Hi everyone,
2009 has been a very good year for Ogg and the goals of the PlayOgg
campaign! The work we've done, encouraging the community to insist
on free formats, is finally paying off.
Here are some highlights from 2009:
* Support for the HTML5 "audio" and "video" tag brought Ogg Vorbis
and Theora support into the browser and into the mainstream.
Wikipedia started publishing more and more video in Ogg format
(aww... http://ur1.ca/ihe7) and popular video site Dailymotion
coverted over 300,000 videos to Ogg.
* Ogg supporters successfully debunked doubts expressed about Theora
quality, even forcing Google to back-down over claims they had made
against it. People started taking Ogg seriously as a way to do online
video and it's now seen as a realistic alternative to h.264 and Flash.
* The Theora 1.1 release made Ogg Theora videos look better for a
given bitrate, faster to decode, and easier to size (for streaming,
or burning to a disc).
* A personal highlight: I got to participate in the FLOSS Manuals
"Theora Book Sprint" <http://flossmanuals.net/TheoraCookbook/> where
Ogg experts came together to make a complete guide to Ogg Theora.
Meanwhile, the FSF started using more Ogg-encoded media on our own
site. Check out this new video from Lawrence Lessig [1], or this
introduction to free software from FSF's John Sullivan [2], or these
testimonials from free software users on the importance of software
freedom [3]. We're even working on a short film (about the out-of-
control problem of software patents) that will be edited using free
software and published (of course) in Ogg.
1. <http://www.fsf.org/appeal/2009/lawrence-lessig/>
2. <http://www.fsf.org/about/what-is-free-software>
3. <http://www.fsf.org/video/?u=important_sm>
The tools are in place. But achieving the next milestone in Ogg
adoption will require more than improving tools. We need a wave of
activism and grassroots evangelization to bring Ogg support into the
sites and services people use every day.
That's the mission of the FSF's PlayOgg campaign in 2010. To support
this work, join the FSF as a member, and convince a friend to join.
Your contribution is tax deductible in the US.
<http://www.fsf.org/join>
Happy New Year!
--Holmes Wilson and the FSF team
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