Today in Rome Italy activists, video producers, programmers, and others alike have come together for the first day of active discussion at a conference called Transmission (  http://transmission.cc ).
As I type this I am sitting in a room of about 30 people who are mostly in front of laptops sitting in a big U shape table setting. It's dark, everything but a few lights and the glow of laptops on people illuminates their faces. There is a presentation being given about how, in this instance, people can make money using p2p networks for producing artist video content over a projector in the front of the room, switching between tabs on their browser while having questions fired at them. The facilitator play's the song, Eye of the Tiger from their computer letting the presenter know they have five minutes remaining before the next presentation. Everyone chuckles, amused for a few seconds during the song, and then it's back to the presentation.
Later another talks about their software and how easy it is to use a player known as the "democracy player" ( http://www.getdemocracy.com ) using RSS feeds turning them effectively into online video channels. Individuals can subscribe to these for automatic downloads of new content of their favorite channels, and decide to make their own if they so choose. "It's almost like a TIVO for your computer," says the presenter for the multi-platform democracy player. More sites such as http://asia246.tv , http://www.telestreet.it , and http://indytorrents.org also gave presentations as well.
There has been much talk about video distribution of content, and how each persons video content management system works. China, England, Australia, United States, Korea, Spain, Argentina, France and many others are just a few of people representing their projects.
This years conference is being held at the Forte Prenestino in the suburb of Centocelle Rome. Forte Prenestino, a Self-Organized Occupied Social Center (CSOA). Formerly a military barracks built by the French in the mid 1800's to defend Rome against the Republicans seeking to throw out both French and Vatican rule. It is now a center for the cultural and political initiatives. Forte celebrated 20 years of activity on May 1st this year ( http://www.forteprenestino.net/ ).
The word "Indymedia" has been brought up here a lot, making it clear for some of the impact it has had on the video community out there on the internet today. Not just the internet though, cable, satellite, radio, ipods, and even cell phones.
Yes, cell phones! Just think of being able to directly download a movie to your phone by just typing in a phone number. Sounds far fetched right? Well its not. This is just one of the topics being brought up at this year conference in Rome. Expect to see people watching movies on their cell phones at a bus stop near you in the very near future.
A media server is being built here where some of this video content will be available for activists here to share with each other, and take back home directly onto their computers. That is just one project happening here as things continue to happen here at Transmission.
Everyone here has been talking to each other, sharing idea's and opinions of the projects that have been presented today. You can see the gears and idea's turning in peoples heads moving like a flood about to breach a dam.
Later tonight after everyone has finished presenting their projects and have had dinner a video screening will be showing video's from all over the world. It has and will be an action packed day of information, making new contacts, and sharing idea's for sure.
Tomorrow workshops are being planned to talk about more specific pieces of video production, video distribution, and video encoding. Everything is going very well and the sun is shining here in Rome. History for the online video revolution that is taking place all over the world is definitely being made here today.
I'll post pictures and links to video as they are uploaded to to the web. For information as it is updated here in Rome visit http://transmission.cc
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