Offsite video sharing

Now here's something that will simplify the posting of video online - particularly useful for performing arts demos....

There seem to be two major free video hosting services - YouTube and Google Video.

YouTube seems to operate the same was as Flickr - create an account, share videos, add tags and comments. etc. The limit is 100MB videos at a time, but no monthly bandwidth limit (unlike Flickr...). You can also embed the videos (like I'm embedding the Flickr photos on the sidebar). (Thanks to Zacker of Civic Space Labs fame for the YouTube pointer.)

Then there's Google Video. You need a Google Account (which is different than a Gmail account); they have some operating system specifics and video specs, but no upload limit. It's not designed with the same "tag and share" philosophy as YouTube, but it does allow the downloading of video - which you may or may not want (YouTube allows you to bookmark videos, but not download them - again, similar to Flickr).

One last note: YouTube is much more susceptible to being brought down for he hsoting of copyright content (c.f. history of Napster) than Google. Personally, I would post my demos on both sites.

Now *this* is using technology in the arts!

Heddatron. Sweeeet....

Open call for a Drupal/ Civic Space Labs volunteer

You saw this coming: I'm looking for a volunteer to help with a (very little) CompuMentor case-study. Pulling together my focus on performing arts, CompuMentor's desire to expand our knowledge and experience in Web2.0 technologies, and never turning a blind eye to possibilities of participation in international nonprofit technology spheres, I have been helping Theatre Without Borders conceptualize what it would take to move from their mostly-hand-coded HTML site to one that is much more participatory, distributed and automated. And based on an open-source CMS tool like Civic Space Labs.

There's been a lot of work up to now, discussing their needs and priorities. And we're now at the stage to turn what I think is a great possibility into reality... Or not. Because this project has no budget. Nada. CompuMentor is essentially volunteering my time, and TWB has no money. In fact, they actually barely exist as an organization, which suits them fine, because they don't want to be tied to any particular country or entity.

So I'm looking for a volunteer to help us out assessing and implementing a website upgrade for Theatre Without Borders. What we need is someone with the following (see below):

• Experience and even expertise in Drupal and / or Civic Space Labs - OR another open-source CMS package (we can talk options...).
• A clear understanding that there is no money for this project, which means all of your time will be unpaid. With that comes, of course, a clear idea of how much time you'd be willing to volunteer over the course of the next few months. And of course, that doesn't mean you won't get experience, karma points, and depending on your location, a drink offered in gratitude.
• Experience negotiating scopes of work, which is how we're going to determine what you can do given your volunteer availability and the actual project scope. Essentially, we want to know you're not going to bite off more than you can chew.
• Experience with arts organizations, nonprofit organizations, or international NGOs. This is because if you say "PHP" someone might say "Bless you" or ask "Your what hurts?" They don't deal in tech, they deal in theatre and artists and peacebuilding and not MySQL databases. If you've worked in this environment before, great - if not, you're setting yourself up to be frustrated. Just saying is all...

Your location is somewhat irrelevant in this new age.....

If you're that person - or you know that person - contact me. This isn't formal, so I don't need a cover letter or resumé (yet) - (read: no attachments or ya go straight to the spam bucket). Note that if you just say "Oooh, pick me!" I clearly won't know why you're the right candidate. ;-)

This call will probably be "live" for a couple of weeks, and I'll be pointing to it frequently. I may even edit this list during the course, if certain requirements or issues become obvious after talking to volunteers.

Catching up with my blog-reading

Information overload. That's all I can say. Some great things going on over there. I mean, there. Like the International NGO Flickr group. Or the round-up of artistic process blogs (which points back here, natch...).

So I'll leave you with the same dazed look while I try to compose an appropriate call for volunteers for a Website upgrade based on an open-source CMS tool like Civic Space Labs (which is apparently one of the main technologies that has the most potential to help nonprofits and NGOs create social change.)