Public Policy/Law

Note: more programming is being announced every day, and everything here is subject to change.

Panel: We Know What You Watch

Tracking beacons, advanced analytics, and other web video measurement tools help creators better understand their audiences. They help firms target consumers more effectively, and are an important part of the new web-based creative economy. But should we accept that advertisers know our intimate preferences, and that they watch our every keystroke? When does this kind of behavioral tracking go too far? And how can we tell the difference between sophisticated analytics and straight surveillance? This session probes deep questions of privacy, identity, and the future of the media system—in which you watch media and media watches you back. Presenters:
Jim Harper - Director of Information Policy Studies, Cato Institute
Bill Lederer - CEO, Kantar Video
Tania Yuki - Senior Director, Cross Media/Video Products, comScore


Panel: Beyond the Copyright Wars: Towards a New Understanding

Details TBA.

Featured talk: Video Innovation and Internet Architecture

Learn about how video innovation is being threatened by the latest developments in Internet architecture.

Barbara van Schewick's research focuses on the economic, regulatory, and strategic implications of communication networks. In particular, she explores how changes in the architecture of computer networks affect the economic environment for innovation and competition on the Internet, and how the law should react to these changes. Barbara van Schewick is Assistant Professor and Faculty Director of the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School.

Featured talk: When YouTube Killed the Downfall Meme

What is the cultural value of some incorrect subtitles applied to a German movie about Hitler's fall from power? Alex Leavitt, researcher at the Comparative Media Studies department (MIT) and at Microsoft NERD, explores the digital ecosystem that gave rise to an iterative internet phenomenon known as the Downfall meme, tracking its popularity, responses, and controversies over the past half-decade. Why YouTube? Why Hitler? And why a mechanical form that barely changes, barely takes effort to create, and barely moves across communities, but excels exceptionally at promoting its messages?

Now that the Downfall meme has become a defining moment in the fight for fair use and better policies for policing copyright online, what implications does this case have on the future of creative networks, media-based activism, and how an average user might conceptualize the open Web?

Lightning talk: 10Questions: Personal Democracy Forum's Project to Overcome Soundbyte Culture

If, according to the old saying, “all politics is local,” then the time has come to demonstrate that new, interactive media can invigorate local civic engagement around elections—moving from interest to involvement, from spectacle to civil society. Personal Democracy Forum, with support from The Knight Foundation and in partnership with Google and YouTube, has created a platform to facilitate that involvement. It's called 10Questions. Through 10Q, citizens can post video questions through YouTube for candidates in the 2010 midterm elections; each race has its own page where questions are aggregated and posed for candidates in that specific race. After a period of public voting, the 10 top rated questions in each race are posed to the candidates. Candidates will then have the opportunity to post video responses, and voters will rate those responses for completeness, directness, depth and substance—criteria that are sometimes hard to get out of politicians in the rapid fire context of a live debate.

Can web video elevate the tone of political debate and constituent relations?

Presenter:
Daniel Teweles — Personal Democracy Forum/TechPresident/10Questions.com

Seminar: Hacking Public Domain Government Video

What kind of apps are possible when you have thousands of hours of public domain government video embedded with rich timed metadata? Let's find out!

This session will be led by members of Metavid.org, who—over the last five years—have brought US House and Senate footage into a database that helps keep track of 'who' said 'what' and why it matters.

Topics covered will include sources of video (Metavid itself, Houselive.gov, FEDflix, Archive.org, digitized cable feeds, and other sources), getting metadata (timed text, speaker names), and connecting it all to other services (govtrack.us, OpenCongress, MapLight, Sunlight, etc) to create amazing applications.

Imagine building queries like 'find me speeches that occurred as part of the recent Food Safety bill by people who received more than $100,000 from the sugar lobby'. It's possible! What will you do with that video?

Presenters:
Abram Stern — UC Santa Cruz / Metavid.org

Workshop: Royalty-Free Codecs, Standardization, and Patent Issues

This panel brings together representatives of several royalty-free codec projects to discuss the current landscape, the progress that's been made in the past year, and where things are likely to head in the future.

What role should codec standardization play in the future of web video? How are patents threatening innovation?

Presenters:
Timothy Terriberry, Mozilla
Others TBA

Workshop: Defining a Set of Open Video Principles for Grantmakers

In this session, we will start a process to define some open video principles for grant-makers and other measurement-focused institutions.

This is not an attempt to create a manifesto. It's a practical session to create a measurable set of best practices—like Sunlight Foundation's Open Data principles—that will be a useful barometer for public- and philanthropically- funded projects.

Presenter:
Noah Kunin — Sunlight Foundation

Workshop: Open Video in India: How DIY Video Can Shape Grassroots Development

In this session, scholars and video activists explore how the qualities of visual technology can shape development in marginalized communities. More than surveying the technical and infrastructural affordances of online video in India, we will consider how interactions, beliefs, and values of local communities support community reflection and aspiration—and how to make scalable policy based on the possibilities of the medium.
Participants:
Lawrence Liang - Lawyer, public intellectual - Alternative Law Forum and Centre for Internet and Society
Ramesh Srinivasan - Assistant Professor, Information Studies at UCLA
Siddharth Chadha - Researcher, Alternative Law Forum and Centre for Internet and Society
Namita Malhotra -Researcher, Alternative Law Forum and Centre for Internet and Society

Workshop: Open Video in Brazil

Details TBA.

Workshop: A Creator's Guide to Fighting Back DMCA Takedown Abuse

In this workshop, we will discuss how video producers can fight DMCA takedowns and other legal (and quasi-legal) notices, in order to keep their fair use remixes online. We'll also discuss the importance of Net Neutrality in maintaining a level playing field, where all video providers can compete for the attention of viewers.

Presenter:
Mehan Jayasuriya — Director of Outreach and New Media, Public Knowledge

Core conversation: The Visual Law Review

Details TBA.