Ourmedia.org, a free global repository for grassroots media, allows anyone to upload, store and share digital works. The site will accept home movies, music videos, original music, audio interviews, photos, art, documentaries, grassroots political ads, animations, books, student films, software — any work in digital form.

The site is open to amateurs, hobbyists and professionals alike. There is no charge for the service.

The site is open to all kinds of works but will focus on videoblogs, podcasts and other emerging types of media that are just beginning to catch the public’s attention. A videoblog is a homemade video about politics, culture or any subject that appears on a Web journal. A podcast is simply a voice recording, similar to a radio broadcast, that listeners can download and enjoy at their convenience. A digital story is a combination of images and video overlaid with a narrator’s voice.

The effort has been largely accomplished as an open-source effort, with no income, no expenses and a central group of 50 volunteers working in a public wiki (or collaborative online work space) to build the site. Ourmedia, which will soon become a not-for-profit 501(c)(3), has partnered with the Internet Archive and Creative Commons, both non-profit outfits in San Francisco, and Bryght, an open-source content publishing company in Vancouver, Canada.

Ourmedia agrees to host such works as long as the authors or artists are willing to share their works with the global community. Podcasters and videobloggers like the service because they can upload their media without being hit by hundreds of dollars in bandwidth bills, as sometimes happens when a file they host becomes widely popular.

Ourmedia will also test the boundaries of fair use, permitting inventive or educational mash-ups or 'remix' works that contain small snippets of copyrighted work — but drawing the line against infringement and illegal misappropriation of others' content.

The next step for Ourmedia is to expand beyond a single repository and allow other organizations to link together under a common open-standards registry.

Ourmedia will take advantage of the latest publishing technologies to offer RSS feeds that let anyone subscribe to a channel, such as music videos or animations; peer-to-peer technologies such as BitTorrent, which allows people to easily and legally share their own creations; and search tools that will allow anyone to legally remix or build upon others' works. >from *Ourmedia seeks to spur the citizens media revolution*. March 21, 2005

Leading the effort are J.D. Lasica and Marc Canter. This is purely an open-source, all-volunteer effort. Drupal, an open-source content management platform, has agreed to host the site for free. Other sites will also participate in this open registry, storing material on their servers. Most importantly, the Internet Archive has agreed to provide free storage space and free bandwidth for the media files published by our members — forever.

related context
> indymedia. the independent media center
> we the media. grassroots journalism by the people, for the people
> urballon: an urban media space. october 8, 2004
> think tools for revolution > reclaim the streams!. september 17, 2004
> HighNoon: wsis? we seize!. december 8, 2003
> [grid::brand]: instead of mass media, think cluster media!. december 5, 2003
> first international moblogging conference. june 30, 2003
> manifesto of urban televisions: open access television. april 23, 2003
> weblog, a new flow of information. may 15, 2002
> smart mobs: new uses of mobile media. october 3, 2002

imago
> media: make happen agents