JahShaka
So over two years ago I met Karsten Becker and he showed me his open source hi-end video editing tool - JahShaka. It’s had over 200k downloads right now and has it’s own unique niche in the market - the free niche.
I’ve already written about V2 being out - and now I get to tell you about my involvement with the company. I just did IBC (the giant show in Amsterdam - roughly equivalent to NAB in the States.)
The IBC this year was full of IPTV stuff, as opposed to Interactive TV stuff - but in general - it’s business as usual for these folks. Not a word on the Internet, Web 2.0, the blogosphere or anything.
I wandered around asking about open standards and I got blank stares or jibberish about the IETF and ISO and….. There’s a DVB group, an AAF format and more AIS, DMB, GPS, HD, etc. then you cna shake a stick at - but it’s all old school, proprietary stuff.
I think they’re all in fear of those 100,000,000 digital cameras and camcorders out there and what might happen when us humans get our hands on all that gear and start cranking out media en masse.
One coolio thing I saw was Avid’s newsroom software. Now we just need an open source version of THAT!
In fact when I met one of the leading PR flacks in this industry I asked her if she had a blog and she said “I literally just found out about them - yesterday.”
So Karsten’s company - ‘Visual Media’ - has it’s work cut out for them. I won’t fully divulge everything, yet, but leave it at ‘a community of digital creators’ connected to tools - the new paradigm of tools I’ve been ranting about for years.
They’re doing it.
Photo is of Karsten with the award Doc helped him get (deservedly so…..)
Anyway so I’m here in Wokingham - which is a suburb of Reading which is a suburb of London. Then I’m off to India. Then back here. Then Italy - then back here for ResFest.
September 14th, 2005 at 9:56 am
You’re treading on dangerous ground. Reading is NOT a suburb of London (its 45 miles away) and Wokingham is NOT a suburb of Reading. They are towns in there own right and have been for hundreds of years.
I’d show you round if I wasn’t in Istanbul at the moment
http://www.britannia.com/history/berks/wokingham.html
September 14th, 2005 at 10:35 am
Damn right about IBC. I was there as well this year. There is such a lack of an internet mindset in the TV world. All suites and no punk. The whole IPTV scene seems to be divided in three planes: small companies specializing in STB’s and proprietary authoring tools, old-school companies pushing on MHP , a standard but so awkward to work with it totally frightens graphic developers and Microsoft/Alcatel, a cooperation most other players seem to very afraid of as well.
From User Experience point of view, the MS IPTV User Experience seems far more funky than the MHP based. But then again, the other vendors will say it’s only eye-candy, beautful slideware…
What we need is Laszlo for IPTV, so we can get some work done, fast.