About Transmission

Transmission is a network of video makers, programmers and web producers developing online video distribution as a tool for social justice and media democracy.

A host of initiatives have sprung up across the globe in recent years that seek to mix media activism with increasing access to broadband, new video encoding advances, content management systems, RSS, p2p and free software. These technologies and projects are converging to democratise access to video distribution on a global level, challenge the dominance of top-down broadcast media and give voice to range of critical social and environmental issues. We feel that now is a vital time to hold such a gathering in an effort to cross-pollinate current activist online video distribution projects and to build a strong network for the future. Transmission will be a convergence of collectives and projects from Asia, the Pacific, South America, Europe and the US. Hopefully this will be a good mix of programmers, techies, video makers and organisers who can meet, discuss, workshop ideas for the future and hopefully explore new collaborative partnerships. Transmission will run over 4 days at Forte Prenestino in Rome from the 7-10 of June. Formerly a military fort built in the 1800s, it is now a social centre that hosts cultural and political initiatives. The 4 days will include activities that range from open forums, presentations, workshops, discussion groups and working-bees - run by the participants themselves according to a collectively formed agenda. We feel there are a variety of issues this meeting could address. Currently there is limited communication between the various projects resulting in many collectives replicating each other’s work. For example many of the projects we are bringing together are working on their own content management system rather than collaborating on common platforms. There is also very little cooperation as regards systems administration and the sharing of servers hosting video or a wider sharing of technical or educational resources. There are also therefore many skills that are not being shared. The end result of this lack of coordination and cooperation means critical and engaging content does not find the level of distribution it could and make the impact it should. By bringing together these social justice video distribution projects we aim to build communication, cooperation and collaboration. Transmission is being autonomously organised by EngageMedia, Candida TV and Clearer Channel with the assistance of APC.au/c2o. Transmission is funded by the Open Society Institute based on a proposal for a global meeting of video activist web projects.