Computers & Technology: January 2005 Archives

My work has some upcoming events which it would like to promote with online videos. Last time I tried to post video, I kept running into compatability problems. I was able to copy the file off a DVD (yes, we did have permission to do this!), and then convert the DVD files into an AVI video (another story for another time, but there are free open-source tools that will do this). However, it's very difficult to post a video format that all computers and browsers can understand. QuickTime? Windows Media? AVI?

I kept hearing that the latest Big Thing was Flash video, because most people have Flash installed in their browsers. But I totally don't understand Flash, despite several classes and other attempts to learn it. Macromedia is happy to sell you a kit to create Flash video, but I'm not happy to spend more money when our budget is tight and I already need a bunch of other software upgrades.

So, long boring story short...

I just found this Windows-only application: Turbine Video Encoder, Free Edition. Works like a charm and the price is right. They do put a small logo in the upper right corner of each Flash video you create, but it's quite stylish looking and I can hardly begrudge them the link. Blue Pacific rocks.

(Now I can't wait to convert my digital camera movies. You've been warned.)

This Salon.com article does a great job of explaining what the individual companies represent and why this purchase shook up so many people.

...[O]ne of the things that makes LiveJournal special is that it is not just a set of software applications. There is also an extensive network of emotional support, both formally and informally...

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Six Apart consistently provides excellent tools for those who want to be bloggers, but they started by building tools, not by building community. Whether LiveJournal founder Brad Fitzpatrick intended to or not, he created a community that exists far beyond his tools.

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There is no doubt that Six Apart recognizes and values LiveJournal and the community that is embedded in it. At BlogTalk in Vienna, Austria, Mena Trott (the president of Six Apart) began her speech by stating that "I feel strongly -- and have always -- that personal weblogs are often marginalized because of their presumed triviality." She chastised self-identified bloggers for dismissing practices that appeared different from their own. But Trott also recognized cultural differences, noting that her original conception of bloggers reflected those who valued punditry and sought very large audiences to challenge journalism and politics. But through her work on TypePad -- a blogging service hosted by Six Apart -- she realized that there was an extensive population of bloggers who did not have these goals in mind -- they wanted to post only for their friends and family.

 It is the intimacy of friends, family and people-like-me that LiveJournal has fostered. When Six Apart bought LiveJournal, it did not simply purchase a tool -- it bought a culture. LJ challenges a lot of assumptions about blogging, and its users have different needs. They typically value communication and identity development over publishing and reaching mass audiences. The culture is a vast array of intimate groups, many of whom want that intimacy preserved. LiveJournal is not a lowbrow version of blogging; it is a practice with different values and needs, focused far more on social solidarity, cultural work and support than the typical blog... My hope is that Six Apart will learn from LiveJournal and treat LJers with nonpatronizing respect. In essence, the company must first value the social contract and culture that are LiveJournal and then let LiveJournal teach it how to make those better.

Mena Trott is no Bill Gates. I hope the LiveJournal and MovableType software are only improved by this merger... and that TypePad and LiveJournal get to continue to serve their very different user bases.

Edited to add: if you can't get to the Salon.com article (or don't want to view ads to get a free day pass), you should at least read Mena's latest post/speech on the subject of blogs. She gets it, or is trying to...

Way, apparently.

Six Apart to Buy LiveJournal

If this is true... my friends who wish that I was a real LiveJournal blogger will get their wish... and maybe MovableType will start supporting friends-locked posts.

"We're all in the same gang!"