The Open Video Alliance is a coalition of organizations and individuals committed to the idea that the power of moving image should belong to everyone.

Why

A lot of people have theorized that the age of YouTube (an age in which we’re surrounded by cameras in cellphones, laptops, and elsewhere) is the dawn of something new. For the first time, huge numbers of people are communicating through video. Video is almost like a new language, a new toolkit for self-expression. This has some pretty profound implications.

But while YouTube has enabled millions of people to broadcast themselves, it offers just a glimpse into the future of the online video medium.

The big idea behind the Open Video Alliance is that heading into this future, the tools for creating, manipulating, and sharing video must be available to everyone. And while having community-developed, open source versions of these tools is critical, it’s not the whole story. Open video requires that legal and business structures support the ability of huge numbers of individuals to use video in ways that go beyond just watching.

For some more perspectives, check out some of the issues we’re passionate about, or our principles for an open video ecosystem.

How

OVA is a framework to help incubate new projects and campaigns. Core OVA members like Mozilla, PCF, and Kaltura are actively building this future with free and open source software for video—Firefox, Miro, and the Kaltura platform. Other OVA members lead research efforts into how to ensure an open video ecosystem. If your organization would like to join OVA, please let us know.

OVA members also work together on big things. Some of this building tangible things—keep an eye out, we’re working together on some cool stuff. Some of these things are community-oriented; things like the Open Video Conference and open web meetups. Online collaboration lets us do great things, but it’s important that the architects of open video (including you!) meet face-to-face.

Above all, we’ll be working together to share our aspirations for participatory media—articulating why open video is important, and slowly growing support for the movement. We’ll boost open video by supporting a broad network of people—artists, activists, academics, businesspeople, and lawyers—as they expand what’s possible when large numbers of people are creating and sharing moving images.

What’s next

Follow us on Twitter or by joining our email lists. We have lots of cool things to announce in the coming months.

If you have a project idea, or need support to execute your current project, get in touch with us. We’re always on the lookout for new collaborators; we need your help pushing for openness at all levels. If you think we’re missing something let us know—our open video wiki is a public resource. We also keep a blog that reports on developments in open video. If you have a newsworthy tip, drop us a line at tips@openvideoalliance.org.

You can learn more about the OVA by contacting us.

The Open Video Conference

The conference is a production of Participatory Culture Foundation, Kaltura, Yale Internet Society Project, iCommons, and the Open Video Alliance.

The video is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 3.0 United States License.