An important aspect of multi media projects such as podcasting, vodcasting, citizen journalism, community media e.t.c. is being able to store your media files and embed them into your web pages and blogs or at least link to them. You could store all these files on your own web space or server but they soon add up to a lot of space. Below are some examples or storage of media files elsewhere and then drawing them into your own web pages or blogs.
YouTube, Blip TV, Google etc
You can use these tools to store audio/video and they give you the code to embed a player into your webpage. This has the advantage of placing your material in a place where thousands of other peoples content is hosted and attracts many visitors. Whilst these are primarily video upload sites you can use them for audio by placing a book or image in from of your camera/webcam or making a video containing audio and a blank screen or still images. Click here for YouTube information and click here for info on uploading to several video hosting sites.
Humyo Media Storage
www.humyo.com/ offers 25 GB of media storage free and for a reasonable fee you can store 100GB or more. You are given the option of linking to or embedding your content. All you do is copy and paste the code provided and you get the results below. For the free version you get humyo branding which is removed when you subscribe. However this is not a problem for audio because you can customise the embedded player by making it only 30 pixels tall rather than the default 315 which you need for video (as below)To do this for an audio file when you select "embed" also choose "customise player" and change the height of the player from 315 pixels to 30 pixels.
audio
video
Our Media, Internet Archive, SpinXpress
This method of media storage and delivery is most comprehensive. It offers unlimited free storage, embedding, and Creative Commons licensing. To do this you need three accounts, Our Media for the admin and embedding, Internet Archive for file storage and SpinXpress for uploading. SpinXpress also offers collaboration features too which I have not yet explored. It is important that you keep the same username, password and email address across all the three accounts. Best way to start is to sign up at Our Media www.ourmedia.org/ and this will take you through the rest of the process.
Once you have all three accounts you are ready to upload some media. The tool for uploading is SpinXpress. Open SpinXpress and click on publish. Browse for your file then make sure you have selected "Our media" as the destination and then click "publish". You will then be guided through a series of steps. Follow and complete them carefully. When you have successfully uploaded you will be presented with a screen that links to where your file is on the Internet Archive and where it is on Our Media. Click on the Our Media one. You will see the code to embed your player. Just copy and paste it into your webpage or blog as I have done below. Unfortunately I have not yet found a way to effectively embed video but here is an audio file:-
It's possible there may be loads of ways to store and embed media. Here's one I just discovered called Imeem www.imeem.com
and here's an audio file stored there and embedded here. (uses the usual copy and paste code)
Media Storage and Embedding
Video Uploads
If you are uploading to YouTube etc. you may want to try this http://heyspread.com/
It's a tool to upload to several video sites at once.
THE GIMP
Gimpshop is a version of GIMP that more closely mimics the indistry standard Photoshop software. Find it here http://www.gimpshop.com/
Audacity
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Audacity is free, open source software for recording and editing sounds available for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems. It is an easy tool to use and the software is user-friendly and has effective editing functions such as:
• Record live audio.
• Convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs.
• Edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, and WAV sound files.
• Cut, copy, splice, and mix sounds together.
• Change the speed or pitch of a recording. (cartoon voices for animations)
The editing functions within Audacity allow you to remove any mistakes from a recording, to enhance a recording and remove ‘white noise’ and you can also 'mix' different sounds together, add music to your recording, or add sound effects and different background atmospheres.
About Web 2.00 Applications
Some people like the term web 2.00 and some don't. I don't mind. My perception of how the term came about is as follows. When a brand new piece of software comes out it is version 1.00. When they fix a few bugs it might be version 1.01 and after some minor improvements it might be version 1.02. When it undergoes a major improvement it would be version 2.oo. Some people believe that new applications on the internet go way beyond simple websites so they are web 2.00. These include interactive websites and some that do so much that they are software applications on the web.
Notes To Self
Tools To Add
Web 2.00
Google docs
iGoogle
Flickr + Preloadr
You Tube + other online video stuff
Firefox + Extensions
pbwiki
Free and Open Source Web Apps
B2 Evolution
CMS Made Simple
Coppermine
Commercial Software
Photoshop
Premmier
Wavelab
Cubase
Reason
Free and Open Source Software
Portable Apps
Notepad ++
Filezilla
NVU
