them lets you automatically add them to http://www.archive.org
which is a good idea)
(and, of course, you should upload to youtube too – where the biggest
audience is)

http://qik.com is cool because it always people to send video to the web straight from their phones http://bestbefore.tv/2008/11/videoboo-simple-video-upload/ does a similar thing to qik but is on your computer and lets people interview
themselves which is pretty nifty.

My two favourite online video shows:
http://peakmoment.tv/
http://submedia.tv/

A cross of those shows would be absolutely fantastic (i.e. the postive
content of Peak Moment in the edgy and funny style of SubMedia)

And my friend Vinay’s take on How Not To Do Video:
http://blip.tv/file/1685403

See also these docs:
how_to_make_good_activist_videos.pdf
video-activism-resources.rtf

And perhaps check out these books:

[amtap book:isbn=0745317707]
[amtap book:isbn=0470037881]
[amtap book:isbn=0745324126]
[amtap book:isbn=0240808312]
[amtap book:isbn=0240810295]
[amtap book:isbn=0321429176]
[amtap book:isbn=0471971774]
[amtap book:isbn=0240809351]

What have I missed?

PS thanks to Viv Gooding (who ran the build of Ben Law’s house, incidentally) for asking me about this stuff whilst I was at Embercombe (the text above is basically an e-mail I sent him), and to tav too (his recent post on becoming a film maker prompted me to whack this info up here )

I just saw this nice video on the new David Korten site Sam Rose built:

YouTube – Imagine This

“Imagine This is an audio mash up of GW Bush singing the John Lennon classic “imagine”, it has been a worldwide hit and has made it into (John Peel’s) BBC Radio 1 Music Festive 50 on UK Radio 1.

The audio was produced by Waxaudio, I created a video for it by tracking down over 40 separate video clips from George Bush speeches, I lip synched these clips to the audio and interspersed them with footage from the original imagine Video, along with some Iraq war footage and some other bits and pieces.”

United Diversity is all about creating new land, money and media systems.

Here are some existing examples of the kind of projects we’re talking about:

Land
http://ecologicalland.coop/
http://openfarmtech.org/
http://www.energyfarms.net/
http://cityrepair.org/
http://thevillage.ie
http://lammas.org.uk/
http://www.gloucestershirelandforpeople.coop/
http://www.tlio.org.uk/
http://www.landroots.co.uk/
http://www.landforpeople.co.uk/
http://www.communitylandtrust.org.uk/
http://www.iceclt.org/
http://www.pathtofreedom.com/

Money
http://opencoin.org
https://ripplepay.com/
http://rootstock.org.uk/
http://labase.org/
http://openmoney.info/
http://www.damanhur.info/en/html/ArcMagazine.asp?IDCat=1&IDSottoCat=5
http://www.ekopia.findhorn.com/eko.html
http://www.saltspringdollars.com/welcome.htm
http://totnes.transitionnetwork.org/totnespound/home
http://www.berkshares.org/
http://www.themoneyfix.org/index.php
http://www.targetedcurrencies.net/
http://www.complementarycurrency.org/

Media
http://submedia.tv
http://peakmoment.tv
http://energybulletin.net/
http://worldchanging.com/
http://makeinternettv.org/
http://indymedia.org
http://english.ohmynews.com/
http://www.yesmagazine.org/
http://www.permaculture-magazine.co.uk/
http://globalpublicmedia.com/
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/
http://www.undercurrents.org/index.htm
http://www.getmiro.com/
http://plumi.org
http://alpha.green.tv
http://www.bigpicture.tv/
http://showinabox.tv/
http://transmission.cc
http://wiki.koumbit.net/FilmForge
http://aswarmofangels.com/
http://democracynow.org/
http://www.projectcensored.org/
http://www.zmag.org/znet
http://www.mediaventure.org/
http://www.reclaimthemedia.org/
http://www.ourvideo.org/toolkit/index.htm
http://www.alternet.org/

Enjoy!

Josef.

I sent this out on The Open Co-op mailing list (amongst others) but should’ve posted it up here too…

This chap Stan Rhodes has a vision that is very familiar to me…

http://www.p2pfoundation.net/Narrative_on_Discovering_the_Peer_Trust_Network_System
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/Peer_Trust_Network_Project

And if you haven’t caught up with Open Source Ecology lately, you’ve got to check this out:

CEB (Compressed Earth Block) Phase 1 – Done
http://openfarmtech.org/weblog/?p=91

Open Engineering: Better Than Sliced Bread
http://openfarmtech.org/weblog/?p=155

How it all (could) work
http://openfarmtech.org/weblog/?p=156

Here comes the p2p economy…
as the Harvard Business Review’s Breakthough Ideas for 2008 report put it:

http://tinyurl.com/3bc3eg

with an almost identical article here:
http://www.internationalistmagazine.com/2007-earlyfall/2007-earlyfall_commentary.html

Enjoy!

Josef.

Check this out!

Buy a plan or complete unit at Shafer’s Tumbleweed Tiny House Company.

Via http://www.homegrownrevolution.org

I just came across this video after reading this interview

Google Tech Talks July 31, 2007

ABSTRACT

Rick Falkvinge, the founder of the Swedish Pirate Party and the international politicized pirate movement, talks about the rise and success of pirates, and why pirates are necessary in today’s politics. He’ll also outline the next steps in the pirates’ strategy to change global copyright laws.

The fight against copyright aggression tends to focus on economic aspects of the shift to a networked economy. Rick explains how this conflict is much more important than that: the fight against the copyright regime is about the right to fundamental civil liberties – down to the postal secret, whistleblower protection, freedom of the press, and the very right to an identity. Rick Falkvinge is the founder and leader of the Swedish Pirate Party, as well as the founder of the international politicized pirate movement. His leadership and vision took the Pirate Party from nothing into the top ten parties in the last Swedish general election, without a dime in the campaign chest. His personal candidacy came in at rank #15 out of over 5,000 candidates for the 349 parliamentary seats.

While he didn’t win one of those seats due to threshold rules, the Swedish Pirate Party has inspired similar parties to form in over 20 other countries, and the fight for civil liberties against copyright and patent aggression continues.

The primary focus of Rick and of the Pirate Party is to fight back against the current copyright aggression and surveillance populism using the one thing lobbyists can never buy – votes in a democratic election. Rick demonstrates how much more than business models are at stake in the copyright debate: today’s copyright and essential civil liberties have become mutually exclusive, and society must choose.

Rick Falkvinge lives in Stockholm, Sweden. When not engaged in the fight for privacy and citizens’ rights, he can usually be found cooking, reading, or riding a motorcycle.

Via Submedia

I love this series and this is one of the best episodes yet!

This Week

1. Trillionaire Debt
2. Almost $100
3. PetroChina
4. Food Riots
5. Buy Nothing Day
6. No Borders Camp
7. R.A.T.M.
8. Ron Paul, who cares
9. Ward Churchill

A fun video of people projecting stuff onto walls in Bucharest. Very similar to the drive-by projecting video we featured in third edition of our Guide

From the youtube detail:

Translation for a better understanding
from romanian to english !

Nu Ne Vindem Tara ! = We are not selling our country
Sa Mori Tu = (gipsy’s way of saying) My ass
Muie = Suck my dick !

Sound Track :
Donkey Rattle – Original Mix by Felix Laband on African Dope’s Greatest Hit.

Buy it here :
http://tinyurl.com/2vs7cp

More visuals and more on http://www.memefest.org
More videodrones on http://www.dailymotion.com/Videodrone
More Visible stuff on : http://www.pleix.net/films.html
More subversive stuff : http://thevacuumcleaner.co.uk
More downloadable stuff on http://www.guidedurenard.org/bm

Thanks to Cinty, Dan, Paul, Adi, Paul, Milosh, PIF, Sector 7 and Zander.

Download this video : http://tinyurl.com/3ywyy3