VidCommons Project
@VidCommons

VidCommons is an initiative to document, catalog, and distribute media released under permissive licenses (Public Domain, Creative Commons) through the federated web. All videos are hosted on a dedicated PeerTube instance at vidcommons.org.

Why are the cultural commons important?

The free exchange of ideas is fundamental to a working society, and the commons are one of its greatest assets. These are resources that can be used and shared by anyone, regardless of purpose, for free. Most forms of commons assets also include the ability for anyone to produce a modified version for their own needs, whatever they may be. Access to these commons allows for a read-write culture in which anyone can contribute, rather than a read-only culture in which individuals are merely consumers, and cultural works are encumbered by intellectual property.

The Free Software movement has done well to capitalize on the idea of a free commons for software, but the Free Culture movement has lagged behind by comparison. There are several problem areas worth considering:

• Production - The inital cost of making something new can be considerably high, especially for first-time directors and producers. This can include the cost of equipment, actors, securing rights to certain kinds of assets, and other costs related to producing the media itself, but can also extend to the cost of hosting it.
• Distribution - Compared to code, media is often a much "heavier" asset in terms of file size, and distributing said content on the web can be something of a challenge. Not only can this lead to a reduced amount of exposure for the creator, but it can also mean that the work can be lost if and when a website goes down.

What is the federated web, and why is it important?

The federated web (often referred to as the fediverse or The Free Network) is important is because it takes many of the good things about social networking, and removes undesirable elements such as the brokerage of personal data, mass surveillance, advertisements, and marketing analytics.

What does the fediverse do so differently?

The Facebooks, YouTubes, and Twitters of the world put all of their eggs in one basket by keeping everyone's accounts in the same place. The fediverse, however, is no such place. Instead, the network is comprised of many different servers, in many different places, all speaking a common protocol to pass messages back and forth. With federation, there is no singular specific network operator – on the contrary, the network exists independently of any one person running a server. If one instance goes on, the conversation carries on for everyone else.

We believe this is a superior model for the social web, and an evolutionary step up from the forums, mailing lists, and BBSes of the past. In this model, no singular actor controls the entire network.

How do I get involved?

Check out this page on getting involved!

What does the process look like?

Currently, Sean ( @deadsuperhero ) maintains the PeerTube instance and uploads the videos manually, at the highest possible resolution available. Some transcoders run, creating copies of the original file at lower resolution for people that don't have as much bandwidth. During this time, metadata is manually added to the page to provide as much context and information as possible.