Miro

Miro Community 1.0 makes it very easy for anyone to quickly build a video website. The videos can come from almost anywhere on the web and be presented in a totally customizable way. Setting up a site takes just a few minutes and finding/importing/managing videos is an incredibly streamlined process—it’s one thing that really sets Miro Community apart from alternative solutions and competitors. Anyone can create a site for free.

We’re already seeing some great uses of Miro Community: it’s powering videos. WDET-TV is a comprehensive online web destination for Detroit videos brought to you by WDET 101.9FM, Detroit Public Radio. SkiddPlayer is a highly-customized Miro Community site for auto-enthusiasts. And Nist.tv is a site featuring feminist videos from all across the web.

Miro Community Feature Highlights:

Bring Videos to Your Site Miro Community helps you leverage existing video from the web, to cover any topic or locale.

Customize Your Site Use CSS to modify your site, or become a premium user and create your own template and URL from the ground up. (details below)

Super Streamlined Management! Bring a YouTube user’s videos into your site automatically. Opt to moderate certain sources video-by-video. Manage videos seamlessly from different sites, including YouTube and Vimeo, as well as through RSS.

Free and Open Source Software Miro Community is licensed under the AGPLv3 and the source code is available here.

New Features for 1.0:

User Profiles Users can edit their own profiles and keep track of the videos they’ve submitted.

Widget System Anyone can embed your Miro Community videos to their site.

Video Submission Bookmarklet A streamlined way for you and your community to add single videos to your site.

More Sharing Options Visitors can share videos from your site to Twitter or Facebook.

Notifications Users can opt for notification when the videos they’ve submitted are approved and when people comment on their videos.

And Lots of Little Improvements Tweaks to the themes, an improved administrative interface, and a bunch more!

Premium Accounts

Premium accounts get fully custom templates, custom domain URL’s, and more. Premium status is currently only available on an application basis. Accepted applicants receive a three-month free trial of premium features (a $300 value); post-trial, sites will have the option to continue the premium service at $99/month. Eligibility is based on curatorial model, business model (ie. we’re not interested in spammers), and organizational structure. We strongly encourage non-profits, educational and cultural organizations, and public/community media outlets to apply. Apply Now.

Start Your Miro Community Site Now

Miro Community has been made possible by a generous grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which works to advance journalism in the digital age and invest in the vitality of communities.

I am delighted to announce that we have just released Miro Video Converter 2.0, with support for the new open WebM (vp8) video format that Google debuted this week. We believe that WebM can help us all escape from the traps of closed, patented video formats and we’re excited to offer the first free WebM converter that we know of. WebM is still in very early stages, but we think it has a ton of potential ahead of it.

Download Miro Video Converter 2.0

And that’s not all! This release of Miro Video Converter also includes:

• Improved audio and video quality on conversions.
• More conversions options — support for new devices, including iPad.
• Remembers your last format selected.
• Can send apple conversions directly to itunes.

We’re super excited about the upcoming Open Video Conference 2010, which will take place on October 1-2, 2010 in New York City. It’s a two-day summit to explore the future of video on the web. The event will appeal to anyone with a stake in the future of creative expression and the moving image.

OVC will feature inspiring talks, hands-on workshops, technology working groups, film screenings, and much more. It’s as much about the underlying technologies as the people and projects who use them. Whether you are a developer, a storyteller, an entrepreneur, an academic, or just a citizen of the web, we guarantee it will spark your imagination for what’s possible with video on the web.

Last year’s OVC hosted over 800 attendees in person and 8,000 online. Over 40 open source projects were represented, and 150 workshop leaders came from six continents. This year, OVC is expanding. It’s sure to draw thinkers, doers, dreamers, creators, and tinkerers from all over the planet.

The Participatory Culture Foundation was a major organizer last year and will continue to provide support this year as the OVC team preps another fantastic show!

Keep an eye on the Open Video Conference site to learn more and see who will be there!

OVC 2010 call for proposals

The Open Video Conference is also accepting proposals for panels, presentations, workshop sessions, demo sessions, and other programming for the next Open Video Conference in New York City. Join us and over 1000 participants during the groundbreaking two-day conference and take part in the discussions that are driving the future of the online video medium.

Travel funding is available. Visit http://openvideoconference.org/proposals/ to make a submission or see their blog post for more details.

Does your video community need a new home?

Since Ning decided to cut free sites, many communities are scrambling to figure out what’s next for them. While it’s unfortunate that many folks will have to find a new home, it’s also exciting to think that they’ll be able to find a solution more suited to their specific needs. And if your community is organized around video, let us humbly recommend Miro Community.

Miro Community takes a unique approach to creating a video community, letting you draw on the power of existing videos around the web. MC makes adding video easy, allowing you to focus on building your community engagement. Want to add every episode a certain producer has put on blip.tv or Vimeo or YouTube? Just drop their profile URL into Miro Community, and the site will be automatically populated with embedded videos and the attendant information. Do the same with single videos from supported video host sites, and have the flexibility to bring in videos from pretty much anywhere. Want to encourage users to submit videos, but don’t want to totally cede control? Miro Community has a built in review queue where you can preview user-submitted videos and make adjustments to the accompanying text fields. And to top it off, you’ll be supporting a nonprofit organization committed to democratic media.

Look at what these Miro Community sites have already accomplished:

Skiddplayer – Automotive Videos Online

nist.tv – Curating Feminist Video

What community will you create?