Miro is one of the world's most popular free, open-source software projects. But it's more than just great software: Miro is part of a fight to keep online video open.
Dozens of major corporations and highly funded startups are trying to lock video creators and viewers into closed and proprietary distribution systems. To them, proprietary models are a smart way to make money, since they force viewers and creators to use their tools. But these systems are also a direct threat to the openness of the internet. If companies act as gatekeepers deciding what people see and what they don't, free speech online is threatened.
Online video services could be just as open as the web, but for the past few years things have been moving in the wrong direction. We want to change that. Miro is designed to put viewers at the center of the viewing experience, rather than one particular video hosting company. This means creators can publish anywhere they want and viewers can connect to any creator they like. It's the beauty of open-standards. These are the same principles that the internet itself is built on.
The fight for online video is moving faster than ever. Free, open software has to lead the way early. You can join the Miro project right now, helping to code, test, translate, and package Miro. Your efforts will make a direct difference for the future of media online.
So take a look around and start talking to people about why they are involved and what you can do to help.
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Translate
Can you translate english into other languages? Get involved translating Miro and related websites. We want to reach everyone in the world. Become a Translator.
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Help us Test
Testing is absolutely vital for making the software better. We need help from many different testers so that we can find problems that only happen with certain computer setups-- your testing does make a difference. Good testing means that bugs get fixed fast and we can move on to other things.
If you know of a bug in Miro, please read how to submit a helpful bug report and then submit a bug report here.
If you want to get serious about testing Miro, join our testers mailing list. You can also try Miro nightly testing versions.
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Start Coding
The majority of the Miro code is cross platform Python with platform specific frontends for Windows, OS X, and GTK/X11. The core of the GUI is written in cross platform HTML, but we strive for a native look and feel on each platform. We leverage free software projects wherever we can -- VLC, Xine, Bit Torrent, and Mozilla just to name a few.
To get started, visit our Miro Development Center. You can also sign up on the Miro Developer Mailing List. The mailing list is a great way to ask and answer questions and keep up with development.
We recommend that developers use the latest code from subversion —near the bottom of the page—, but source code for releases is also available in tarball format on our ftp site.