Yesterday I was ready to leave for the COP15, hoping to get some good footage, meet interesting people for my posts and documentary, and eventually have my voice heard, particularly regarding the issue of water.

Coming here in Copenhagen was, at first, a bit disappointing. With the Danish text leaked, negotiations looking dark, Bella Centre closed, protests and police all over the city... I felt like my coming here (and subsequent Co₂ emissions) was less and less valuable than I originally expected.

Then, like a thunder in the sky, my video "COP15 Priority number one" was featured on the Home Page of YouTube. It got 45,636 views in less than two days and became #99 - Most Viewed (All Time) - Non-profits & Activism - Italy.

Now, while this may sound like a pleasant and promising news, it also comes at a price. Right now it has about 200 comments, which is what's left of the hundreds of insults, brainless and mistyped shouts that I received. Somehow, the intelligence of the YouTube comments never ceases to amaze me, which reminds me a great strip from XKCD:

If it was extremely improbable that any of the world leaders saw this video, now it's becoming a bit more likely. A little bit. And if hundres of hate comments are the price to pay, it's alright. I can take it.

p.s. This article was crossposted TH!NK ABOUT IT - Climate Change blogging competition..

A few weeks ago I made a short video for the YouTube/CNN debate, asking to include water in the list of priorities at the COP15.

I was surprised to see an excerpt of my video in the official reel, which has been viewed more then 170 thousand times.

The two winners will be selected by public voting on YouTube from Nov 6-30, and may be aired in front of world-leaders and decision makers in this global TV debate on climate change. If you want to vote for my video follow these instructions:

• Go to http://www.youtube.com/cop15
• Click "vote"
• search for a specific video and write "Priority number one"
• Vote with the thumb up (green button)

:D

p.s. This article was crossposted on the TH!NK ABOUT IT - Climate Change blogging competition.

During the three days of the kick-off event I shot quite a lot of footage, thanks to my trusty Creative Vado, which I carry around all the time, and the Flip Mino HD that they gave us. I was finally able to put some of the pieces together, just before the deadline of the first part f the competition. I know some of you are expecting something great... sorry to disappoint you, it isn't anything special. I decided to make a series of three videos, one for each day of the competition: Part Zero is the arrival, Part 1 is Bella Centre, and Part 2 is the Dyssekilde Ecovillage.

Most of you guys from the Th!nk about it kick-off event are featured on the video, I hope you'll enjoy it!

p.s. This article was crossposted on the TH!NK ABOUT IT - Climate Change blogging competition, on Vimeo and on YouTube.

I finally finished and presented my thesis. I'm releasing the work under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution – Noncommercial – Share Alike Works 3.0 license.

Abstract

This dissertation will cover the basics of video encoding and distribution over TCP/IP, focusing on Open Source technologies and the future prospects of podcasting and video fruition in general. Particular attention will be given to the state of the art technology (MPEG-4 Part 10 specifications) and the new possibilities of HTML5 and the integration of the patent-free video codec Ogg Theora.

Downloads

• Download the PDF from the internet archive
• View it on Issuu

I report verbatim an article from the standblog which represents perfectly what I think is the future of video and how should the web be: Open Source, open minded, multiplatform, easy, fast and cool.

For years, digital video has been soaring, just like still digital images 15 years earlier. It's now easy to capture video, editing it is now possible thanks to user-friendly applications and with broadband becoming more common, the pipes are now big enough to download video. The only caveat is that Web browsers have not evolved over time to include video, because the dominant browser vendor had little reason to invest in it. Proprietary plug-ins such as Flash, QuickTime or Windows Media have been until now the only way for Web developers to include video in their Web application. Unfortunately, resorting to proprietary plug-ins and patented codecs has drawbacks.