An overview of software for multimedia editing, video hosting & podcasting

Target audience: Nonprofits, social change organizations, educators, NGOs, citizen journalists, media makers. This is part of Creating Media, our ongoing series designed to help nonprofits and other organizations learn how to use and make media.

By Kaitlin LaCasse and Laura S. Quinn
Idealware

Want to get started using audio or videos to engage your current supporters and pull in new ones? There are a number of tools that put multimedia within the reach of most nonprofits. In this excerpt from the Idealware Field Guide to Software for Nonprofits: Fundraising, Communications and Outreach, we explore three related multimedia topics. First, we take a look at multimedia editing software, which can help you whip your audio or video files into shape for public distribution. Then we explore how video sharing websites can help you put your video into the world. Finally, we talk about podcasts, a way to let people easily subscribe to audio or video shows.

Multimedia editing

Multimedia editing software gives you the capability to create videos or audio recordings with a level of a polish that used to require a lot of expensive hardware. Good editing takes time and some skill, but a number of low-cost, straightforward packages put the tools within reach of any nonprofit.

With audio packages, you can edit interviews for length, cut “um”s and pauses, and add music or voiceover introductions. Both GarageBand (for the Mac) and Audacity (for the PC or Mac) are free, solid tools that provide all the functionality you’re likely to need. If you’re eligible for the Adobe donation program through TechSoup, you may be able to get professional-grade Adobe Audition for a $35 admin fee.

Video tools let you cut out pieces you don’t want, splice different sections together, and overlay graphics and text onto your piece. You might join an interview with a constituent together with scenes of your program participants, and put a title screen at the beginning — and even upload it to YouTube with a single click.

For Mac users, iMovie (free with the Mac OS X operating system) is a great editing tool for simple movies. The free editing software available for PCs, on the other hand — like Windows Movie Maker and Pinnacle Systems’ VideoSpin — can be difficult to work with, and often imposes insistent front-and-center ads or confusing limitations on supported formats. For PC users, a good alternative is Adobe Premiere Elements (pictured at right, $15 for nonprofits on TechSoup, or the movie editor is about $79 retail), which provides friendly features very similar to iMovie.

[Editors note: There are also a few online video editing options, including Jaycut.com (free), Motionbox.com (free), Moviemasher.com (free & open source) and Kaltura (fee-based and open source, though these solutions have serious limitations.]

If you’ve outgrown the low-cost options, or want to create more robust animations or special effects, Final Cut Express and Final Cut Pro provide logical stepping stones for Mac users, while Adobe Premiere Pro (a $70 admin fee for eligible nonprofits through TechSoup) is a popular option for both Macs and PCs. These products, all under $1,000 retail, provide all the power you’re likely to need. If you need more, consider hiring a professional video editor.

Video sharing websites

Videos can provide a compelling way to tell your story online. While they can be expensive to produce, both in staff time and actual money, video sharing websites let you upload videos to the web for free. Once they’re online, viewers can comment and share them with friends. In general, you maintain ownership of the videos you post, but you grant the site certain rights — before you post a video, read the site’s Policies and Terms carefully.

There are many free video sharing options, including YouTube , Blip.tv, Revver and Vimeo. DoGooderTV is geared specifically at nonprofits. Brightcove lets you show videos and video pages without any logo or branding for Brightcove itself, but starts at $2,000 per month. YouTube offers nonprofit-specific functionality, like the ability to create a branded YouTube channel, link calls to action directly in videos or accept donations directly through the video page.

Want to “go viral”? If enough people share a video, it can spread around the Web exponentially, eventually reaching an enormous audience — this rare, sought-after phenomenon is known as “going viral.” There’s no recipe for creating viral videos, but you can start by making sure it’s relevant and irresistible enough to compel people to share. And then cross your fingers.

Many of these video sharing websites also allow you to post the videos on your own Web page or blog. They provide HTML (the coding language of websites) code for you to copy and paste to embed the video. In most cases, the sites’ logos are displayed on these videos.

Podcasts: Hosting and directories

Podcasts are syndicated audio or video shows that allow people to subscribe. Once that’s done, whenever a new show is available, files are automatically downloaded onto subscribers’ computers. In fact, that’s the main difference between podcasts and other types of audio or video files — podcasts are subscription-based and downloaded via RSS so subscribers don’t have to seek them out.

Nonprofits can use them in a number of ways to create awareness or educate people about their causes. Podcasts can be useful to record and broadcast meetings, conference calls, speeches and more. Keep in mind, though, that creating polished multimedia content is time-consuming. If you have the audio or visual content or the experience to create podcasts, they can provide an interesting way to distribute information, but think carefully about the time involved before committing yourself to creating new multimedia content on a regular basis.

The first step is to record audio or video using a microphone or camera, and edit it using multimedia editing software like GarageBand or Audacity, mentioned above. Once you’ve polished the content and exported it into a standard file format, decide whether to post the podcast on your own site or on a site designed to store and share them, like Hipcast.com, LibSyn, Podbus, Ourmedia or others. These sites range from free to around $5 per month.

Once your podcast is hosted and published, people can subscribe via most RSS readers. You should also submit your podcast to a site like iTunes or Odeo that allows people to easily find it. On these sites, users search for podcasts or enter their Web addresses, and the site downloads the files directly onto their computers, iPods or other portable devices as soon as they are available.

Related

• Comparing Terms of Service at video sites (Socialbrite)

• BlogTalkRadio: Extend the reach of your nonprofit (Socialbrite)

• More in our Making media series

The post A quick guide to multimedia software appeared first on Socialbrite.

Drop down to see:
YouTube   Blip.tv   Ourmedia   Internet Archive   Yahoo Video   Revver   Google Video   Metacafe   DoGooder TV

Many organizations and users don’t give a second thought to the rights you forfeit over the use of your content when you post a video to a site like YouTube. Here’s a site-by-site breakdown of what you get — and give up — by consenting to the Terms of Service at some of the major video sites.

YouTube

YouTube’s TOS.

• Ownership/licensing: You own your work but grant YouTube wide rights to reuse it.
• Creative Commons licenses?: Not yet permitted. (Creative Commons explained.)
• Payment to producers?: No.
• Can you remove your work?: Yes.
• Can they sell or license your video?: Yes.
• Can they put ads on or around your video?: Yes.
• Share your data with third parties?: No, though users may need to opt out.
• Unsolicited emails?: No, though users may need to opt out.
• Bottom line: YouTube is the 800-lb. gorilla of video hosting sites. Most people are there to gain visibility rather than income for their works; it remains to be seen how they’ll react if their work is sold to a third party without compensation to them.

Blip.tv

Blip’s TOS.

• Ownership/licensing: You own your work but grant Blip rights to display and distribute it. “We claim distribution rights only for the purpose of delivering the service while giving the user as much control as possible,” CEO Mike Hudack says. For example, Blip makes the video available as an RSS feed, creates thumbnails and transcodes the video to Flash.
• CC licenses?: Yes.
• Payment to producers?: Blip gives video producers a 50-50 revenue split from ads (when users earn at least $25 per quarter).
• Can you remove your work?: Yes.
• Can they sell or license your video?: “Our interpretation of our TOS is that it allows us to syndicate the content, cross-post it and put it into RSS feeds, but that it doesn’t allow us to sell the content to third parties without the permission of the creator,” Hudack says.
• Can they put ads on or around your video?: Yes, on the site, but the creator can opt out of that and would have to opt in to allow ads to be inserted into the video.
• Share your data with third parties?: The site does not share user data with third parties except if it’s necessary to provide a service to the Blip user, in which case the site holds the third party to the same standards as Blip itself.
• Unsolicited emails?: The site never sends e-mail to users except in direct relation to an action they’ve taken, and they always have the opportunity for users to opt out of those e-mails.
• Bottom line: Blip is perhaps the best solution for video producers who want free, reliable hosting for their works in a community setting. See their mission and principles statement.

Ourmedia

Ourmedia’s TOS.

• Ownership/licensing: You own your work and must decide on a license when you upload it.
• Creative Commons licenses?: Yes. Ourmedia’s default license is a Creative Commons license, though members may choose from a wide palette of options.
• Payment to producers?: No.
• Can you remove your work?: Yes.
• Can they sell or license your video?: Ourmedia does not do this. The site is restricted by the license chosen by the member.
• Can they put ads on or around your video?: Yes. The site uses accompanying text ads.
• Share your data with third parties?: No.
• Unsolicited emails?: No.
• Bottom line: With the Internet Archive serving as its media repository, Ourmedia remains a creator-friendly options for grassroots media producers. (But decide for yourself.)

Internet Archive

Archive’s TOS.

• Ownership/licensing: You own your work and grant the Archive the right to display and preserve it.
• CC licenses?: Encouraged.
• Payment to producers?: No.
• Can you remove your work?: Yes.
• Can they sell or license your video?: The Archive does not do this.
• Can they put ads on or around your video?: The Archive does not do this.
• Share your data with third parties?: “The Collections are made available to researchers and may be … provided to third parties [such as libraries], for any use, without limitation.”
• Unsolicited emails?: Users consent to being contacted but the Archive has sent out no such surveys in the past two years.
• Bottom line: An artist-friendly repository that is more about long-term preservation than viewer-friendly video hosting.

Yahoo! Video

Yahoo! Video’s TOS and Additional Terms of Service.

• Ownership/licensing: You own your video but license to Yahoo! the right to use it in a wide variety of ways.
• CC licenses?: No. CC licenses are not supported and appear to be inoperable on the commercial site.
• Payment to producers?: None.
• Can you remove your work?: Yes. Yahoo has 14 days to take it down.
• Can they sell or license your video?: Yes.
• Can they put ads on or around your video?: Yes.
• Share your data with third parties?: Yes.
• Unsolicited emails?: Yahoo requires you to allow unsolicited emails, though in practice doesn’t spam you.
• Bottom line: With millions of viewers and a large community of producers, Yahoo! Video is a good option for those looking for greater visibility, but don’t be surprised if you see your video on partner sites as well.

Revver

Revver’s TOS (Member Agreement).

• Ownership/licensing: You own your own video and Revver distributes it with an ad attached.
• CC licenses?: Yes.
• Payment to producers?: Yes. Users earn 50 percent of revenue generated by ad on their video’s page.
• Can you remove your work?: Yes.
• Can they sell or license your video?: No, though the site could use it for promotional purposes.
• Can they put ads on or around your video?: Revver attaches an ad to the end of your video.
• Share your data with third parties?: No.
• Unsolicited emails?: Yes, but you can opt out of emails.
• Bottom line: Revver is one of the most popular choices for video producers who want to go beyond the hobby stage and earn money for their work.

Google Video

Google Video’s TOS.

• Ownership/licensing: You own your video but license to Google the right to use it in a wide variety of ways.
• CC licenses?: No. CC licenses are not supported and appear to be inoperable on the commercial site.
• Payment to producers?: Yes; Google takes 30 percent of revenues
• Can you remove your work?: Yes.
• Can they sell or license your video?: Yes.
• Can they put ads on or around your video?: Yes.
• Share your data with third parties?: Yes, under certain circumstances or with user consent.
• Unsolicited emails?: No.
• Bottom line: Google Video and sister site YouTube are good ways to get your video out there, assuming you don’t expect much in return.

Metacafe

Metacafe’s TOS.

• Ownership/licensing: You grant the site a non-exclusive license to use your work in a wide variety of ways.
• CC licenses?: The site’s TOS makes no mention of CC licenses. But spokesman Mark Day told TechSoup: “We recognize Creative Commons licenses. As far as whether we will post a video with a Creative Commons license, the licenses can all be a little different and sometimes complex. We review each application to Producer Rewards and determine what makes sense in each case.”
• Payment to producers?: Yes. Producer Rewards program pays poster $5 per every 1,000 video views — one of the site’s major attractions.
• Can you remove your work?: Yes, unless content has been sub-licensed through Producer Rewards program.
• Can they sell or license your video?: Only if user participates in Producer Rewards program.
• Can they put ads on or around your video?: The site uses advertising only sparingly.
• Share your data with third parties?: Not without user permission.
• Unsolicited emails?: Not in practice.
• Bottom line: Metacafe is attractive to video producers who want to earn income for popular, viral videos.

DoGooder TV

DoGooder TV’s TOS: Go to Dogooder.tv and click on Terms of Use.

• Ownership/licensing: Site is open only to nonprofits, which own their own work.
• CC licenses?: No. The site requires a non-exclusive license and the content owner can license the content elsewhere under a CC license.
• Payment to producers?: Allows nonprofits to add a link to their donation page to video.
• Can you remove your work?: Yes.
• Can they sell or license your video?: Yes, for the purpose of “getting the nonprofit’s message out to new people,” says a spokesman.
• Can they put ads on or around your video?: Unclear.
• Share your data with third parties?: Unclear.
• Unsolicited emails?: Unclear.
• Bottom line: A good, free hosting solution for nonprofit organizations.

Note: Since this article was published, Magnify.net is also worth your consideration as a producer-friendly hosting site.

Related

• Understanding Video-Sharing Sites’ Terms of Service
• TOS comparison chart

Brian Satterfield of Techsoup contributed to this article. Disclosure: J.D. Lasica was the co-founder of Ourmedia.

Updated Aug. 14, 2009. Please comment on, correct or expand upon this article.

Related

• Legal terms of video hosting services compared (advancing usability)

The post Comparing Terms of Service at video sites appeared first on Socialbrite.