Open Source (Week 12)

Open source software is software with a source code that is open to be manipulated or modified.  Open source software is usually free and comes without restrictions on downloading or advertising as well.  Open source software can be the combination of many developers' code.  Websites like sourceforge.com allow for software developers to publish their source codes onto the internet and allow for other developers to see the code and tweak or change the code.  Open source software ranges in its uses.  from web browsing with firefox, checking mail with thunderbird, word processing with open office, or even photo editing with gimp.  Open source software is definitely an original creation of the internet generation.  Much like the internet itself, open source is a collaborative effort.  There are no disks or dvds to download and also, much like everything else on the internet, the content is free. Open source programmers have figured out ways around many costly software packages provided by major companies. 

Open source software is very important in my major and field.  The film industry is growing daily and tools are becoming cheaper and more accessible.  Avidemux for windows allows for pretty much anyone with any computer to edit video non-linearly.  This means that what becomes most important for film makers isn't the technology used, but rather the quality of the story and technique.  This also means that kids can start messing around with relatively advanced programs much earlier.  I used to have to hook up two VCRs together and edit tape to tape when I was really young, now kids can start utilizing computer programs early on which gives them a head start.  Having cheaper alternatives provided through open source software also forces major companies to bring their prices down in order to compete.  The same AVID system that was worth thousands upon thousands of dollars just a few years ago has come down in price drastically.  This can allow for film makers to put more of a films budget into other aspects of the picture.

LINK: http://open-source.gbdirect.co.uk/migration/benefit.html

The article I found starts out by describing open source software as being much more focused on quality over software features.  Where commercial software attempts to load a program with features that make the product more marketable and easier to sell, open source software doesn't have to worry about marketing and focuses more on stability within the program.  The people who make open source software regard peer recognition as very important.  They seek to impress their peers with clean design, reliability and maintainability.  This trickles down to the normal program user who gets a very efficiently designed program with a lot of reliability.  The article also describes that a relatively unknown benefit of open source software is auditability.  This is the idea that where a consumer has to trust a commercial company that says their program is safe and secure, open source software isn't hidden.  Anyone can physically look at the source code and determine if the claims made are indeed true.

Distance Education (Week 11)

The whole idea of distance technology is to provide educational services to students off site that is comparable to the education given to students on site.  Many private as well as public institutions offer distance learning including almost all universities.  The types of distance education varies and can include correspondence through regular mail, internet correspondence, courses over the television or radio, courses downloaded from a CD as well as courses offered over a mobile device.  However in recent years, distance education has come to blend the many forms.  The benefits of distance learning include the ability to learn at your own pace.  It also allows for adults to continue their education in situations where they are unable to attend classes regularly.  The draw backs of distance education include; the students enrolled in the course have to be very motivated in order to get the benefits out of the programs.  Since there are no ways of forcing people to watch materials or participate, students have to motivate themselves or they can fall very behind in the course. 

I don't see distance learning really helping me personally in any way but I could see how it could help other people wanting to get into the film industry.  Many of the programs that do things like editing, compositing or music composition are extremely elaborate and very technical programs.  I could definitely see benefits the makers of the programs to provide online courses that help get users started using their products.  There are many websites that already exist that post forums where users help each other out but I think a company issued distance learning program would still help out a person just adopting a new technology or program emensely.

LINK: http://www.mediacollege.com/video/editing/

I found a very interesting website that provides tutorials on some of the popular video editing programs as well as other technological tutorials.  The website mediacollege.com seems to give out the basic tutorials for free but requires a payment to see more advanced examples.  The way the website works is that it allows you to select the specific program you want to use, then it gives you a list of topics that you might be interested in learning and then explains how each is done.  I think this form of distance learning is unique in that it doesn't make content once students are enrolled, it makes the content before it has students and then waits for interest to grow.  I have seen that there are tutorials on the internet but haven't really thought of them as distance education until now.  I think that this is the most practical form of distance education for people in the film industry.