Vancouver City Streaming video format

[Corey Burger]

I would recommend to them they stream in Ogg and Quicktime formats, as
those would work for a larger base of clients. If they balk, remind
them as gov't, they are opening themselves to possible liability by
not allowing free access to all.

Corey

On 7/18/07, Alan Pater <alan.pater at gmail.com> wrote:
> A while ago I found that the City of Vancouver streams our council
> videos in a closed, proprietary format and wrote to them about it. I
> received a response from a manager involved in these decisions. They
> are willing to look into moving to an open format, but are unsure of
> what that should be, as well as the costs involved.
>
> The obvious format would be ogg, no? Does anyone have any examples of
> sites which use that, or another format that just works on a typical
> unmodified Linux install?
>
> The current videos are available at:
> http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/ctyclerk/councilmeetings/video.cfm
>
> Alan
>
> >Dear Sir,
>
> I understand the issue you have raised.  I have brought this to the
> attention of staff who are developing and implementing standards for
> our website.  Unfortunately, it will take some time to resolve the
> issue.  As there are costs associated with any open source solution, I
> cannot say when, or even if, the City will choose to implement an open
> standards solution to Council videos.
>
> To support the decision-making process, we are prepared to investigate
> the cost of moving towards an open source format to post the Council
> videos.  It is not clear to us what the best open source format would
> be.  If you have any suggestions, they would be appreciated.
>
> ...
>
> Manager, Corporate Information & Privacy
> City of Vancouver, City Clerk's Department
> Vancouver BC   V5Y 1V4
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
>
> Hello
>
> I am unable to view the Council Videos, as they are distributed in a
> proprietary closed format. Please consider providing this publicly
> owned information in an open format.
>
> I was reminded of this issue as the BBC has run into a similar problem.
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6236612.stm
>
> Alan Pater
>
> --
> ubuntu-ca mailing list
> ubuntu-ca at lists.ubuntu.com
> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-ca
>