Wikimedia, the company behind various Net-information services such as Wikipedia, said that it has installed a new server that will allow for a large increase in video being uploaded to its encyclopedia site and others.
Video for Wikipedia was believed to be showing up last year, but it took a bit longer than originally thought. Wikimedia partnered with an open source video platform, Kaltura, back in 2008 in order to develop both the video player and a streaming and storage platform. Wikipedia will use the free, open-source codec Ogg Theora for video playback, which many browsers did not even support until recently — a significant cause for delay.
Trials are expected to be under way soon with a new HTML 5-based player and editor, with a roll-out coming in three to six months. The company said there will be no Flash version.
The footage, according to Wikimedia, will come from users and from the company’s relationships with museums, galleries, libraries and national archives. |
