Open Video Alliance want Ogg Theora video on Wikipedia

In an move designed to kickstart the widespread adoption of Ogg Theora video, the Open Video Alliance has launched "Let's get video on Wikipedia" with a videoonwikipedia.org web site. The OVA, which is comprised of Mozilla, Kaltura, the Participatory Culture Foundation (PCF) and the Yale Law School's Information Society Project, wants to see video on Wikipedia, encoded in the open source and patent-free Ogg Theora format. The website offers step by step instructions on how to create video in Ogg Theora format, complete with links to the PCF's Miro Video Converter for Mac and Windows, how to turn on video uploading options on Wikipedia and how to insert a video into an article.

The debate over video formats has become more divisive recently as Mozilla decided to only support Ogg Theora video in Firefox's implementation of the HTML5 video tag. Video sharing sites such as YouTube support the HTML5 video tag but use the patent encumbered h.264 standard, which is supported by the HTML5 video support in browsers such as Google's Chrome and Apple's Safari. Neither Chrome or Safari support the Ogg Theora format.

See also:

• H.264 for Internet video to be royalty free till 2016, a report from The H.
• Mozilla defends Firefox's HTML5 support for only Ogg Theora video, a report from The H.

(djwm)