Category: Massive Video Production

Today I am scheduled to present my paper at 4pm on massive video production from work done with Berkeley at the ACM SIGCHI Advances in Computer Entertainment 2004 (ACE2004) Conference held this week at the National University of Singapore. The paper is entitled Lessons Learned in Massive Video Production (MVP) for University Alumni Outreach.

Abstract: In this paper, we describe lessons learned in creating a Massive Video Production (MVP) mechanism and filmography environment for the University of California at Berkeley. The goal was to provide a university department mandated to expand alumni outreach with personalized university-branded alumni VideoGreetings using a convenient and dynamic alumni outreach tool with modern multimedia production standards coupled with commonplace digital camera raw clips with no intervention on the part of the alumni coordinator and department other than editorial approval of the finished production. The actual mechanism consists of a hosted production engine, filmography and search environment, review and editorial functions, and subscription and protection.

Unfortunately, I had to inform the committee chair that I would not be able to present due to a death in the family today after several months of decline. So I am posting the paper in the hopes that others can enjoy it and send me comments at my website. I look forward to hearing from all those great people who I will miss today, and I hope they will understand.

Last month I wandered over to Stanford to have a cup of coffee and a chat with “Mr. Creative Commons” himself, Dr. Larry Lessig. My primary reason was to get some background for a book review and for an In the DataCenter piece.

Of course, I also wanted to meet the guy behind the Creative Commons license, as I’ve also had much to do with licensing and structure with BSD and Unix over the years – it’s “in the family” so speak.

It seems that time for speakers / posters is always too limited at conferences. Personally, it always seems I end up in some other room talking about my stuff and I miss a lot of the other presenters. Or sometimes I get major last minute work, and I miss a talk completely. And it’s really annoying.

Wouldn’t it be keen if anyone who is a speaker or poster presenter also had a 2 minute video synopsis of their work like an abstract produced and hosted on the Internet available for viewing? Of course, the first thing I’d hear back is “We don’t have the time at a conference – it’s rush, rush, rush.” Yah, we all know that.

Well, I’m beginning to make preparations for Singapore to talk to people about my paper Lessons Learned in Massive Video Production (MVP) for University Alumni Outreach on the yearlong trials of using Massive Video Production we created at ExecProducer to encourage alumni participation through produced video by students, faculty, staff, and alumni of the department.

Working with the Physics Department of the University of California at Berkeley, ExecProducer created an entirely new mechanism to subscribe, process, and approve up to 2,500 video productions viewable via the web internationally on a custom website, with links to news and information on endowments and donations. The trials were launched as part of former Chancellor Berndahl’s rejuvenation of the department after an official report critical of the future of the department was released.

Wow, after a year of work with my old department at Cal doing a case study of technical issues in massive video production (MVP) for physics alumni outreach, lots of late nights, and crossing my fingers, it all paid off. I got an acceptance to the ACM SIGCHI Advances in Computer Entertainment Conference (ACE2004) to present the results of our work in Singapore in June.

I’ve never been to Singapore before, so I’m really excited. As CTO of ExecProducer, I’m proud of what we achieved over the last year technically. As a Berkeley physics alumna, I’m proud to have done a project with my department. And as a writer, I’m absolutely thrilled that they liked it.